11-12-2016, 11:29 AM
(This post was last modified: 11-12-2016, 11:31 AM by Anthony '58.)
Face it. On health care, and many other issues, federal government action has become impossible, and will remain impossible for literally decades.
So now it's time to talk about concentric lines of defense - the first line, obviously, being the state governments; but here the prospects are almost as dismal as on the federal level, in that Democrats hold both the governorship and both houses of the legislature in only six states (although if anyone other than Martha Coakley runs against Charlie Baker for governor of Massachusetts in 2018, that state is absolutely certain to become number seven).
The next line of defense is the counties and municipalities. But their scope is rather limited to say the least.
Finally, there are private and religious philanthropies - and here, progressives do have one weapon: To play the "hypocrisy card" - at both the left (George Soros, Tom Steyer, etc.) and the right (the churches in general, and the evangelical churches in particular; the Catholic Church can pretty much be trusted to do the right thing).
Like it or not, this is the new reality - and will very likely remain the reality until at least the next Awakening.
"It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness" has never been truer.
So now it's time to talk about concentric lines of defense - the first line, obviously, being the state governments; but here the prospects are almost as dismal as on the federal level, in that Democrats hold both the governorship and both houses of the legislature in only six states (although if anyone other than Martha Coakley runs against Charlie Baker for governor of Massachusetts in 2018, that state is absolutely certain to become number seven).
The next line of defense is the counties and municipalities. But their scope is rather limited to say the least.
Finally, there are private and religious philanthropies - and here, progressives do have one weapon: To play the "hypocrisy card" - at both the left (George Soros, Tom Steyer, etc.) and the right (the churches in general, and the evangelical churches in particular; the Catholic Church can pretty much be trusted to do the right thing).
Like it or not, this is the new reality - and will very likely remain the reality until at least the next Awakening.
"It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness" has never been truer.
"These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation" - Justice David Brewer, Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 1892