I'm reading lots of folks around here that are prepared to give the Reps the Waterloo they've been hoping for, to derail the progressive agenda because health care reform may not include their every wish. I have to admit, I'm no expert on health care reform but I'm convinced of two things: (1) the bill ain't perfect, (2) the bill helps more than it hurts. Sherrod Brown's in? Me too. Yet, some folks feel the need to make a display of their indignation. How come?
Maybe after being called "Obamabot" endlessly by wingnut trolls you're just itching to prove your independent mindedness by grilling the president. After all, has Obama tried giving Lieberman a snuggy? No? Well then he hasn't done everything in his power to pass the public option. Now, it strikes me that it's a bit idiotic to take positions based on a desire to prove something to a wingnut. It's a bit like the media including false balance so Rush won't call them biased. They'll insult you anyway, even if you start reinforcing their frames in the title of your rec listed diary.
Maybe you don't give a shit about any issue but health care. If your perfect bill doesn't pass, nothing in the progressive agenda should go forward. Screw climate change. Screw gay rights. Those issues were pushed down the line to do health care first, but fuck it. The angriest health reform advocates didn't get everything they want so they're hanging progressives with other priorities out to dry. The Reps can have their Waterloo so that you can play out you self-important fantasy that by abandoning the Dems over the health care compromise it'll bring about a single-payer system in 2016, or whatever.
Newsflash: Politics fucking sucks. I've been hoping for serious action to stop changing the climate for more than a decade. You don't get everything you want. We're not going to get a carbon tax. In fact, we're headed for a watered down version of cap-and-trade, not the no loopholes-no credits version promised in the campaign. I'm pissed about it. I tried the righteous indignation route in some past diaries, but there's no fucking point. We do what we can now, then try to elect more and better democrats in the next election and do more in the next legislative cycle... Either that or undermine the progressive agenda to try to prove to yourself that you're no "bot". It's our choice. Are you in this for the long haul or what?