The days of "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good" need to end.

[Ken Burch]

The "good" our leaders tell us to settle for never actually ends up BEING good.

If we keep negotiating like we're the junior partner in a center-right coalition(or, on some days, a center-right/far-right coalition)we're going to destroy the huge chance we now have for a major realignment.

That realignment can ONLY happen if the Democratic party is clearly to the left of the Republicans on EVERY issue-and also only if OUR party's leaders stop acting like it never COUNTS when we win.

Not rocket science.

[HiPointDem]

1. kr. there has been precious little good over the last 30 years so far as public policy goes, just

a slow racheting down on the majority of people.

[judesedit]

7. You have to be kidding.Look at the accomplishments of Clinton and Obama for the middle class before

spreading lies. Reagan started the downfall, the Bushes finished it. Clinton gave us a huge surplus before Bush II stole the election. Although I think Cheney did the thinking for both of them. Obama has done an amazing number of things considering the Rethugs did everything in their power to obstruct and make Obama a one-term President. Wake up, fool. It's even been posted here a couple of times. I guess I'll have to pull it up and repost it. Where housing and the economy go, you can thank the greedy 1% and Wall Street for inflating the values so they could take more of your money before the inevitable flop. Thank God Rob-me did not get in. Or you'd really be crying.

[HiPointDem]

10. clinton: nafta, welfare 'reform,' telecom bill, war in kosovo. not so stellar. that he was not as

bad as george bush is not a compliment.

[judesedit]

9. Some things Obama has done so far.

From My Friend Jon G on Facebook: Obama Facts
Show some love, please. I want Jon to come play with us! Best, Ida

‎1. The first bill President Obama signed was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, to help women fight back when they don't get equal pay for equal work.

2. His Recovery Act supported millions of jobs and helped to stave off a second Great Depression.

3. He pushed for and won middle-class tax cuts that benefitted every American worker, and saved the typical family $3,600 in taxes over the last four years.

4. President Obama rescued the auto industry, and now GM and Chrysler are healthier than they've ever been. The American auto industry has added nearly a quarter of a million jobs since June 2009 -- and they most likely wouldn't exist right now without President Obama's leadership.

5. He doubled funding for Pell Grants, helping to make college more affordable for nearly 10 million families.

6. His student loan reform ended billions in subsidies to banks serving as middlemen and reinvested those savings directly into students.

7. The President established the American Opportunity Tax Credit, worth up to $10,000 over four years of college.

8. His Race to the Top Initiative helped spur nearly every state to raise academic standards.

9. His tax cuts, social-welfare programs, and economic policies lifted nearly 7 million Americans above the federal poverty line in 2010.

10. President Obama has signed 18 tax cuts for small businesses since taking office.

11. We've seen 5.2 million new private-sector jobs over the last 31 months.

12. The unemployment rate is at the lowest level since President Obama took office.

13. Health care reform -- passed after decades of failed attempts by every previous President -- provides affordable health coverage to every American and will lower premiums by an average of $2,000 per family by 2019.

14. Obamacare expanded access to lifesaving preventive care such as cancer screenings and immunizations with no out-of-pocket costs for 54 million Americans.

15. Obamacare ends insurance discrimination against the 129 million Americans with pre-existing conditions.

16. Because of Obamacare, over 3 million more young adults have health insurance today than would if the new law hadn't passed.

17. The parents of over 17 million children with pre-existing conditions no longer have to worry that their children will be denied coverage.

18. President Obama has ordered the overhaul of federal government regulations to make them smarter, practical, and more efficient. Just a fraction of these commonsense initiatives will help save businesses $10 billion in the next five years alone.

19. His historic investments in clean energy have helped more than double the amount of electricity we obtain from wind and solar sources and helped increase biofuel production to its highest level in history.

20. President Obama is doubling fuel efficiency standards, which will save drivers more than $8,000 at the gas pump, not to mention lessen the impact of automobiles on our environment.

21. President Obama has taken unprecedented action to address climate change, reaching historic international agreements to curb carbon emissions, and taking action here at home to reduce carbon pollution from our vehicles and promote clean energy production.

22. He has taken historic action to protect our environment -- signing one of the largest expansions of protected wilderness in a generation and putting in place standards to reduce toxic air pollution that will save thousands of lives.

23. President Obama fought for and won landmark Wall Street reform that reins in the abuses that led to the financial crisis and ends the era of taxpayer bailouts and "too big to fail."

24. Wall Street reform created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the nation's first federal agency focused solely on consumer financial protection -- and the Bureau is already protecting families from unfair and abusive financial practices from Wall Street banks and shadowy corners of the financial industry.

25. As part of President Obama's commitment to transparency, the White House has posted its visitor records online for the first time ever.

26. President Obama's all-of-the-above approach to energy has helped cut the United States' dependence on foreign oil to its lowest level in 20 years.

27. President Obama responsibly ended the war in Iraq.

28. He announced a plan to end the war in Afghanistan and transition security responsibility to the Afghan people.

29. President Obama sent the largest security assistance package to Israel in history and funded the Iron Dome system, which is protecting Israeli homes and schools from rocket attacks.

