General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Well, congratulations, DU... [View all]phleshdef
(11,936 posts)He is saying that, on a day to day legislative level, we have to deal with the political realities on that day, get what we can and be optimistic about getting more in the future. FDR couldn't pass healthcare, he wanted to, but couldn't. But he did manage to pass Social Security, which was a very small program at the time. That's what we did back then, we dealt with the political realities of the day (which honestly were a whole lot more in favor for us back then) and moved on. Eventually Johnson managed to pass Medicare and Medicaid. And all of those programs were expanded/changed/improved throughout the years.
After the 1980s, America took a big dive into capitalist worship. And that's just the nature of things now. We don't have the same America we had back then. So yea, until we can find a way to dismantle the cultural change towards those sorts of things, we have to work with it and around it. That doesn't mean we stop looking for a way to better out of this cultural situation. But it does mean we have to make the best of the bullshit mindset the country has been in, and make progress where we can.