Patriotism and Waiting

Our chapter on civic culture quotes filmmaker Michael Moore as saying that other countries live in "a world of `we,' not `me.'" In a recent interview, he expanded on this idea in the context of health care. RealClearPolitics reports:

"Things that are not life-threatening," Moore said on HBO's "Real Time" with host Bill Maher. "The reason why you have to wait sometimes in those countries is they let everybody in the line. We make 50 million people out of the line so the line is shorter, so sometimes you have to wait as long. If you are a patriotic American, you want every American to be covered the same as you. No, not 'I'm going to get ahead because I have health insurance and they don't,'" Michael Moore explained.