• bradorsomething@ttrpg.network
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    3 months ago

    Can you imagine a full majority blue government again? Last time we got health care light, who knows what we might get a little of this time?

    • 9point6@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Maybe some of that freedom your nutjobs keep banging on about.

      Make no mistake that small progress is still progress and given the amount of money spent on regression, don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

      If given the choice of something better, never go for the other option because the first is not better enough

      • hydroptic@sopuli.xyz
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        3 months ago

        don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

        This sentiment is way too rare. Personally I’m a fan of using “don’t let perfect be the enemy of good enough

        • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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          3 months ago

          It needs to be selectively applied though. We should fight for perfection, but we shouldn’t avoid small gains in favor of large aspirations.

          • pwnicholson@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            That’s what the saying means. It doesn’t mean perfect isn’t good. It means perfect is great, but don’t let it stop good.

          • EleventhHour@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            just remember: “perfect” is a journey, not a destination. it something to strive for knowing full well that you’ll never get there because it’s impossible.

        • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

          This sentiment is way too rare

          Except literally every time someone on the left points out the Dem leadership habit of inching in the right direction while not doing much to stop their fascist counterparts from yarding if not miling in the opposite.

          What little progress conservative Democrats DO graciously deign to bestow on the unwashed masses is the equivalent of getting a 2% raise in a year where your unavoidable expenses such as food, shelter, and medicine rose by double digits.

          That’s not good. That’s insufficient.

          • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            So give us more Democrats and you’ll get more results. It’s a simple question of mathematics. We can’t pass laws unless you give us the numbers in Congress.

            • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              So give us more Democrats and you’ll get more results. It’s a simple question of mathematics

              If they do their jobs well, they get rewarded with votes. It’s a simple question of not inverting the relationship between the public servants and the public.

              We can’t pass laws unless you give us the numbers in Congress.

              And people won’t vote for you if you pass bad laws and/or do nothing with the mandate you’re given. Which is what 90%+ of them do.

              If they start actually helping people more, people will reward them. Giving them all they want in return for bad job performance isn’t the motivator to do better you seem to think it is.

              • Triasha@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                If they do their jobs well, they get rewarded with votes. It’s a simple question of not inverting the relationship between the public servants and the public.

                Hard disagree. The public is not a monolith. It does not know what it wants, because most people want mutually exclusive things.

              • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                That’s not how it works. I’m not just saying that, I mean functionally, what you’re saying is impossible. We can’t make progress until we get the numbers in Congress, and you won’t give us the numbers in Congress until we make progress. So nothing ever gets done. Gridlock at best.

                And people wonder why the Dems seem so ineffectual. Its because our voters are piss poor at understanding how our fucking government works. Vote first, and then get results. It’s literally impossible for it to happen the other way around. People who are not in Congress can’t pass laws. You have to get them into Congress first.

                • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  the Dems seem so ineffectual. Its because our voters

                  Classic victim blaming. “We’re doing a lousy job because of the people not trusting us in spite of doing a lousy job!” 🙄

                  Vote first, and then get results.

                  That hasn’t worked since 1978 at the very latest and it won’t suddenly start working now.

                  The problem isn’t that the average voter doesn’t help Democrats enough. The problem is that Democrats don’t help the average voter enough.

                  The reason for that problem isn’t a lack of mandate, it’s that the vast majority represent their big sum owner donors much more than the public at large. As shown by how the party fights anti-corporate Democrats much harder than they ever fight Republicans, even the fascists of today.

                  People who are not in Congress can’t pass law

                  And people who don’t prioritize the interests of the public don’t pass law that furthers the interest of the public over those that supply big legal bribes, no matter how many of them there are in Congress.

                • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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                  3 months ago

                  You can get results by going for things republicans also want. As in, negotiate with your counterparts on the hill.

                  Sometimes the way forward isn’t one of overpowering all opposition. Not everything is a blitzkrieg.

        • snooggums@midwest.social
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          3 months ago

          The problem can be that some progress can be used to placate the masses by halting the momentum.

          Obamacare was a step in the right direction, but also enough to kill the momentum towards the actual solutions that would have provided universal healthcare. Even those wouldn’t have been perfect, but now the drive has plataeued and good enough for most people means we won’t get good enough for everyone any time soon.

          Decriminalizing weed instead of legalizing and regulating is another. It doesn’t actually solve the inherent problems with the war on drugs because the drug trade that does involve criminal activity is still present. This kind of situation can backfire by reinforcing people’s belief in the lies about drugs inherently causing violent crime.

          So the sentiment is correct, but not all progress is good enough and partial progress can be a long term negative.

          • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Obamacare was a step in the right direction, but also enough to kill the momentum towards the actual solutions

            Bullshit. If we’d kept the supermajority, democrats would have EXPANDED Obamacare.

            Republicans are stopping progress. Democrats didn’t go “eh fuck it I don’t feel like helping people anymore”. They were blocked by Republicans.

            • snooggums@midwest.social
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              3 months ago

              If we’d kept the supermajority, democrats would have EXPANDED Obamacare.

