Take a Little Bow, Progressives. You Did Good.
My friend Digby does deserve many kudos for her work to stop the grand bargain, so hats off to her and all the others who stuffed it into the deep freeze. I am also very pleased that she will be on the look out in case the next administration decides to grab that awful thing back out of the freezer to pop in the microwave.
The good news is that virtually every high level Democrat, including President Obama, Senator Sanders and Secretary Clinton, is now talking about expanding the program rather than cutting it. It’s completely turned around. And according to this fantastic article, it happened because of good old fashioned progressive activism. I should just note that those of us who opposed Obama’s position did not demonize him or call him names. We assumed he was making a political calculation and that calculation was a mistake, not that he was corrupt or that he truly wanted old people to suffer. We were harsh in our criticism of the policy but it wasn’t personal and we didn’t indict his character —- at least I didn’t and I can’t think of any people who worked on this problem who did. I do not agree with the proposition that the only thing politicians ever respond to is pain. People who believe that have a very cramped view of human nature. It sometimes works and it sometimes doesn’t but it’s no guarantee of success. Indeed, enduring change requires changing hearts and minds
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