A----->B----->C

[scheming daemons]

A----->B----->C

A=Status Quo
B=Where proposed legislation, gov't action, or Presidential action gets us
C=Where we ultimately want to be

You can apply this to just about any issue being discussed in the public square.


This OP is about the disingenuousness or naivete of those who argue "I'm against this because it doesn't go far enough" with respect to the issues of the day.

They are saying they want "C", but their actions and arguments will keep us at "A". Either on purpose (they are agent provocateurs) or through ignorance (they don't understand that radical changes aren't possible with a government and country as large as ours, things must be done incrementally).


Republicans make no bones about trying to keep us at "A". Doesn't matter the issue. Health care, Financial Reform, Climate Change, you name it. Their goal is to keep us as close to "A" as they possibly can.


But many progressives, on DU and elsewhere, have adopted a "C or bust!" attitude about issues. "B doesn't go far enough!"


Well... you can't get to C without first getting to B. And once you're at B, it becomes much easier to get to C in the future.

- The Health Care Law is a perfect example.

- The Financial Reform Bill is another perfect example.

- Iraq is another one. We'll be down to 50,000 troops (from nearly 200,000 a couple years ago) by the end of August.


The President/Congress is moving us closer to "C" on these issues by getting us to "B" first.


Name an issue that matters to you. I would argue that this President, and this Democratically-led congress, has moved that issue closer to "C" than it would have been with a Republican President and Republican congress.


You can't intellectually argue that "Democrats are the same as Republicans" if you have even a modicum of sense and intelligence.

Democrats are working to move the country in the proper direction, albeit not as fast as some would like.
Republicans are working to keep the country from moving at all.


If you argue that Democrats are no different than Republicans, that Obama is no different than Bush, then you are either disingenuous or naive. If the former, you need to stop lying. If the latter, you need to educate yourself on how hard it is to push radical changes through a government such as ours (by design of the Founding Fathers, incidentally).



Progress.


If you call yourself a "progressive", then work for "progress". Moving closer to the target, bit by bit. Work to speed it up where you can. But dammit, quit working to sabotage it where you don't think it's fast enough.

The trajectory matters.




(commence with the unrecs)