A Republican friend of mine recently sent me this email after I told him that Claire McCaskill pwned the Medicare recipients at her recent town hall:
The mistake you are making here isn't who eats who's lunch but rather that the Democrats are now the establishment (owning Congress and the White House) in ways they haven't since the Carter Administration. And you guys are freaking out over a little bit of disruption. For God's sake man, pull yourselves up and act like you've been there before.
I was thinking about that today. I agree some people are freaking out, but the reality is this: if any sort of comprehensive health care reform bill is passed, then that will be bad, bad, bad news for the Republicans for the foreseeable future.
It's a fact. Conservatives like Bill Kristol know (and have known since the early 90's) that health care reform presents a very real danger to the Republican future: passage of any sort of bill will give the Democrats a lock on the crucial middle-class vote for a long time to come.
That's why Republicans are throwing everything at this they can get their hands on. They have almost nothing to lose (having nearly lost it all) and only a little bit to gain, e.g., a maybe, possible, could-be, potential advantage in the midterms. That's pretty much it. And the fact remains that the list of Democratic accomplishments is quite long and substantial already.
True, the bill has to represent real, meaningful reform, but like Begala pointed out the other day, the initial legislative victory on Social Security paled in comparison to everything that followed it down through the following 7 decades.
What this means is that even if this first bill isn't perfect, not to worry: Dems'll will likely get another crack at it. And another and another and another. Granted, a bill must be passed and enacted -- close the deal if you will.
But Obama is smart enough to know when to "declare victory and come home."
The Republicans can try as much as they want to stop it but they're only digging themselves in deeper and deeper and deeper.
Case in point: the whole thing on death panels. It is a cruel hoax on the Republicans (not the Dems) because the Dems can easily afford to give it up now (yay Sen. Grassley! yay Gov. Palin!) because it was only small bore stuff to begin with, easily traded for the real meat of the bill. I think Rahm understands that, no matter (or perhaps because of) how much it infuriates his brother, medical ethicist Ezekiel Emanuel.
So I say to progressives: progress is steady movement toward a worthy goal, even it means taking it a couple of steps at a time. Be patient and above all act like we're in control. Because we are.
UPDATE: Come on people! Snap out of it! What a whining sad sack bunch of pessimists!
Are you fired up? Are you ready to go?
Suck it up and start fighting! We're in the lead -- don't let 'em tell you otherwise! Don't tell me what you CAN'T DO. I don't want to hear that. What the f#@k happened to YES WE CAN!?
Look, if you don't think you can win -- you're probably right.
On the other hand, if you think you CAN win -- you're probably right.
YES WE CAN!