...And neither will the voters of Ohio in two years, when Brown is up for re-election. This all amounts to nothing, permitting the deal to pass. It makes for a nice C-Span spectacle that pleases those who watch C-Span--some progressives and some conservatives. And the cognitive dissonance runs too thick for the latter to gain any marginal utility.
Essentially, this is the sort of thing that electrifies the blogosphere and does little emotionally or materially for ordinary Americans.
What do I care about?
I care about the fact that I've amassed $12,000 in student loans this year, even with grant money. In prior years, several thousand dollars in debt was gifted to me by my happy overlords. Deeply, down to my bones, do I hold a gratitude that my deal is better than some students'.
I do care that rich business-owners can write-off most of their taxes; I will be stuck with taxes, interest and debt for doing something--already costing me more than four years--that provides the United States with long-lasting value. In Germany, 4 years' worth of college is generally insufficient and yet they boast many free universities, a muscular labor force and in spite of these progressive wonders... a thriving economy. You think we've drifted rightward in this country? The Stockholm Syndrome runs deep...
I feel gratitude that my estimated earnings of $3000 through the end of the school year will help me maybe pay some of that debt, assuming I weasel my way around my insufficient debt-cost of attendance ratio. I care that I have a job, paying $8.50, because friends of our's like Brooke in Seattle don't have one.
I do care about the fact that employers can use a de jure 50/50 employer/employee contributions system, twist it around, and shift FICA onto workers. I care that, as David Leonhardt wrote in the NYT: "...about three-quarters of all American households pay more in payroll taxes, which go toward Medicare and Social Security, than in income taxes." I still don't believe poor people should pay income tax at all: a better system than a bunch of legal loopholes that allow people to do the same thing anyway. Simplifying and eliminating loopholes helps ordinary people, and sends a message about who is really on their side.
Lately, Progressives feel do-or-die. I can admire that. At some point, what we have isn't worth preserving, and the whole world is crumbling and falling away regardless. So embrace that role: be dangerous. Be a party of protest--it's worked magnificently for the Tea Party puppets in legitimizing right-wing extremism.
But fucking do something. If you're going to filibuster, have it be a real filibuster. As a democratic socialist, I don't disapprove of Bernie Sanders' actions or Sherrod Brown's at all. It's that I don't care, because it's not plausible that any material good will come to the working people of the United States.