The one hundred percenters

Sometimes I just don't get it. Liberals have been trying to bring meaningful health care reform to this country for my entire lifetime - and longer. Now we are closer than ever before to achieving that, and yet a sizable minority of so-called committed liberals rail against it.

Every night on Keith Olbermann's Countdown, we hear his heated hyperbole about everything that is wrong with the Senate and House bills. THEY DON'T HAVE A STRONG ENOUGH PUBLIC OPTION!!! THEY DON'T COVER 100% OF ALL PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES!!! THEY ARE TOO KIND TO THE PRIVATE INSURANCE COMPANIES!!! THE DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS AND IN THE WHITE HOUSE HAVE SOLD US OUT!!! THE WORLD WILL END IN 2012!!!

Well, I made that last one up, but not really. Olbermann and his hyperventilating kind seem to believe that if we don't get 100% of everything that liberals wanted in this bill that there is just no hope for the Democrats in elections in 2010 and in 2012.

The truth is that life is a compromise and one hardly ever gets 100% of what one wants, but if one gets 50% or even 30% and that is the best that can be had in the present climate, isn't that a deal worth taking? Then we can work to change the climate so that perhaps next time we can get closer to that 100%. The pragmatists and realists believe so and I count myself among them. Half a loaf, particularly a half that extends Medicare to a significant portion of additional Americans, is definitely better than no loaf at all.

(Read more at Daily Kos.)

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