Lots of articles these days starting out with “I am sick to death of” . . . . Okay, well, that goes for moi when it comes to reading endless whinefests from supposed “liberals,” claiming we should never have a politics of idealism, or go boldly forward with truly left-populist proposals, or aggressively, without apology or timidity, back smart, effective, left-populist ideas, because “they’ll never pass” or “they’re DOA.”
Folks, think about it. Anything and everything you propose, even the mushy, watered down, dare I eat a peach centrist garbage you think will pass, is also DOA in this climate. If a Democrat makes the proposal, if the Democratic party supports it, the GOP has to block it. It doesn’t even matter if it’s something they, themselves, proposed not so long ago — like the ACA (Heritage Foundation and Romneycare) or Cap and Trade. If there’s a D in front of the new policy idea, Republicans must say no. And hell no. And no way hell no.
So it makes zero sense to push for that watered down mush, especially when the Dems have a majority and can pass it without a single Republican vote. Because guess what you’ve just done? You’ve passed crap legislation that NO ONE likes, and won’t be effective, and will have all kinds of issues because it’s mushy and muddy and watered down and tries to please a gazillion different factions and none of them likes it either. And if it fails, which it usually does, guess who gets the blame? Not “centrism” or “compromise.” Liberalism gets the blame. “The left” gets the blame, even though “the left” has nothing to do with it.
That is exactly what happened with the ACA. Not one single Republican voted for it, but the entire thing was watered down, made into mush, made into centrist mush, in the ridiculous hope that it would gain some GOP support. Instead of proposing a solid piece of truly good and effective legislation — like Medicare for All — the Dems basically decided to self-sabotage their own work, prenegotiating with themselves for months and months before starting full negotiations already on the GOP side of the aisle — with their old proposal as the foundation. And the Dems still failed to garner a single Republican vote!!
Win or lose, the Dems need to stop this bullshit and push strong, bold, all-in, left-populist legislation, present it proudly, aggressively, without hesitation, timidity or fear and may the best argument win. If they lose the first go round, they set the table for later victories. If they “win” via centrist mush and endless (prenegotiated) compromise, they set the table for much bigger defeats down the road — as evidenced by the election cycles of 2010 and 2014. As evidenced by the current domination of the GOP in Congress and in a majority of the states.
Wednesday, Jan 27, 2016 · 11:31:54 PM +00:00
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diomedes77
Quick point here, riffing off some comments: I get the strong sense that those who have argued that the Dems never had any chance to get more than the ACA really don’t understand how politics work — or can work.
It’s as if they think all the votes should be lined up before hand, and if you don’t have a clear majority, forget about it. Don’t even bother. With that attitude, FDR wouldn’t have passed more than a sliver of his New Deal. Kennedy and Johnson wouldn’t have bothered trying to pass any civil rights legislation. Nothing “progressive” would ever happen in America, via legislation, if the first requirement was for all the votes to already be lined up.
If you have a good idea, a good bill, one that will improve lives, then you fight for it and you do your best to win hearts and minds, even against overwhelming odds. And you keep hammering away and you don’t relent until someday you’ve changed those hearts and minds. We know for a fact that if no one bothers to try, we’ll never, ever get good, effective legislation in America. If everyone waits for the other guy to step forward, no one will.
Medicare for All was a slam dunk. All it needed was a push by enough Dems to make a case before the American people and, at the very least, shame the rest of their party into voting for it. Vote for it or know that the American people will vote them out of office the next time. Because it’s that good. Because it would help tens of millions of people lead a better life and save hundreds of billions of dollars.
Several other examples of this sort of thing, regarding jobs, the economy, the environment, etc. etc. Ironically, it’s much harder to convince people to vote for a lousy piece of centrist mush than a truly progressive, effective, left-populist bill, and the only thing stopping its passage is the all too frequent lack of spine among the Democrats and their apologists.