Of Donkeys and Elephants

I've got a new piece at The Guardian's CifA that expands on the theme of alienated progressives re: healthcare:

Worse even, perhaps, than the loss of progressives' trust is, in fact, the endemic loss of coherent and cohesive progressive advocacy, thrown in utter disarray by constantly moving targets and mixed messaging. The public option is "not the essential element" of healthcare reform; the administration considers the public option an important healthcare reform; healthcare reform can't pass in the Senate with the public option; healthcare reform can't pass in the House without the public option. The public option is on the table, the public option is off the table, the public option is in a room with a table, the public option is in the broom closet.

While the administration dances around a firm commitment to the public option, and the Democratic congressional caucus dithers, progressives who regard it as the biggest (or only) selling point of the proposed reform are left standing blindfolded, trying to pin the tail on a dancing donkey.

And while trying to pin a tail on a dancing donkey is a pain in the ass, ahem, trying to move an obdurate elephant from its fixed position is a virtual impossibility.

...The hopey-changy rhetoric of bringing new politics to Washington that may have looked like optimism and confidence at one time now looks a lot more like the naiveté and arrogance that cynical progressives always feared it was.

The whole thing is here.