30. President Obama rallied the international community to implement the toughest sanctions on Iran in history.

31. Through the President's historic increases in Veterans Affairs funding, he has expanded and improved healthcare and job training access for our returning veterans.

32. President Obama negotiated the New START Treaty with Russia to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in both countries. At the same time, he also secured commitments from dozens of other countries to lock down nuclear materials.

33. His administration naturalized 11,146 military service members as U.S. citizens in 2010; more than in any year since 1955.

34. President Obama set a bold new plan for the future of NASA space exploration, using the skill and ability of the private sector for short trips to the International Space Station, while building a new vehicle for exploration of distant space, and doing everything in his power to support the economy on Florida's Space Coast.

35. President Obama recognizes that tourism is one of America's largest economic engines; he's worked to encourage international visitors to come here, maintaining our security while keeping millions of Americans in good, paying jobs.

36. He has affirmed his personal support of marriage equality, directed the Justice Department to stop defending DOMA in federal courts, and took the practical and compassionate step of extending hospital visitation rights to same-sex partners.

37. He fought for and won the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, allowing gay and lesbian members of the military to serve openly for the first time in history.

38. When Congress failed to fix our broken immigration system, his administration did everything in its power to improve it, streamlining the legal immigration process and announcing a policy that lifts the shadow of deportation from hard working young immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.

39. Oh, and he gave the order to send troops in after Osama Bin Laden -- and has decimated al-Qaeda's senior leadership.
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[Mel Content]

2. I don't think that the Democrats really expected a big victory in November...

and the scenario that played out on election day didn't line up with the scripts they and their republican colleagues had worked so hard on for their ultra-wealthy overlords.

"we the people" never stood a chance.

[fasttense]

3. The only chance we the people have left

is to start protesting like it's life or death. Oh, wait, for the elderly and poor Obama's austerity program is life or death.

[freedom fighter jh]

4. +1 It's a good principle, but only in the right situations.

If you always insist on 100% of what you want, you'll get little. Skillful compromise can get everyone more than half of what they want.

On the other hand, you can propose something completely ridiculous -- like taking away part of seniors' hard-earned Social Security benefits, claiming Social Security is a driver of the deficit -- and if your opponent keeps saying "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good" or "Let's be reasonable and meet them halfway" then you'll probably get at least some of what you want.

If we're always willing to compromise, even on a ridiculous proposition, even when we hold the upper hand, then the other side will get more and more audacious, proposing more and more extreme, outrageous things, and we will just keep caving.

[Shadowflash]

5. The sad part is

That the 'good' is going to happen on January 1st if we do nothing.

We don't seem to be set on attempting to replace it with 'perfect' we seem to be heading to be replacing it with 'worse'.

[djean111]

6. Yes. Thank you.

That servile, slapped on anything and everything at all that anyone finds fault with, phrase is starting to make me hurl.
I fully expect to be lectured that Social Security is a damned pony any time now.
That phrase accomplishes nothing for me but to make me angrier.
Hey, maybe we can start sending bumper stickers or refrigerator magnets that say "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good"
to those who are really affected by chained CPI.

And dumbing down the whole thing with well, who can't make up $16 (or whatever) is disgusting.
Plus chained CPI will not be the last attack on Social Security; the wolves will be much more bold and aggressive now.
"Less generous" COLA my ass. Less generous than 1.7%? How the hell can anyone say that? Especially since without lowering the Medicare age, the premiums will keep going up and up. Raising the medicare age will make things even worse. Not being able to bargain with Big Pharma like the entire rest of the world - hey, there's something that could be looked at! But no, we just read that it is okay for Pharma to pay to have generics kept off the market.

And I have learned that those trial balloons usually go into effect sooner or later, no matter what their reception. The manner of implementation and finger-pointing is merely adjusted to suit the reception. If someone floats a trial balloon, they are most certainly hoping to get away with doing whatever it is; they are just gauging the effect on campaign contributions and votes.

I am starting to think the road to hell is not paved with good intentions, but with "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good".
As if, you know, the current method of figuring COLA isn't bad enough for seniors.

Replied to a request for donations from the DNC yesterday (Win a free trip to the inauguration!) telling them I felt I had better invest any contributions in cat food.

[grahamhgreen]

8. Time for equivocation has passed.

[gkhouston]

11. I've never seen anything actually good promoted with that argument.

That particular line is a red flag that even the person promoting the "solution" knows it's crap.

[ReRe]

12. I love adages, old sayings....

...but that's one I don't care for. I don't care if God said it, I don't like it (I think Voltaire said it some 250-300 yrs ago.) To me, it's like saying "..suffering is good," or "there's always been poor people," like we shouldn't worry if people are suffering or are being pushed down into dire poverty. I was shocked and saddened one time when someone told me my "expectations" were too high! Damn right my expectations were high! Why on God's earth would one set his sights low? And there's this one you mention that someone dug out of an old cedar chest "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." To me, that says "You Can't Always Get What You Want," so settle for less. I never could understand why I loved that Rolling Stone song, as it's what was told to me when I was a child. Growing up, I hated that saying. I guess my parents thought it was a nice way to say no, but I caught onto it about the 2nd time they said it. It's bait and switch language, that's what it is. "Beating around the bush." I could go on all day, but I won't.