The apparent paradox of pushing for "transformative" legislation despite razor-thin congressional margins is easily resolved. Precisely *because* the window is so narrow, progressives feel they need to move before it closes. The precedent is the ACA--a policy that helps a lot of people but had a short-term political cost when enacted. …
The apparent paradox of pushing for "transformative" legislation despite razor-thin congressional margins is easily resolved. Precisely *because* the window is so narrow, progressives feel they need to move before it closes. The precedent is the ACA--a policy that helps a lot of people but had a short-term political cost when enacted. To progressives, winning elections isn't the point; it's what you do after you win. Just sitting there and hoping stuff that you have little control over (Covid, inflation) will go away so that you can win the next time isn't worth the bother. Address the issues that currently concern Americans? Most of those issues aren't easily addressable with policy. Inflation is global; supply-chain problems simply have to be worked through; all but the most anodyne efforts to address Covid elicit furious backlash. Simply prattling about "addressing the real issues" with no idea of what would work doesn't cut it.
The apparent paradox of pushing for "transformative" legislation despite razor-thin congressional margins is easily resolved. Precisely *because* the window is so narrow, progressives feel they need to move before it closes. The precedent is the ACA--a policy that helps a lot of people but had a short-term political cost when enacted. To progressives, winning elections isn't the point; it's what you do after you win. Just sitting there and hoping stuff that you have little control over (Covid, inflation) will go away so that you can win the next time isn't worth the bother. Address the issues that currently concern Americans? Most of those issues aren't easily addressable with policy. Inflation is global; supply-chain problems simply have to be worked through; all but the most anodyne efforts to address Covid elicit furious backlash. Simply prattling about "addressing the real issues" with no idea of what would work doesn't cut it.