Part One (posted December 17):
Part Two (posted December 18):
Part Three (posted December 20):
Daniel J. Weiss is making a very disingenuous argument in his “we should only go for what’s possible” approach. He keeps falling back on the “perfect is the enemy of the good” line, as though anyone seriously expects or asks for perfection. He also ignores that when Medicare, Social Security, the Civil Rights Act, and the Clean Air Act were passed, the political environment was very different – Republicans could be rolled far more easily than they can be today. What’s more, by starting with the accommodation first and working down from there, substantive policies are not being passed. Weiss doesn’t even acknowledge the obvious tactical reality at work: obviously demanding everything from the start is not going to get us everything, but it can lead us to some actual compromise that everyone can live with. Daphne Wysham, who is advocating for stronger policies and takes the opposite argument, could have done a bit more to press the counterarguments I just mentioned, but overall it was a spirited and informative discussion. It’s certainly nothing like what you’d see on any of the cable news programs.