A----->B----->C

[scheming daemons]

A----->B----->C

A=Status Quo
B=Where proposed legislation, gov't action, or Presidential action gets us
C=Where we ultimately want to be

You can apply this to just about any issue being discussed in the public square.


This OP is about the disingenuousness or naivete of those who argue "I'm against this because it doesn't go far enough" with respect to the issues of the day.

They are saying they want "C", but their actions and arguments will keep us at "A". Either on purpose (they are agent provocateurs) or through ignorance (they don't understand that radical changes aren't possible with a government and country as large as ours, things must be done incrementally).


Republicans make no bones about trying to keep us at "A". Doesn't matter the issue. Health care, Financial Reform, Climate Change, you name it. Their goal is to keep us as close to "A" as they possibly can.


But many progressives, on DU and elsewhere, have adopted a "C or bust!" attitude about issues. "B doesn't go far enough!"


Well... you can't get to C without first getting to B. And once you're at B, it becomes much easier to get to C in the future.

- The Health Care Law is a perfect example.

- The Financial Reform Bill is another perfect example.

- Iraq is another one. We'll be down to 50,000 troops (from nearly 200,000 a couple years ago) by the end of August.


The President/Congress is moving us closer to "C" on these issues by getting us to "B" first.


Name an issue that matters to you. I would argue that this President, and this Democratically-led congress, has moved that issue closer to "C" than it would have been with a Republican President and Republican congress.


You can't intellectually argue that "Democrats are the same as Republicans" if you have even a modicum of sense and intelligence.

Democrats are working to move the country in the proper direction, albeit not as fast as some would like.
Republicans are working to keep the country from moving at all.


If you argue that Democrats are no different than Republicans, that Obama is no different than Bush, then you are either disingenuous or naive. If the former, you need to stop lying. If the latter, you need to educate yourself on how hard it is to push radical changes through a government such as ours (by design of the Founding Fathers, incidentally).



Progress.


If you call yourself a "progressive", then work for "progress". Moving closer to the target, bit by bit. Work to speed it up where you can. But dammit, quit working to sabotage it where you don't think it's fast enough.

The trajectory matters.




(commence with the unrecs)

[flamin lib]

1. Never let perfection be the enemy of good. nt

[mstinamotorcity]

2. You got a rec from me

I personally am tired of the people in the Democratic party always trashing our President and his administration. When we had it bad (Dubya)all they wanted was something better. Now we have it,its not enough. We still have a lot of work that is in front of the Democratic party starting with making them take back their words about only old white folks come out and vote in the mid term elections. Everything that our President can do is mostly done with our help. We are the ones with the phone calls,emails,protest,and money used collectively. Love the ad on Mitch McConnell by moveon.org.Instead of us being mad at everything our President hasn't done,maybe we should relish in the accomplishments that have taken place. And ask ourselves what are we prepared to do to help move our country forward.

[Richardo]

3. Total agreement

Thanks for this post :thumbsup:


:kick: and rec.

[zipplewrath]

4. Nice strawman

The problem with the Health Insurance Stimulus Package was not that it didn't go "far enough". It was that it went in the wrong direction. It established health insurance as an obligation, and health care as an option for the free market to try to provide. It was, in your graphic, a tad more like this:

A----->Bxxx<do not enter>xxx>C
|
|
A-|

Remeber, even Obama bragged that this was basically a Dole/Baker bill warmed over and supplemented with Romneycare.

It isn't the "proper direction" at all. But go ahead and dismiss the entire left side of the party based upon a strawman.

[Richardo]

6. So, given the choice between the law that passed, and the status quo, you prefer the status quo?

Those are your only two choices now. Not what coulda shoulda been, but whatis.


And Obama did not 'brag' about it being similar to Dole/Baker/Romney. He was explaining the hypocrisy of GOP opposition to it. Talk about strawmen.

[zipplewrath]

8. So you want to argue semantics?

Brag, explain, whatever. He characterized it that way, not me. That's no strawman. So it's hard to claim it was a move "forward" when even he admitted it was returning to GOP ideas from 1995.

And I see we've jumped from strawmen to false dichotomies.

The only were not 1995 GOP ideas or the status quo. There were a wide range of possibilities, some even advocated by his own chief of staff, and this was the one he picked. It was a reversal of issues upon which he campaigned, both for and against. And it took at least twice as long, to achieve half as much, as he originally laid out. People tried desperately to tell him, up front, the mistakes he was making. He wouldn't listen to them. Heck, some folks got arrest. And now you wanna claim that it is the folks proven correct that "don't get it"? Oh please.

[Richardo]

9. You just said that it achieved half as much.

So it did achieve *something*, right? That's incrementalism for you.

[zipplewrath]

11. It's the turd in the punch bowl.

Making insurance an obligation, and health care a free market option is the turd in the punch bowl. It doesn't matter how good the punch is, once the turd's in there, no one is gonna wanna drink it.

[KittyWampus]

5. Dear SD, while I agree with you there's the point you left out about opposition.

Your straight line HAS to be a triangle. Why?

Because you are heading into opposing winds and the only way to move forward when sailing into headwinds is to tack to the side.

What too many DU'ers seem to forget is Politics by its very nature involves an opposition. And at this point Democrats have both the Republican Party and the Media against them.

[Crystal Clarity]

7. You're right

There's still alot to be done but at least we're heading in the right direction.

[rucky]

10. Negotiations move from A to B and from C to B at the same time.

otherwise the C group is starting at a disadvantage.

[Smashcut]

12. I think someone like you would tell a thirsty man to drink motor oil.

"Well your mouth isn't dry anymore...it's a step in the right direction!"

[AnArmyVeteran]

13. Good post OP, but conservatives would like there to be a "Minus A"

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. An issue I can name: Afghanistan. Escalating a lost war.

How "progressive" is that?

[BlooInBloo]

15. Hm. Where does my "OBAMA IS A BETRAYING REPUBLICAN LITE" squawking fit in to this?

[dionysus]

16. i love these posts. they make pumas and various malcontents come out of the woodwork howling.