Wishful thinking

Ezra Klein, wonk explainer extraordinaire, dug through the innards of Elizabeth Warren's latest attempt to turn our aspirations for Medicare for All into an economically viable plan. As far as I can judge, his is a fair effort. But that's too deep for me. I was struck by a throwaway line in the midst of it:

The compromises you make to calm backlash are also compromises that disillusion your own supporters. ...

So true.

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) defended Medicare for All plans (she has one too) with similar logic:

“It’s just really clear that this is not a question of: Can we do it viably?” Jayapal said. “It’s a question of: Do we have the political will to take on the entrenched interests?”

This time around, more and more politicians do aim to summon that will -- perhaps largely because they are living in the shadow of the last Democratic president.

Barack Obama just wouldn't go there. The symbolism of electing a Black man with a funny name in 2008 thrilled many of us to our cores. You can re-experience a smidgen of the extraordinary experiment in engaged citizenship that Obama's first campaign was by listening to his manager's current podcast about winning Iowa. But before he was even inaugurated, Obama began to backtrack on the social movement-like coalition that he'd assembled, including a homophobic preacher in the Washington ceremony. Perhaps the awesome responsibility of overcoming economic disaster overwhelmed him, but soon he trimmed his own sails and the promise eroded into half measures. This may have been all he could get -- but all he could get demobilized his own constituency and left him ensnared in a bailout for the greedy wreckers of the economy and a health plan that could be diminished by right wing sniping, a crummy web interface, and a hostile Supreme Court.

Obama's failures as a social movement leader set the stage for all of the current Democrats to have to move left/populist to re-engage the diverse constituencies that make up the modern party. They have no choice because the last guy didn't deliver and only a fully engaged populace can overcome the demons Donald Trump has empowered. It seems strange sometimes, but a campaign that ignores Trump and goes toward what people hope for, rather than what we all fear, seems the way to get what must be done, done.

It's going to be a long year. May we emerge with a candidate who doesn't make it all harder ...