It pains me to say this, but President Obama, like many other progressives (including Paul Krugman), is intellectually dishonest. He says that those who oppose health-care reform are driven by fear, whereas those who support it are motivated by hope. First, how does he know what motivates others? He is speculating. Second, fear is a motive, not a reason. Those who oppose Obama's health-care proposal have reasons for their opposition. For example, it will not reduce health-care costs; it will increase the size, scope, and power of the federal government, thereby restricting individual liberty; it will alter the relation between patients and their doctors; and so forth. Obama should address these reasons, not speculate about people's motives. Two can play this cynical game. If opponents are driven by fear, then supporters are driven by envy (of the wealthy), spite (toward insurance and pharmaceutical companies), and a thirst for power (over ordinary people).
Note also that President Obama is resorting to moral language. He says that there is an "ethical and moral obligation" to reform the health-care system. What is the difference between "ethical" and "moral"? If there is no difference, then the words are redundant. If there is a difference, what is it? And what is the basis of this supposed moral obligation? I would have thought that there is a moral obligation, rooted in the values of self-sufficiency, personal responsibility, and individual liberty, to oppose governmental intervention in health care. Why should wealth be taken from some, against their will or without their consent, to provide for others? What effect will subsidized health care have on individual initiative? What effect will it have on productivity, and hence on prosperity? Unless and until President Obama addresses these questions (and others), his resort to moral language is so much empty rhetoric. But then, we've had a lot of empty rhetoric from him for the past two years, haven't we? Sometimes I think the man is nothing but empty rhetoric.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 