( CNN ) -- There is a phrase that has long been used in certain big-city political circles . It has always been said with an implied -- and sometimes literal -- sneer : . `` They think it 's on the legit . '' It refers to people who are trusting by nature -- occasionally novice political adversaries , often the general public -- and who make the mistake of actually believing a proposal that is being presented to them . People who , hearing a promise , take it on faith . `` They think it 's on the legit . '' Meaning : . `` Suckers . '' This is Thanksgiving week . For all the heated talk about , and blame-placing over , the deeply troubled federal health care initiative -- for those who blame President Barack Obama and the Democrats for the screwed-up rollout , for those who blame the Republicans for their longstanding opposition to the White House plan and their determination to combat it at every turn , for those who are furious that the early pledge about being able to keep current insurance was not real , for those who take delight that the website has been a disaster because it makes one side come off as incompetent -- this may be a good moment to step back and think , with real-life compassion , about what sometimes gets lost in the partisan back-and-forth . To think about the people who do n't care much about Beltway haggling , but who desperately need dependable health care for their families , and who were hoping against hope that readily available medical care was at last going to be theirs . The people who heard the promises . They thought it was on the legit . At base , this is n't -- or should not be -- a matter of politics , of Washington winners and losers . The families to whom reliable health care has been an unattainable dream do n't care which party finds a way to that health care for them . And both parties , at least in their public statements , agree that while they might not concur at all on the method of getting there , they concur on the goal . Sen. Marco Rubio , R-Florida : `` As policymakers , we must focus on making health care more affordable and accessible for all Americans . '' Let the ideologues on both ends of the right-left continuum make a game of this , if they wish . But do you think , when a person with a sick child finds a doctor who will help and who will bring peace of mind , the parent cares whether the physician is a Republican or a Democrat ? The same goes for how a person in such need would feel about a member of Congress who helped him or her find a path to decent care . For those among us fortunate enough to have doctors we can go to , and the means to pay for them , this Thanksgiving week is a time to remind ourselves how grateful we should feel to be in such a position . Because it is only when you 're not in that position -- when you are sick and have nowhere to turn , or , worse , when it is your son or daughter who is sick and you have to explain that you have nowhere to turn -- that you fully understand the fear and helplessness that kicks in in the middle of the night . Come October 1 , the people who yearned for a way to take care of their families ' health were told , such a way will be yours . Well-to-do people are always going to have more options for finding the best health care for their families . That is a fact of life . But -- and here is where political leaders of both parties , whatever their differences , should find common ground -- access to health care should n't be a luxury . Health care is not a Mercedes , or a mansion on a hill . A family should not be deprived of it merely because they lack wealth , or have lost employment . Republicans and Democrats , Americans all , should acknowledge that health care is not a diamond bracelet to be gazed at with longing through a store window . It 's time to cool down the rhetoric and the finger-pointing . Before we get any deeper into the recriminations about rollouts and delays and extensions and penalties and startovers and repeals , we might want to pause , this Thanksgiving week , to put ourselves in the shoes of the people to whom the promise was profound and real . There but for the grace . . . . The people who need health care and who wait for this mess to be cleaned up are the people who have always been asked to wait . They will wait again , because they have little choice . For the rest of us , perhaps this is a week not only for prayers of thanksgiving for what we have , but also a week for thoughts of those families who believed it when they were told that things were going to change for the better . Who thought it was on the legit . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene .
Bob Greene : In politics , to take something on faith is to believe it is `` on the legit '' It 's another way of saying : Suckers . " Comment: I think you're confusing two different things here. He says at Thanksgiving , politicians should recall who gets left out in health care bickering . Greene : It 's the people who ca n't afford health care , but believed things would change for better .