Now we’ve got the Republicans, who brought us the “death panels” of a couple years ago, spitting mad that the Democrats are “scaring” seniors by telling them that the Ryan plan will end Medicare as we know it. Just because it will is no excuse.

But don’t you see — the Ryan plan exempts present seniors so they have no reason to oppose it. Right? Never mind that it has occurred to some of the more cynical seniors that, as soon as Medicare for younger people is abolished, the political support for it for older people will evaporate. Present seniors aren’t directly affected, so they have no reason to oppose the plan. Right?

There’s actually more going on here than routine political posturing. In the mental universe inhabited by the American Right, favoring entitlements — and especially wanting them for yourself — is a form of moral degeneracy. If the seniors who oppose abolishing Medicare are, almost by definition, degenerates, we should expect other moral failings — such as selfishness. People on the Right cannot conceive that someone might actually care that, even if the program will be there for them, it will not for younger people. They cannot conceive that some of us might actually think that it would be wrong.

That’s what we’re up against, an almost complete failure, on both sides, to understand where the other side is coming from. So how do we persuade the other side that our values are better? We don’t. We have to get our people to the polls, elect a government that embraces our values, and cram them down the throats of the other side.

If we don’t, they’re going to do it to us.