The Myth of Choice_ Personal Responsibility in a World of Limits - Kent Greenfield [99]
CHAPTER 7
The Problem with Personal Responsibility
Epigraphs: Melvin B. Tolson, “An Ex-Judge at the Bar,” in RENDEZVOUS WITH AMERICA 19 (1944), used by permission of Dr. Melvin B. Tolson, Jr. MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, DON QUIXOTE 271 (John Rutherford trans., Penguin Books USA 10th ed., 2003) (1605).
1. Joshua Rhett Miller, Some Parents Choose Not to Allow Their Kids to Hear Obama’s National Address, FOXNews.com, Sept. 3, 2009; Michael Alison Chandler & Michael D. Shear, Some Schools Will Block or Delay Obama’s Pep Talk for Students, WASH. POST, Sept. 4, 2009; September 8, 2009: National Keep Your Child at Home Day, AmericanElephant, Sept. 1, 2009, available at http://americanelephant.com.
2. The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, Sept. 8, 2009, Remarks by the President in a National Address to America’s Schoolchildren, Wakefield High School, Arlington, Virginia.
3. See transcript of press conference, Nov. 7, 2008, available at http://articles.cnn.com.
4. Adam Liptak, A Rare Rebuke, in Front of a Nation, N.Y. TIMES, Jan. 29, 2010, at A12 (Justice Samuel Alito); Carl Hulse, In Lawmaker’s Outburst, a Rare Breach of Protocol, N.Y. TIMES, Sept. 10, 2009, at A26 (Rep. Joe Wilson).
5. See Mark Lilla, The Tea Party Jacobins, N.Y. REV. OF BOOKS, May 27, 2010, available at http://www.nybooks.com (noting that modern-day libertarians favor “individual opinion, individual autonomy and individual choice, all in the service of neutralizing, not using, political power”).
6. John Tate, Government Regulation of Salt Would Violate the Constitution, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, May 25, 2010, available at http://www.usnews.com.
7. See Karl Rove, ObamaCare Isn’t Inevitable, WALL ST. J., June 25, 2009 (“Americans are increasingly concerned about the cost—in money and personal freedom—of Mr. Obama’s nanny-state initiatives.”); Ronald Bachman, ObamaCare, Megatrends, and Consumerism, CONSUMERISM CORNER Vol.1, No. 1, available at http://www.healthtransformation.net/cs/ConsumerismCorner041310 (“The health mandates violate the growth of personal responsibility and self-reliance. Government required plan designs violate the cultural movement to choice.”); Bill O’Reilly, Great Divide: Control Versus Freedom, S. FLA, SUN-SENTINEL, Mar. 27, 2010, at 15A; Bob Unruh, U.S. House Plan Overturning Obamacare Halfway There, WorldNetDaily, July 7, 2010, available at http://www.wnd.com (quoting Congressman Steve King, R-Iowa, as saying, “Republicans are the proponents of limited government, personal responsibility and constitutional liberties, principles which ‘Obamacare’ violates”). See also Mike Cosgrove, Restoring Once-Vibrant Economy Hinges On Repeal Of ObamaCare, INVESTOR’S BUS. DAILY, Aug. 30, 2010, at A11 (“The size of the federal deficit and costs of Obama-Care appear to make a value-added tax the default case. That means to avoid the value-added tax ObamaCare must be repealed. It may seem like a long shot, but to restore the pillars of the American economy—wealth creation, economic growth and personal responsibility—it has to go. The equity market will boom once the pillars of ObamaCare start to crumble.”).
8. I am thankful to my friend and colleague Joe Singer, who helped me develop this insight.
9. Cass R. Sunstein, Legal Interference with Private Preferences, 53 U. CHI. L. REV. 1129, 1140 (1986) (“Laws may, in short, reflect the majority’s ‘preference about preferences,’ or second-order preferences, at the expense of first-order preferences. This phenomenon—voluntary foreclosure of consumption choices