Pulling hard on the left end of the rope makes the ones holding right end trip over themselves
by digby
I think it's great that Reid will be pushing for a restructuring [of the Unemployment Insurance system.] It's long overdue and Lord knows his Nevada constituents need it. But under current political restraints that is indeed going to be a heavy lift. Still, you have to start somewhere and these Dems finally recognizing that they only get right wing policies when they fail to participate in setting the terms of the debate is a long time coming.
But in order to properly offset GOP lunacy, we should probably have some Democrats in the states at least proposing a guaranteed minimum income or something. After all, that's a completely nutty idea last espoused by that hippie communist Richard Nixon.
Waddaya know? Myerson did that and more, framing it as a Millenial fight. And boy did it get a reaction.
It just goes to show that when the left pushes the Overton Window the wingnuts' heads explode. And that's a good thing. If the leaders of the Democratic Party could learn to keep their cool and behave with a little bit of confidence instead of wetting their pants any time some right wing kook stages a hissy fit over a perfectly normal proposal or mainstream comment, they might be able to use this for leverage. That is assuming, of course, that most of them aren't perfectly comfortable being led around by the nose by the Republicans and their common wealthy benefactors.
Still, the dynamic does seem to be changing a bit with different forces from both sides exerting some pressure on the status quo. And if there's one thing the Obama years seem to have proved to Democrats it's that being the "adult in the room" doesn't bring all the political benefits they thought it would. So maybe there's a little momentum building here. We live in hope.
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