Dear Millennials: I'm sorry we didn't stop them

[thucythucy]

66. I think that's quite the oversimplication.

Clinton's first priority when he entered the White House was an attempt at health care reform, for which he was crucified by the media and punished by the voters. The result was that both the House and Senate were controlled by Republicans during the last six years of his administration, with Newt Gingrich as Speaker. GOP control of Congress continued through the first years of Bush II. Rather difficult to push through anything approaching a progressive agenda when the reactionairies have that much power, including the power to draft the budget.

It also didn't help to have those on the supposed left taking potshots at the party while the right held that power. For instance, labeling Al Gore a "faux environmentalist" or criticising feminists for holding "the progressive agenda hostage" to the issue of abortion during the campaigns of 2000, 2004 and onward was hardly a productive strategy. Telling women voters that the threat to Roe was "all hype" was hardly a great way to inspire them to get out the vote. Yet that's what folks like Nader and Sarandon and others were saying, and look where that's led us.

I think bashing Democrats on a Democratic discussion board is yet another instance of our willingness to eat our own. Maybe it's time instead to move on to confront the challenges at hand?