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- Aug 8, 2005
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I've learned not to trust people who talk about incrementalist alternatives, especially when they have no clear, laid out roadmap to their supposed endgame, taking it essentially on faith that they will pull through and ultimately deliver; it rarely ends well. Since Obama, there is no faith left here: you're either for something, or you're not, and if you are, you better have the history to prove it, full stop. What I do know is the man has dubbed, and stridently at that, MFA to be unfeasible and unworkable, which is a pretty insurmountable red flag, and he has only really gone so far as Clinton's painfully unambitious 'Medicare at 55'. On this issue he is essentially a Hillary analogue, which is unacceptable as a primary candidate goes.
When I see compelling evidence that it's a back door as opposed to a can kick, or half-hearted attempt at compromise, I might be more inclined to agree with this take. You might be right that it broadens the appeal/popularity of MFA and further shifts the Overton window on it, but MFA is already popular enough with even a solid majority of polled Republicans supporting it at this time, and I unfortunately see no proof or meaningful insinuation that full MFA adoption is the end game, and this is really some form of 3-d chess.
Yeah, I remember what happened to the public option: insurance shill blowhard and snake Joe Lieberman stopped it dead cold as he was handsomely paid to do, and neither Obama nor anyone else in the Dem party really tried to compel him to change his vote, whether by stick or carrot; it was both embarrassing and infuriating and one of the pivotal moments that forever changed how I view the interest driven cesspit Washington has become.
As anyone will tell you in any relevant field, and as I experience daily in my profession, in any negotiation, you start strong, aim high, and go from there, not at what you can expect to get, even if you feel it's as modest as Medicare at 55. Best to keep this MFA momentum going, demand the world, and receive something far better in return than if we had asked for relative crumbs in the first place.
Yes I believe you on the roadmap thing, plus I agree with you about START STRONG.
Last time I had to haul a client into Small Claims for a one thousand dollar debt, I sued for five thousand.
I had a good case to illustrate the validity of my numbers but got stopped cold about a third of the way through. I was awarded 1400 dollars and actually collected 500 of it. Beats Hell out of collecting nothing. So your point is well taken, however all that said, I'm still going to listen to see if he really DOES have a roadmap.
Remember, politics is the art of the possible.