General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Rachel had it Right, now DU is getting it wrong. [View all]blackspade
(10,056 posts)I'm am a progressive 'purist' and proud of it.
That does not mean that I'm not willing to compromise for the greater good.
As for the celebrating? A huge part of the problem in 2010 was the Democratic leadership NOT celebrating what small victories that they had against an obstructionist republican party. If they had, we would have been in much better shape. Obama and Reid in particular were not forceful in making republicans take a stand on things like health care reform. The ACA ended up as a collection of republican think tank ideas with only a few progressive bits thrown in. Even so, the party did not campaign on it and let the republicans determine the narrative and spin it into 'death panels' and other such nonsense.
As for moving forward, we do not have a decade in this political or social climate. We live in a 24 hr/quarter financial society. There is not a long term articulation of the United States' needs or goals these days, just nonsense sound bites that change with the political wind. Purists like myself want a core vision/goal that we can articulate to the greater public. Again, not that there shouldn't or won't be compromise, but our starting place should be progressive, not watered down republican.
The Third Way has been around since the 1990s. look it up. I'll get you started with the milk toast Wikipedia version:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way
Finally, demands are a part of life. The demand for food, clothing, and shelter. Demands of your job; showing up on time, working for your pay, etc. Demands of and by family, and yes demands of other adults. Demands are a part of life and are not all negative, but one must be able to determine which demands must be met and those that don't. In this case, the teahadists have no demands that need or require the rest of the country make.