The GOP got the score it wanted from the CBO. Not the 24 million people without health insurance by 2026, but the $337 billion reduction in the federal deficit over ten years. Now the Freedom Caucus, who has been calling the House plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, "Obamacare-lite," can more easily support the bill.
I don't have a clear sense if the Republicans can whip this out of the House. If they are able to, it will be an enormous defeat for the post-election Democratic reboot and campaigns like #ResistanceRecess.
What appears to be happening is that there is a lot of legitimate grassroots organizing going on, but it is having difficulty projecting its power because it is either aligned with or butting up against the established institution of the Democratic Party.
We'll have a front-row seat for this conflict in my city when a progressive coalition that goes by the name "Trump Proof Seattle" attempts to push a citywide wealth tax through the city council of 1.5% on every dollar over $250,000 of annual income. The coalition will soon realize that politicians, even at the district level of a smallish large city like Seattle, are captive to an elite donor class.
What then for the "Resistance"? A mass movement to anarchism? That would be nice. Greater though are the odds that activism will go the way of the anti-war movement of the last decade, receding into a cyber-Panglossian tending of one's own garden.
Anarchists are filling the potholes in Portland.
ReplyDeleteSomeone has to do it.
I noticed in the latest Glenn Greenwald piece -- https://theintercept.com/2017/03/13/rand-paul-is-right-nsa-routinely-monitors-americans-communications-without-warrants/ -- that Democrats prefer the CIA 32% to the Republican's 4%. What future is there for the erstwhile progressive branch of the duopoly if it finds favor with Murder, Inc.?
ReplyDeleteAt this point I think a mass retreat to "small is beautiful" localism -- call it anarchism; call it "Buddhist economics" -- is our only hope. "Anarchists are filling potholes in Portland" seems much meaningful to me than autonomous vehicles or terminal high altitude area defense systems. Thanks for your comments, Bob.