Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

Reading the comment threads at FireDogLake, I feel like I’ve walked through the looking glass. Loathsome as this is, somehow I just don’t think committing political suicide is going to move this country in any direction but further toward where the scum on the right want to go. I loathe this sell-out; but I also know when to concede defeat to the conservative Democratic forces that have completely outmaneuvered me and live with pragmatic consensus rather than join hands with those who would, the next available moment, turn around and stab me and mine through the heart.

Let me speak now to those who would rather see this bill DIE than pass because it’s so godawful:

Yeah, it’s a corporate fire sale. Lesser of two evils is still evil. Same as it ever was. But, thing is…

Incrementalism is the name of the game in politics, boys — when was it ever not?

Sorry. I got banned from DKos for being too fucking liberal. Guess you can now rake me over the coals for being too much of a concessionalist. I don’t see it that way; I just see it as preferring Something: a microscopic victory (however riddled with grotesque flaws; and I’ll grant you EVERYTHING on that) — to Nothing — or worse: utter defeat and an assured sweeping loss to a party that wants nothing more than my ideology’s complete destruction — not only in 2010 but in 2012 and beyond. And believe me — this bill goes down now, that is ASSURED.

And if anyone tells me (hilariously, in my stronger moments of rage, I’ve uttered the words myself, but given a minute to cool off, I would NEVER tell you I seriously BELIEVE it) that if the Democrats are so craven and incompetent that this is the BEST they can get done with a huge majority in the House and what started out as a putative 60-vote majority in the Senate, then they DESERVE to lose in November…

Yeah, it feels really good to say that, doesn’t it? Righteous. Indignant. After all — it’s true that the elected Democrats in Congress are craven, incompetent, self-serving worms, for the most part, who have frittered away the largest majority in history and done virtually NOTHING with it, compared to the performance of the Republicans in the past decade or so, who hadn’t nearly the majorities, but somehow managed to intimidate the Democrats into rolling over for virtually (it seemed) everything they wanted done.

Yes. It feels good to say “They DESERVE to lose!” Except… it isn’t just those craven, cowardly, selfish sonsofbitches that lose when those elections roll around and people vote them out for having accomplished nothing. WE lose. Yes, we lose because they fuck up so SPECTACULARLY in power — but we lose SO much more when they’re NOT in power.

Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten already. Because, baby, I was here when Bush was President and the Republicans were in control — I started My left Wing in July of 2005, in paroxysms of rage and frustration and godawful PAIN over what those SCUMBAGS were doing to this country.

I am NOT willing to let that happen again because I’m so furious with the current Democrats in office for fucking up healthcare reform and so unhappy with the bill that I’d rather “KILL THE BILL” and watch as American people vote them out of office for being the grotesque incompetents the failure to pass this bill would PROVE them to be.

THAT’S why I cannot support the hardliners on my own ideological side against this bill. THAT’S why my jaw has pretty much been wide open in disbelief as I’ve watched people with whom I agree on virtually every single ideological issue… CHEER the idea of Republican success in killing a major piece of Democratic legislation — REGARDLESS OF HOW FUCKING SHITTY IT IS.

THAT’S why Dennis Kucinich is voting Yes, for chrissakes.

Wake the fuck up. Life is not a goddamned liberal Utopia, where if you don’t get your way you can stamp your feet and MAKE IT SO.

Jesus fucking Christ.

NO– do NOT talk to me ONE MORE TIME about how shitty this fucking bill is. I KNOW HOW SHITTY IT IS. I am not a goddamned motherfucking moron.

I am also not living in goddamned la-la land; I am living in an America where if Democrats LOSE, Republicans WIN — and when Republicans WIN, WE ALL FUCKING LOSE.