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| Pessimism has a pretty good pedigree too... |
Me trying to explain the facts of life to one of those self-denominated "progressives" ended up someplace that could be moderately interesting:
The slogan is popular. Since Medicare is not a single-payer program it's likely few people know whether "Medicare for All" is one, and it's certainly not known what they actually favor.
— Wiggles of Weimar (@Yastreblyansky) August 24, 2021
A lot of people don't know that. Here's a pretty good explainer https://t.co/x7WictdRrh
— Wiggles of Weimar (@Yastreblyansky) August 24, 2021
And here's an excellent piece on how badly the polling is done https://t.co/ecjQ9ykGbQ
— Wiggles of Weimar (@Yastreblyansky) August 24, 2021
No, it's really remarkably bad. A majority of citizens don't know what the policy proposal is, and the questions are designed to confuse.
— Wiggles of Weimar (@Yastreblyansky) August 24, 2021
Do you even look at the fucking link? https://t.co/ecjQ9ykGbQ
— Wiggles of Weimar (@Yastreblyansky) August 24, 2021
Public option (basically Obamacare offered to everybody), which is going to start the transition away from private insurance, Medicaid expanded further, drug prices negotiated for all programs.
— Wiggles of Weimar (@Yastreblyansky) August 24, 2021
Yes, Tommy Douglas and other lefties worked hard to create that system.
— Colonel Rainsborough 🌹🪑🧤🍄🐻 (@Semourg) August 24, 2021
Biden is no Douglas and I do not think he actually wants any reform.
That's what I would call FUD. You're telling me to panic over huge legislation that just passed one of its biggest hurdles and will be made law this fall, thanks to the efforts of Budget Committee Chairman Sanders.
— Wiggles of Weimar (@Yastreblyansky) August 24, 2021
I'm telling you not to trouble yourself with fantasies.
FUD specialist, aren't you?
— Wiggles of Weimar (@Yastreblyansky) August 25, 2021
"I believe." There you have it. No awareness, as you see, that there was a reason for the failure of the minimum wage proposal outside of Biden's control (the Senate Parliamentarian ruled that it couldn't be introduced as part of a budget reconciliation bill, and it wasn't going to have the votes by any other route), just basically "Well I think Biden is 7.2 on my left-to-right scale of agreeing with me and I don't like him." Pretty much a "left" version of this idiocy:
How do you think he and Pompeo made the deal Biden is now carrying out? Don't ask me, ask Trump's National Security Adviser https://t.co/iSize1kArU
— Wiggles of Weimar (@Yastreblyansky) August 24, 2021
Anyhow, there's a useful distinction there between authentic pessimism, as represented by your friend and mine, Steve M, the Schopenhauer of the Intertubes, richly earned by decades of close observation of how stupid and self-destructive people can be and generally are, and "progressive" Eeyoreism, as represented by Some Dude, based on the general feeling that "I don't like it."
I'm an authentic optimist myself, I'm not faking it, I just don't like thinking about things if I don't see a way of getting them better, but I have to say I haven't felt so strongly about it any time in the last 12 years, that things are actually going right in some way, and I'm especially moved and thrilled, not so much because of one personality or another that I "like" or don't "like" but for structural reasons, when "I was proved fucking right" by the narrative of this week in journalism, starting with the crazy inflated outrage over the Biden administration's failure at the Kabul International Airport, which is gradually turning out to be the most (only?) successful operation of its kind since the Berlin Airlift, and eventually getting to the success in the House of Representatives today of the two-track program for physical and human infrastructure (and the John Lewis Voting Act, not the whole package but a great start), in which the Progressive Democratic Caucus in the House is revealed to be genuinely powerful, and the "centrist" Democrats are shown up as basically four-flushers who don't have any power at all except to the extent people believe they do.
The package doesn't offer anywhere near all the healthcare things I promised the Colonel there, but it offers a lot. It is a BFD. And as Donna Edwards and Sahil Kapur were pointing out on MSNBC, it really is like 1934, setting the politicians up for an incredibly rare opportunity to get two more years of doing what the public actually wants them to do. Not the time to be moaning about a bill that sounds nice if you don't look at it too carefully. Bring it back in 2023 if you want!
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