When is a cave not a cave?

 Excerpted from another post.

Throughout everything else, politics have also occupied my mind. As my fellow progressives express their anger, their hurt, and their frustration about the eight Senate Democrats who voted with Republicans to end the government shutdown, I find myself increasingly convinced that the Democrats had no real option other than grabbing this least bad among bad, bad choices. Yes, our cause was resoundingly triumphant in last week's elections. And yeah, we have momentum and a growing sense of public support with us. But you know what we don't have?

The numbers. 

In spite of polling and prospects for the future, right now--RIGHT NOW--we are outnumbered in both chambers of Congress. No matter how firm our resolve, our mere resolve will not win the day, and it will not move Republicans to save health care subsidies. It won't. It is pure fantasy to suggest otherwise. And digging in our heels, as noble as it may seem in theory, will not save the Affordable Care Act; it will hasten its demise as provisions expire during a stalemate.

There is no good choice here. The good choice to be made was a year ago, and it would have resulted in Kamala Harris taking the oath of office as our 47th president this past January. The ACA is important, vital, and its survival is literally a life and death issue. I don't care as much about its flaws as I care about keeping it and improving it; its opponents just want to scrap it, replace it with [insert concept of a plan here], and they don't care if people die as part of the scrapping.

The poison pill within the GOP's malevolent indifference is that they won't negotiate--at all--at this time. Which means that if Democrats in the Senate don't agree to end the shutdown, Federal workers will remain unpaid, SNAP beneficiaries will remain unfed, the stability of the system will continue to fracture...and the ACA subsidies will still expire and vanish. That's the worst of the bad, bad choices. The bad guys have the numbers. We can't outvote them on this.

But maybe we can outmaneuver them. The Senate Dems--eight of them--say okay, reopen the government. Pay the workers. Feed the families. Make the trains run on time. And send it to the House. Oh, and while you're at it, swear in that newly-elected Democratic representative you've been stonewalling. One more number. The fight ain't over.

It's a long...no, it's too serious and dangerous to call this a game. But it's a long campaign for a greater good. And the least bad choice among bad, bad choices is, by definition, better than the alternative. It sucks. It's terrible. And it's the best our numbers can do.

For now.

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