Knickfan1982 wrote:Clyde_Style wrote:
I don't know how anyone can flame a pragmatist for encouraging this, but that's what we're seeing on this board. A whole lot of disrespect for those who espouse compromise and strategy as the way forwards. It has nothing to do with being less invested in progressive beliefs, but everything to do with getting something actually done.
The priority has to be to push out the white nationalists and their enablers. Fail at that and every other idea will get scuttled anyway.
I was debating a Trump loving friend of mines about healthcare and he was all "You want socialized medicine but look at what's happening right now in Italy during the coronavirus. Deaths. Overwhelmed and undersupplied hospitals etc". I responded by pointing out that we are very lucky Italy got hit before we did and we had time to prepare. Its only the first inning here so I wouldn't strut as if we had this thing conquered. Then during the debate with Bernie that Sunday Joe Biden made essentially the same argument my Trump supporting friend made.
I am ok with compromise. I am not ok with Biden and other Democrats echoing Republican talking points when attacking progressives. I think this is going to destroy the Democratic parties chances of winning the election. Why? Because these attacks from their own party discourage progressives. It discourages young voters. We are unplugging the energy the party needs to move forward. I think this is why Bernie failed to drive turnout the way he hoped and why his campaign quickly collapsed in the face of a united Democratic establishment. I am worried that the very voters we need to propel this party forward are tired of fighting on two fronts and are pulling away rather than pushing forward with us.
Yes, that attack energy has gone both ways so the ability to coalesce does require it to be tempered and redirected or there won't be enough unity to pull through. The beliefs of each faction still has to communicate enough to find common ground. The knock against Bernie's supporters has been largely due to anger overwhelming the ability to connect. Fail to connect with those who don't wholly agree with you and you are guaranteed to fail.
This is not a winner takes all situation and Bernie probably encouraged zero sum thinking to the extent it created a bubble around him and his movement that does not produce victory in the polls. You have to build more bridges to win. The middle is not palatable to the left by inclination, but it is where you draw from to grow from your base.
And to be even-handed about it, I do think moderates can be contemptuous of Sanders voters and unnecessarily so. But there is still room to meet them somewhere between left and center if you want it. Because the stridency is more likely to happen the further out you get to the ideological edge (which can be seen on both the right and left of the spectrum), it actually requires more of an emotional adjustment from the hard left than from the center, because it is just human nature for moderate people to recoil from the visceral energy of righteous followers of any path. It is basic psychology, but it bears repeating I think.
And as far as the virus and Italian comparisons are concerned, the current trajectory in the USA far exceeds any prior outbreak, including China and Italy. It means within 2-3 weeks we will have the most cases, deaths and the biggest crisis of any country. That's why anybody who says Trump has regained their footing should hold their tongue, because that is not what the numbers are showing. Containment has failed and now it is up to each state to fend for themselves until there is a collective drop in cases which is inevitable.
We could have nipped this in the bud. It doesn't matter if China lied. Our intelligence community was pounding the tables two months ago and our "leadership" called it a hoax to push their infantile political fantasies instead of getting ready. We could have shut down for a month and be largely done with this and resume our business if our government had tests ready and could then determine who needs quarantine and health care down to every last person in this country. But Trump still resists federal aid or using wartime powers to requisition factory capacity for needed supplies. It's a joke and the political fall-out has not even begun to manifest. This is going to be apocalyptic for the GOP and I find comments that Trump will get re-elected laughable. No, he won't unless we eff this all up by treating each other as warring factions within the Democratic party.
and still be treated as if you were reasonable.
