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I also don't think our current healthcare system is immoral (though I also don't think that of the proposed healthcare system or single-payer government run healthcare). But I'm also pretty sure that in a few decades my saying that will be viewed as woefully misguided and Reid's view will likely be accepted as basically correct by most people.
That said, my objection to Reid's statement is that it is one without meaningful content. Essentially he said "every controversial legislative change made in this country has had people saying 'let's not do this right now and not in this way.'"
Duh. If there weren't, it wouldn't be controversial.
All that said, I'd say it is a substantively different comment (even if devoid of any real content) form drawing connections between the current proposals and Nazi-ism. You can debate whether mandated health insurance for all will one day be seen widely as an obviously good and necessary change to have been made. You can not, however, say that government controlled healthcare (which in it's current incarnation none of the proposed bills currently create anyway) is a step towards Nazi-ism. It may be something in common but it is no more a causal link than is a government-funded highway system an inevitable step towards Hitler's Germany.
So drawing connections between it and Nazis is spurious on its face in a way I'd argue differs significantly from drawing connections between the future perception of this debate and other examples from American history.
All of that said (again), of course Reid is trying to lay a mental connection between opposing healthcare and opposing the Civil Rights Act. It's a dirty rhetorical trick. But it is on more solid ground (and orders of magnitude less hysterical) than Nazii comparisons.
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