Often feels betrayed

I've been fairly quiet of late, because most of what I would have to say is simply repetitive of what I have been saying for some time. Yet every once in a while, things bear repeating. But this time, I'll let Kevin Drum do the drill.

But this is also utterly pathetic because....well, it just is. So Max Baucus didn't listen to us. Big deal. So we didn't get invitations to White House tea parties. Who cares? It may be understandable that progressives feel dissed, but are we really all such delicate flowers that we're going to give up on a cause we've spent a century on because the current bill isn't quite what we'd like and Rahm Emanuel is mean to us? Jesus.

In 20 years this bill will be entirely forgotten except as the first step toward broad national healthcare. The excise tax, the public option, the subsidy levels, the exchange — all forgotten because they will have been steadily replaced by an entirely different infrastructure. It's true that some of that infrastructure will be path dependent on the details of the current bill, but most will simply evolve as a result of technology and public demand. By 2030 arguments over the public option will seem as antiquated as rants against the tin trust.

But that's 20 years from now, and we won't get there unless we take the first step. So the White House needs to start listening seriously to progressive ideas and progressives need to suck it up and understand that they're going to lose most of the battles. That's just the nature of consensus politics. But speaking for me, that's OK as long as we win the war. And the only way to do that is to pass the damn bill. So let's pass it.