To understand politics, you have to understand one basic fact above all else; you can’t make or influence policy if you don’t win elections. All of those right wing judges, all of those progressive policies that have gone by the wayside over the last 40 years; that all didn't happen by accident. It's called democracy, and that's what we're stuck with.
It’s hard to believe I have to make that clear to so many people who call themselves “political junkies” and/or “progressive,” but I seem to have to do that on a daily basis.
We progressives have been standing on the sidelines while the far right has run the show for about 32 years now, precisely because a significant proportion of “progressives” don’t seem to occupy the real world. If you want to know why the right wing has been able to dismantle most of the meager social justice apparatus that we built up before the Reagan “Revolution,” it’s because they understand that they can only get their way if they keep winning elections. Meanwhie, a too-large contingent of “progressives” seem to think “standing on principle” means sticking to lofty ideals that can't possibly happen in one shot, and abandoning anything that doesn't represent at least 100% of that lofty ideal. It's why it seems as if progressives have run straight off the political cliff. As President Obama has put it many times, these "principled" "progressives" are allowing the perfect to be the enemy of the good.
How “principled” can you call yourself, if the end result of your political “strategy” is the elimination of the middle class, income inequality unlike any we've seen in a century, a justice system that is increasingly populated by right wing judges, and the passing of laws that lessen our civil rights? Anyone can talk about principle, but shouldn't actually having principle require some success in accomplishing your goals? I mean, am I a blogger just because I have an account with a blogging site, or do I actually have to write something?
One great example of this silliness occurs whenever one of these “principled” “progressives” talks about the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” as we’ve allowed the right to call it in their attempt to deride it. “It’s not good enough,” these so-called “principled” “progressives” will insist, because it doesn’t have a “public option,” even though none of them can actually articulate what that means. Some of the more strident of these folks will even deride it because it’s not “single payer.”
So, are these folks working to improve the health care plan, to get those things they feel are missing? Not usually. In fact, they whine about it so much, they're essentially making it more likely that the system will be watered down even more. They don't support the candidates who passed it, and they don't support the current law to the proper extent at all. They should be supporting the law wholeheartedly, while advocating for a few modifications to make it stronger. The law has some deficiencies, to be sure. But the fact of the matter is, those deficiencies won’t be fixed by whining about them, and by helping more Republicans win elections.
Ironically, there are several elements of the Affordable Care Act that will probably lead to a “public option” in the future, if these “principled” “progressives” would bother to open their minds and actually read about the bill, instead of reading professional left pundits' analyses of the bill.
First of all, there is a provision in the Act that forces private insurers to spend a minimum of 80% of premiums on health care. When the full ACA starts kicking in at the end of next year, insurance companies will be forced to accept high risk pools of insured they’ve never had to before, at the same time they'll have to maximize profits and/or bonuses out of the 20% or less of premiums they’re allowed to use for administration.
If I have to spell it out for you, you don’t understand this issue, and should probably quit your complaining. What I’m saying is, given these large limitations, the INSURANCE COMPANIES themselves will be clamoring for a public option within a year or two after the law takes full effect. Which is why they and the GOP are promising to see this law killed.
Of course, if the constant complaining by some of you about President Obama and Congressional Democrats ends up putting a President Romney or Santorum in office, and leads to a GOP House and Senate, we won’t ever get to that point in the first place. It would take one bill and one signature to return us to the old insurance system, and that would be a disaster for everyone. It might take another generation to get another such bill through the pipeline.
In other words, all of that whining and complaining coming from the left is not only making improvements, like a public option, less likely, it’s actually putting the very concept of a universal health insurance system at great risk. The public option will happen, and will happen relatively quickly, if the whining coming from our side of the aisle doesn’t lead to the dismantling of the entire ACA.
The ACA isn't perfect, but if you think tearing it apart and starting over is a viable option, you don't understand how politics in this country actually works.
It is so tiresome to work hard for the progressive cause for as long as I have, and have it repeatedly sabotaged by people who claim the same ideology as me, but who insist on political strategy that puts right wing nutbars in charge of the government for 32 years. These folks don’t even seem to notice that what they’re doing isn’t working, so narcissistic is their political stance.
Yes, I said “narcissistic,” because that’s what it is. Some self-described “progressives” are so enamored with their own ideals, they can’t even entertain another’s ideas. And that’s the problem. If your idea is going to become law/policy, then someone has to be elected with that as a mandate. That takes years of hard work and a lot of salesmanship and education.
And even then, because we live in a democracy, you’ll never get 100% of what you want. Hell; if you get 80% of anything, you're a political wonder. And that’s the number one lesson every “progressive” needs to take to heart. Never in our history has any progressive reform happened all at once, and absolutely never when the Republican Party has been in charge. FDR and LBJ had a Democratic supermajority in Congress when they passed their reforms on economy and civil rights, and they had an electorate that was primed for reform even before the elections that put Democrats in charge.
Politics is an ongoing process. The concept of political revolution is practically unheard of, and only happens when the population is actually oppressed and held down. And no, folks, we are not oppressed. Not even close. If you're waiting for a country whose biggest bitch is paying too much for gas and cable to overthrow the evil overlords, you have a vivid imagination and no common sense.
We have a vote, people; we can have a universal single payer health care plan if we want it. We can change the tax code to something that favors the average person. We can develop an economy that helps everyone get a leg up. We have that ability, if we cultivate it.
Cultivate. That’s the key notion here. Nothing happens by magic, and everything takes a lot of work, and a lot of patience. When you demand a perfect health insurance system in one try, and then complain about and even undermine the imperfect one, you’re not being “progressive,” you’re being a petulant child.
If you don’t understand why the ACA is a full-blown goddamned MIRACLE of modern politics, then you don’t understand politics as much as you’ve deluded yourself into thinking you do. President Obama got that though a Congress equipped with a more solid bloc of opposition than we’ve ever seen before. He did it without a supermajority in Congress, and he did it even though a loud cadre of progressives were complaining that it wasn’t perfect enough.
If you want to know who killed the public option, it was progressives, NOT Blue Dogs. The goal should have been to support THE BILL, without singling out one particular portion of it.
There are some things progressives have to know about politics if we’re to make it out of the political wilderness:
- The result of a democratic vote will always be somewhere in the center.
- If you want a progressive government, you need a progressive electorate, which takes time, patience and education.
- If you want to push the process left of center, you have to participate in the process. Never in human history, or basic logic, has a political body become MORE progressive as progressives left it.
- If the worst possible people keep winning elections, nothing else you do will matter one little bit.
- Low turnout elections favor the right wing. Negativity drives down turnout.
There are many more, but these will get you started.
Keep in mind, the people who decide elections are not ideological, and they are influenced by the overall tone of a campaign. They don’t sit and pore over every candidate’s position on every single issue. In fact, in most cases their decision is whether or not to vote. They want to vote FOR something, not just against. That’s why Obama was successful in 2008. He didn’t run as either right or left; he ran as a problem solver. And as president, he has done quite well in that capacity.
The right wing is always negative precisely because it works to their advantage. Negativity drives turnout down, and low turnout is the only way they can win elections. When we’re negative, we actually help them with their number one strategy.
And I’m sorry, but helping the right wing win is why I put “progressive” in quotes when describing a number of you.
