Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the Editor:

Regardless of their respective strengths and weaknesses, all of the bills for health care reform are too complex to explain, grasp and support. And Republicans have made it abundantly clear that they will oppose any truly meaningful change.

Yet these very obstacles present the president with the opportunity to do what is sensible and right: to put his conviction, passion and clout behind a single-payer system.

Will people be afraid of so radical a change? The majority probably will; people tend to fear the unknown.

But “the shock of the new” is as old as innovation itself. Eventually, people adapt to change and ultimately embrace it.

Byron Alpers
Shorewood, Wis., Aug. 26, 2009

Note from KBJ: This is a remarkable letter in that it typifies the progressive mindset. First, the writer says that all of the bills are "too complex to explain, grasp and support." But those damn Republicans oppose them anyway! Are people supposed to accept something that can't be explained to them and that they cannot grasp? I don't recall hearing anything quite that stupid. Second, the writer explains opposition to health-care reform in terms of fear (of "the unknown"). Does that mean that those who support reform do so out of love or hope? Why would an emotion explain opposition but not support? Third, the writer is correct that "people adapt to change." Captured Africans adapted to slavery; Soviet citizens adapted to tyranny; convicted felons adapt to prison. What is this supposed to show?

Note 2 from KBJ: With regard to change, the writer confuses self-imposed change with change imposed by others (e.g., political elites). The former, even when radical in nature, is acceptable; the latter, expecially when radical in nature, is not. Americans are not averse to change; but they don't view it as intrinsically good, either. Change, to be acceptable, should be (1) endogenous (rather than exogenous), (2) gradual (rather than abrupt or radical), and (3) self-imposed. Anyone who has been paying attention can see that most Americans aren't buying what the progressives are selling. Progressives don't understand this. "Don't you morons realize that we're trying to help you?" They explain opposition in terms of stupidity, ignorance (of relevant facts), fear (see the letter), or malevolence (a desire to deprive people of health care). If progressives ram a health-care bill through Congress, Americans will punish them at the polls come November 2010.