IMHO, we can’t afford to get stuck in the partisan bickering that the 2 major parties and the MSM feed off of. It behooves all voters, particularly independents, to look beyond the partisan shills and seek out the more independent voices!

Thanks so much for your comment!
Nancy

For starters, it was sanctimonious and fawned on progressives’ views (“…there’s no question universal national healthcare is the best solution…” etc.)

But the really rich and comical irony is that if you read the piece, you’re left with no doubt why progressives get “outmaneuvered” so often. It’s because they are clueless about the basic mechanics of democracy. I look at the current state of this attempted healthcare reform, and this much seems clear:

There is insufficient consensus across the broad range of proposed solutions to the various problems that compose the issue.

Progressives seem continually unwilling to swallow the obvious fact that it is a question of NUMBERS more than a question of TACTICS. If enough Americans and their reps agreed with the progressive view, tactics would not really matter.

But progressives seem so sure they are just about 100% right. Thus their interpretation of the outcome is always that everyone would see the light if only the other side wasn’t mean and unscrupulous. Progressives really need to stop thinking that everyone else just needs to come to their senses and agree with the progressive viewpoint, and then everything will be great.

A substantial portion of the American people and the US congress do not currently want what progressives think is best. For the sane, that means compromise is required. And yet the article concludes by suggesting that progressives be uncompromising, and gird for a long fight. Take the ball and go home. In the meantime, Americans can apparently just keep suffering along. No half loaves. No incremental improvement, I guess. All or nothing.

I can’t imagine a BETTER way for liberals, progressives and the democratic party to lose the support of moderates and independents. Not to mention the support of suffering blue collar Americans who would hungrily devour a single slice of bread.