Pun Salad

There is a whole family of droll sayings that take the form of irregular verb pseudo-conjugations, playing on tendentiously different ways of characterizing the same facts. As near as I can tell, they date back to the 1940s when Bertrand Russell (or perhaps Katherine Whitehorn) came up with:

I am firm;
You are obstinate;
He is a pig-headed fool.

Anyone can play this game (the link has further examples from 1948). And I was reminded of it when I was poking around in the transcript of President Obama's recent speech to the American Medical Association on his health proposals.

First note how the opponents are characterized as fearmongers:

And if we're honest, another part of the reason has been the fierce opposition fueled by some interest groups and lobbyists -- opposition that has used fear tactics to paint any effort to achieve reform as an attempt to, yes, socialize medicine.

… OK, fine, but this came after President Obama did all of the following:

• Claimed care costs are "a threat to our economy"; an "escalating burden on our families and businesses"; a "ticking time bomb for the federal budget."

• Referred to a cancer-stricken Wisconsin woman with $50K in medical debts; Tennessee business owners laying off employees due to health care costs; a New Hampshire doctor drowning in "disruptive and distracting" paperwork.

• Claimed that "Americans of all ages" were being forced "to go without the checkups or the prescriptions they need."

• Described what will happen if we "fail to act" right now: "premiums will climb higher, benefits will erode further, the rolls of the uninsured will swell to include millions more." Also: "lost jobs, lower take-home pay, shuttered businesses, and a lower standard of living for all Americans."

So Obama's charge that opponents of "reform" use fear tactics rings more than a little hollow. The scenario of not being able to get needed medical procedures for you or your loved ones is one of the scariest out there. Even if we're personally not in that boat, and not likely to be, our natural empathy is engaged when we hear about the plight of others; we're fearful for them. Obama and his allies are not ashamed or reluctant to pluck those strings at every opportunity.

Of course, Obama would deny he's fear-mongering. Instead, he's invoking something like this conjugation:

I am pointing out pressing problems;
You are raising valid concerns;
They are using fear tactics.

And he's not alone in doing this sort of thing. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just get past the posturing, though?