Once again, frustration rears its ugly head on Daily Kos. I've seen a sad GBCW diary this morning, and another rec list diary suggesting the diarist is about to give up on the Democratic Party. I do not mock by titling this diary as I do. I feel your frustration. I encourage anyone who needs a break to take one. Rest, recharge - and then return to working towards a better world.
You see, the glue that holds progressive politics together is this: we believe that government is a useful tool to improve the world. From health care, to GBLT rights, to affirmative action, to climate change, the idea that government can, and should, help is embedded in liberal politics.
Almost always, though, someone benefits from the status quo. Someone is winning the game by the current rules, and they will fight any attempt to change those rules. There are those who make billions from our current health care system; there are those who can only feel good about themselves if they oppress the gays, or the blacks; there are those who make billions selling carbon based fuels. These forces will resist any attempt to use the tool of government to improve the world, because they benefit from the imperfection.
I wrote a diary recently comparing the life of a progressive to trench warfare. This cause, of using the government to improve the world, is the work of a lifetime. And the fight is not a fair one.
There are three factors at play; the values of the people, the policies of the government, and the politics which (theoretically) turns the values into the policies.
Values change slowly, but they do change. When I was young, the idea of gay marriage was inconceivable. When my father was young, the idea of a black President was inconceivable. And yes, Inigo - that word does mean what I think it means. The work of changing the values of your friends and families and neighbors moves at glacial speed, but it does move. The one thing you cannot do is abandon your values and remain quiet. Every day, in a million conversations, values are changing. Don't stop.
Policies change incrementally. Every key piece of progressive government, from Social Security, to union laws, to the fight to end racism, happened in stages. It will be thus with health care, or GBLT rights, or climate change.
Politics, and politicians, are where the hard work takes place. And politics and politicians are grossly imperfect. When I think that I might have voted for John Edwards had he still be in the running in the Colorado caucus - well, let's not go there. Barack Obama is imperfect. The Democratic Party is imperfect. Pelosi and Reid are imperfect. Joe Lieberman is imperfect and slathered in imperfect sauce.
But, to paraphrase RUMSFIELD!, you go to war with the politicians you have. If you can identify a better tool for enacting progressive policies than the Democratic Party, let us all know of it. If you can identify a more progressive politician than Barack Obama who stands a chance of being elected in 2012, let us all know of him or her. Until then, imperfect though they may be, they represent the best tools available to us to move the government a little closer to where we want it to be.
What you cannot do is give up. I cannot tell you what should motivate you to keep up the fight, against daunting odds, with imperfect tools, with disappointment and the contempt of the "serious people" in the media your constant companions. But if we all give up, we are all doomed.
Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. -- The Talmud
Which brings me, at long last and through too many words, back to my diary title. If the world is ever to be kinder, or if there is ever to be more justice, or if it is to continue to be comfortably habitable for humans - how can that happen, save through us?
The world needs you. It needs us all.
Don't give up.
Update:
Do jobs matter? Do you think the government should do something about unemployment?

Gaze upon this chart, and lift your chin.