No simple solution for complex nation

Stuart Weiss, Las Vegas

Saturday, Nov. 23, 2013 | 2:01 a.m.

It may seem curious that the White House botched the website for the Affordable Care Act, legislation that it so desperately fought for. But the problem, fundamentally, was inherent in the act’s complexity. This is true of much legislation, including some now proposed, such as immigration reform; and there is no easy answer.

The reason is clear enough. We are a big and diverse country, urban-industrial and rural-agrarian, just to name the most obvious fault line, and the people in those sections have very different cultural and economic characteristics and interests. Given the rules that govern choosing representatives (such as gerrymandering), and the available filibuster in the Senate, legislating in Congress requires trade-offs and catering to special interests, hence such problems as we see in the Affordable Care Act but also, if less obviously, in other legislation.

Yet responding to special interests is, in many cases, essential in our large, diverse country. What works for urban-industrial America may not meet the needs of those who live in less populated areas.

Incomes and costs differ, often sharply, as do values. And so we must try to live with the ever-greater complexity of legislation that reflects the interests and values of a people so diverse they might be called nations.