A post at Daily Kos notes that there’s a push to enact federal legislation to extend the protections of existing federal civil rights laws to gays and lesbians. Ah, but there’s a rub:
That’s the good news. The bad news is that some Washington LGBT groups are already dashing their own hope, saying the landmark legislation “could take a decade or longer” to pass. Wow. Not the 114th Congress, not the 115th Congress, not the 116th Congress, not the 117th Congress. Maybe, just maybe, in the final stretches of the 118th Congress. Or maybe not. Maybe longer.
Are you kidding? This is the exact problem with most Washington-based groups. They’re nearly incapable of articulating a grand vision and then letting people be inspired by it, believe in it, and get behind it.
via Daily Kos
These groups may be correct, but there is no reason in the world for them to admit it. Unfortunately, it’s what we on the left do. Republicans, on the other hand, make loud and insistent demands for things that are equally unlikely to happen, at least in the short term. But the demands themselves make ultimate success more likely. Our tendency to demand what we think a compromise should look like (exemplified by the approach of our current president) simply makes us look weak, and the half successes we have (the stimulus and the health care law being two great examples) are barely recognized.
I can’t help but think that we’d still be in Vietnam if this had been our cry:
What do we want?
Peace!
When do we want it?
One of these days, assuming we can work out a deal that is satisfactory to the folks who want us to keep fighting!
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