Begala talks me down

After seeing the cynical, angry, and downright nasty antics of the right-wing lemmings at various town hall meetings, I was really discouraged.  But then I read a couple of good columns today that made me get my chin up again. 

One, by the venerable David Broder, has as its theme the idea that these wingnut antics are pissing off a whole lot of people, but that fact never gets reported on by MSM.  Here is his article.

The second column is by Paul Begala, and it is quite brilliant.  Here is a part that I particularly like:

Progressive politics is, in my view, a movement, not a monument. We cannot achieve perfection in this life, and if that is our goal we will always be frustrated. The right has far more modest goals: At every turn, its members seek to advance their power and protect privilege. I've never seen the Republican right oppose a tax cut for the rich because it wasn't generous enough; I've never seen them oppose a set of loopholes for corporate lobbyists because one industry or another wasn't included. The left, on the other hand, too often prefers a glorious defeat to an incremental victory.

Begala also mans up and wears the hair shirt over his role in the 1993/1994 Clinton health insurance reform debacle.

I’m still hoping like hell that we can get a health care bill that contains a “public option” but if the Repulicant’s and the Blue Dogs kill it, let’s get every other damn thing we can, such as no “pre-existing condition” disqualifications, no dropping people when they get sick, an insurance exchange even without a public option (similar to what Massachusetts has), and so on. 

<sigh>