Ever since it was first outlined, President Clinton's health plan has been wonk heaven: a field day for number crunchers, policy analysts and all the sobersided types who use hand-held computers even though they know the figures anyway. Matthew Arnold wrote of ignorant armies clashing by night; the health- care discussion has been conducted by highly knowledgeable armies clashing on the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.
As with all big issues, there is another side to it: the level of passionate beliefs and impulses. We call them irrational only because they resist rationalizing away; they are as important as anything that can be put...
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