Say it isn’t so. Has the President, someone who ran on the message of Hope and Change, promised a different Washington, promised transparency, promised to make government work for the people again, resorted to government intimidation?

In this White House blog post, he encourages people to snitch on their neighbors essentially. We post the meat of the threat here:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

As bloggers who don’t always agree with the White House, this smacks of the Red Scare tactics in the 1940s and 1950s by infamous Senator Joseph McCarthy. What is the President so worried about? The veracity of his arguments should rest on the facts he uses to substatiate them. They should not rely on the intimidation only the President of the United States can dish out from his position in our society.

This tactic shows a mark of desperation and zealotry that is worrisome. Health care affects people’s lives in profound ways that is why we are seeing the strident opposition to certain provisions of the plans being proposed. Most Americans want some type of reform. They just don’t want the reform being offered to them. It is that simple. By using bullying tactics and stereotyping, the risk of alienating the public further only threatens any effort toward meaningful health care reform.