Landmark accomplishments like Social Security, Medicare would NEVER be enacted today.

[Bake]

The Republicans of that former era, when these landmark achievements of American progress were passed, fought them tooth and nail. And those Republicans were MILD compared to today's breed of Rethuglican. Those programs would never make it out of committee today. The news media would brand them radical, too costly. Labor protections? Too costly for business. OSHA and MHSA? They would make us "uncompetitive." We'd be back in "The Jungle" of Upton Sinclair's day. The Teabag Rethugs would be foaming at the mouth over the very idea of prviding a social safety net, of ensuring basic workplace safety.

That's how far the Rethugs have been able to shift the so-called "center" by virtue of media consolidation and ownership by the likes of Murdoch and GE. That's how much of America we've lost.

So we need to remember that everything we give up in the name of "compromise" with the "serious-minded" Rethugs like Ryan--those are things we'll never get back.

And that's not the America I have known. Nor is it the America in which I wish to live.

Bake

[davidthegnome]

1. A sad K & R

[Bake]

2. Oh, I almost forgot -- the Civil Rights Act? Fuggedaboutit.

These are the great leaps forward that real progressives--real DEMOCRATS--not only fought for, but DIED FOR.

So, Mr. President, before you feel compelled to bargain them away like so many poker chips in the name of "bipartisanship," remember this: we'll never get them back. And your legacy, the way you'll be remembered for the rest of the history of this once-great nation, will be this: YOU WERE THE ONE WHO GAVE THEM AWAY.

Bake