Acknowledging that reality would have been the honest thing to do. So would asking healthier and wealthier Americans to sacrifice for the greater good of ensuring every American have health-care coverage.

But doing so would have opened Obama and his democratic allies up to the charge that Obamacare would lead to widespread dislocations — and made the path to reform that much politically harder to traverse…

This is America’s schizophrenia. On the one hand the ingrained belief that centralized government power is an unqualified danger coupled with a deep fear that any new initiative will bring unacceptable disruption. On the other, a hunger, even demand, for change.

These competing impulses breed the pervasive dysfunction in American politics today. Democrats play down the negative effects of government actions; Republicans describe them in the worst possible terms. Voters want progress without sacrifice or inconvenience. Seemingly the only path to change is telling voters what they want to hear.