              Democrats could have dropped the filibuster to be able to pass that better version with a simple majority. Then they could ride that success in future elections by pointing out that they were willing to overcome Republican obstruction.

              But instead they half assed it when they had the chance and achieved partial progress that killed the momentum. Then the Republicans dropped the filibuster partially to stack the courts.

              • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                Dropping the filibuster is a nuclear option that will open us up to massive Republican attacks when they’re in power. It’s not a move to be taken lightly.

                • snooggums@midwest.social
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                  3 months ago

                  It has zero power when the other party holds all three branches other than tradition.

                  Republicans have already shown they don’t care about tradition, and they only keep the neutered version of it around to obstruct Democratic legislation. Republicans already snipped it out from the judicial nominations when they had the senate and the oval office. If they hold all three branches they will drop it the moment they want to pass an abortion ban or anything else. The Democrats keeping it around is just shooting themselves in the foot.

                  Remember that the filibuster exists with a simple majority in the senate and can be dropped at a moments notice. It was never needed in the first place because needing the House, Senate, and a Presidential signature is already enough room for obstruction and the idea that it keeps debate from being stifled has long proven to be false based on it being used without needing to even be spoken.

                  The filibuster only benefits Repubilcan obstruction. Why the Democrats won’t let it go is beyond me.

          • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            No, republican fear mongering, and their refusal to recognize facts has all but murdered nuance. You can’t have nuanced discussion because a significant portion of the populace have been delightfully gobbling up a buffet of lies. There is no nuance about reproductive healthcare when abortion is murder. There is no nuance about the electoral system when every election is rigged. There is no nuance about equality in law when the president is immune from all crimes. The Internet didn’t destroy nuance, certain people have been throwing nuance out the window as fast as possible because an educated and empowered populace weakens their grip on the wheel of power.

      • Mac@mander.xyz
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        3 months ago

        the nutjobs will never get the freedom they want. they want freedom to step on others and freedom from accountability.

        they do not have the same desires as you and i.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Make no mistake that small progress is still progress

        That’s an argument I remember from under Obama. But the theory was that these small progressions would compound over time. In practice, the Dems don’t make progress, they inhibit it. Liberals draw in an enormous amount of labor and financial power to campaign, then immediately sell out to corporate interests. They pass stop-gap bills to splinter progressive movements into factions of haves and have-nots. Then they collapse in the face of a reactionary resurgence.

        The reactionaries impose huge reversals of existing New Deal and Great Society programs. They engage in flagrant criminality without any form of censure. They prosecute wars to loot natural resources abroad. Then they ship domestic capital overseas to dilute labor power at home and swell the ranks of the underemployed. They lard us up with debts to the same plutocrats who put them in office and leave Democrats with the bill when they finally slink out of office. And they balloon the national security state to surveil, suppress, and murder protesters and dissidents in nascent left-wing movements.

        The “small progress” is a ratchet. It isn’t progress at all. We’re regressing rapidly. The liberal party seems content to prevent any kind of contrary political pressure, while the conservative movement goes all-in on paramilitary fascism.

    • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      It’s a bit disingenuous to say we had a full blue government. Technically we had it but our majority in the senate didn’t really exist due to false Dems like Manchin

      • Triasha@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Manchin wasn’t even in the Senate yet. Lieberman was an independent that endorsed Romney 3 years later.

        There were senators from Louisiana and Missouri in that majority.

        Also Franken wasn’t seated until like June because of recounts and lawsuits. Ted Kennedy was on deaths door and passed away 2 months later. His replacement was seated a couple months after that and then Scott Brown won in fucking Massachusetts in January.

        They ended up with something like 109 working days in which Democrats could override a Republican filibuster. They passed 2 major pieces of legislation. Dodd Frank and the ACA.

    • jballs@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      I miss the days when the arguments were whether we should have universal healthcare or whether we should force insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions. Arguments over whether we should have a democracy or not just aren’t the same…

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Can you imagine a full majority blue government again?

      Easily. But when so many of the elected officials on Team Blue are as subservient to private business interests, plutocrats, and foreign state governments as their counterparts on Team Red, I’m not sure what good it’ll do.

      100 Joe Manchins and Kristen Sinemas won’t do us any favors.

      • Triasha@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Then why are you here?

        If you don’t believe in electoral politics that’s fine. But you should be off organizing union drives, or mutual aid societies, or literally any other venue for democratic power.

        Why would you care which corporate shill holds office?

        Your presence here suggests that it does, in fact, matter who wins elections, or which team holds power.

      • xantoxis@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago
        1. As president, it won’t matter. She’ll sign anything her party gives her to sign, because there’s zero reason for her to pick a fight with congressional democrats.
        2. In 2019 she literally and specifically backed Medicare for All, so this claim is factually incorrect.
      • Triasha@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Harris healthcare plan in 2020 was to the left of Bidens, She called for Medicare for all. She dissagreed with Bernie about banning private insurance.

        She was not against universal healthcare. I doubt she is now. If Dems sweep the house and somehow picked up 10 seats in the Senate (impossible) she might try to go for it.

        It’s not impossible in 2026 for Dems to make big gains in the Senate, but it is very, very unlikely.