Pam Platt's good history lesson, poor anlaogy, and sorry blame-shifting

From Pam Platt in this AM's C-J...

First, the good story/history lesson:

Remember the Equal Rights Amendment?

It was not a 1,000-page document, as is today's House bill on health care reform.

This was the total text of the ERA:

“Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

“Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

“Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.”

That was it. Period.

See anything in there about unisex bathrooms? Of course not — but that was the bogeyman opponents pulled out of the woodwork to kill an amendment that had been proposed to Congress since 1923 and that had been in the Republican Party platform since 1944. (The Democrats didn't officially sign on until 1972. The GOP opted out in 1980.)...

The U.S. Senate had approved the amendment in 1972, which sent it to the states for approval. Twenty-two states quickly ratified it, putting it well on its way to the 38 needed for it to become part of the Constitution.

Did you catch the timing of the Dems and GOP getting on and off the wagon? Fascinating, but it parallels the flip-flopping/shift over abortion during the same time period.

OK, but then the editoralizing sneaks in for a phrase:

But then, progress be damned, the anti-ERA elves started their handiwork and all but jammed the fast track to a standstill; several states even went backward, rescinding their passage to boot. (Kentucky was one of them...)

Progress? How so? And how did women fail to progress since then-- in a way that would have clearly been helped by the ERA?

Then, her flawed analogy to health care:

Reasonable debate — and there was plenty of room for that — was hijacked by scare tactics...Sound familiar?

Many things could be said here. Look back to the beginning of her piece for a comment that damns the analogy: the ERA was hundreds of words; the health care plan is hundreds and hundreds of pages.

Last year, a majority of Americans voted for regime change at home. Seven months into a new administration, the old playbook appears to be working on derailing the health care reform so many of us said we wanted...

Two problems here.

First, Pam is comparing apples and oranges (or more likely, apples and rocks): what we were sold (short, vague, and centered on getting care to others) vs. what this is (long, specific, and having to explain how this will hurt others to help others).

Second, this is remarkable blame-shifting. The Dems control everything politically and can have whatever they want. Platt wants to blame the GOP and conservative interest groups for the Dems failure to pass bad legislation. C'mon now!