Without getting all pundit-y, can I suggest that it wouldn’t hurt progressives to celebrate more? Others have done a better job than I can explaining what a big deal health-care reform is. I’ll just add: if you need a break from fretting about climate change, or ocean acidification, or agribusiness and school lunches, or the fate of clean-energy legislation in Congress … take a day off from all that and savor today’s victory.
President Obama today at the signing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act:
Our presence here today is remarkable and improbable. With all the punditry, all of the lobbying, all the game playing that passes for governing in Washington, it’s been easy at times to doubt our ability to do such a big thing, such a complicated thing, to wonder if there are limits to what we as a people can still achieve. It’s easy to succumb to the sense of cynicism about what’s possible in this country. But today we are affirming that essential truth, a truth every generation is called to rediscover for itself: that we are not a nation that scales back its aspirations, we are not a nation that falls prey to doubt or mistrust.
Enjoy today. Then we can get back to work.
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