Notice the we. This includes me. It includes all of us from time to time.
We are stupid. We are stupid because we forget how politics work. We are stupid because we forget who we are dealing with. We are stupid because we forget that the system is not broken by accident, but on purpose.
And stupid never helps anything.
Let me provide examples what I mean below the fold.
Updated: Many comments say "Lieberman only votes with us when it doesn't matter". I found counterexamples from recent votes. He is a necessary evil.
Let me write, for a moment, as though I write for imbeciles.
We all have values. We have things which we believe to be good, or bad. We care about these things.
The government passes laws. These laws are supposed to reflect values, however crudely. The whole point of democracy is 'majority rules' - that the values of the people subject to the laws are embodied in the laws. There are some limits to this in the Constitution.
Politics is what turns values into laws.
End imbecile mode.
I propose that from time to time we all forget that basic, imbecilic stuff. We just dress it up in fancy rhetoric.
Some examples follow.
Abortion is a values driven debate. Here on DKos most people focus on the right of women to control their own bodies. On other sites they focus on the unborn child. Based on my experience, it is simply not true that most opponents of abortion rights think women have no rights to control their bodies. And it is simply not true that most proponents of abortion rights don't care about the unborn. But I see so many statements suggesting that taking one side or the other means you completely reject the values of the other side. And you know what? Those statements are stupid. Disagreement about policy does not mean complete disagreement about values. Most human beings are a little more complex than that. Most American voters are trying to strike a balance between babies and women. That's why the debate continues. Saying that all people on the other side set a value of zero on women is simply stupid. It's not true. It's not reality based. It doesn't help protect abortion rights.
Politics is the art of the possible. I see so many comments and diaries about how Harry Reid, or Barack Obama, is "letting" Joe Lieberman do this, or Olympia Snowe do that. Well, suppose the Democratic party nuked Joe Lieberman - took his gavel, threw him out of the caucus, and moved his desk into the bathroom. I've advocated that myself, today. Because Joe Lieberman is just infuriating. But - how many issues other than Health Care would suffer? Lieberman is obviously not "with us on everything but the war", but he's with us more often than any Republican, and with us a lot more than Mitch McConnell. Do you want Joe voting the way Mitch tells him to? Does it really make any good legislation more passable in this Congress to treat Lieberman like the boil on the ass of humanity that his behavior on HC shows him to be? He's toast in 2012. Let there be no doubt about that. But until the voters of Connecticut can lance and drain Joe, we need to act in the manner which passes the most legislation. Which is probably not to take out our rage on Joe. Disgusting he may be, but I think we have to live with him. Nuking Joe Lieberman as long as he has any utility on any legislation is stupid.
And it is not just Joe Lieberman that makes the public option impossible. There are 40 Republicans in the Senate, and 95% of them are adamantly against the bill. I see a lot of statements that the Democrats aren't getting anything done, and therefore there is no reason to support Democrats. Let us review some policies that people here care about:
- Jobs. Remember the GOP voting in a bloc against the stimulus? 0 in the House, I think 1 in the Senate. If you think things are bad now, let me (and Paul Krugman, and the CBO) assure you they would be much worse without the stimulus. And there would be much less hope for next year, too. Do you care about the unemployed? Then not supporting Democrats in 2010 is stupid.
- Climate change. Government scientists no longer have to lie in their published work. We are acknowledging that the problem exists. Compare to Jame Inhofe. Do you care about saving the planet? Then not supporting Democrats in 2010 is stupid.
- DADT / DOMA. These are acts of Congress. The GOP will never repeal them, ever. Do you care about LGBT issues? Then not supporting Democrats in 2010 is stupid.
- War. Don't like President Obama's Afghan policy? Do you think a GOP majority in the House or Senate will change it for the better? The only reason they would change it is to deliberately sabotage it to make the President fail. Do you care about the war? Then not supporting Democrats in 2010 is stupid.
- Taxes. The GOP still thinks Reagan was an economic genius. They still think that cutting taxes on rich people is the key to economic growth. Do you care about income inequality? Then not supporting Democrats in 2010 is stupid.
- Regulation of Wall Street. The House bill recently passed is far from perfect. Did you notice the great ideas contributed by the GOP? I didn't see any. In fact, they still blame the crash on CNRA, despite the obvious absurdity. Do you care about regulating Wall Street? Then not supporting Democrats in 2010 is stupid.
- Supreme Court justices. President Obama will get to appoint more judges, probably including SCOTUS. Remember Sonia Sotomayor? Then not supporting Democrats in 2010 is stupid.
And on, and on. On every one of these issues even the worst blue dog is more reliable than the best Republican. I'm sorry, but pretending there is no difference between the parties is stupid. Giving up is stupid.
Not working for better Democrats is also stupid. But progress is always incremental. There are always powerful forces which benefit from the status quo. They will fight to maintain it. The reason the system is broken is because powerful people benefit from that brokenness. Not trying to fix it is stupid. Not acknowledging the effect of that brokenness on politics is also stupid.
Giving up is stupid. Trying to frame each other as having the wrong values because we disagree on politics or policy is stupid. Personal attacks on other Kossacks are stupid. Disagreement with each other does not make us bad.
Everyone needs to calm down, realize that we need to work together to salvage the best HC bill we can from this train wreck, and stop being stupid.
Starting with me.
Update:
Thanks for the rec list. And for all the thoughtful comments.
Update 2:
I've seen a lot of comments to the effect that Lieberman never votes (D) unless it doesn't matter. I am going through the WashPost database and identifying votes where Lieberman did matter. Matter is not "one vote switch changes result" since if Joe had already switched, someone else might have started bargaining, and we've seen how that can go. Here goes:
Cloture on transportation bill
Waiving rule on transportation bill
Nelson amendment (not close but still ...)
Cloture on service members home ownership act