I'm less worried about progressives not compromising as I am them putting the wrong kind of line in the sand that doesn't make good policy sense. Compromise on abortion such as the Hyde Amendment has only encouraged the Republicans to keep moving the goalposts.

But I didn't find arguing over $12 vs $15 minimum wage terribly useful when a) it was down at $7.50 and the chance of either was slim, and b) few had a good idea of actual negative effects, despite having a good gut feeling that raising it significantly would be a good thing for those mired in stagnant low wages.

Obama's signalling he was willing to compromise on everything - dying to find a Republican to give Obamacare street cred, for example, or agreeing to hand out big bonuses to brokers for banks getting bailed out while everyone else sucks hind tit - is 1 reason we're in this position. Even when they stole his Supreme Court pick, he didn't tell them "fuck you", and get even in some obvious way - he just calmly took it. Aaarggh!!!! Of course they stole more after that.

You don't like Avenatti, I get it, but like on hockey teams here and there we need a "defender" or "enforcer" or however it's called, someone who'll punch someone out & or make a dirty hit & take the penalty so the rest of the team can play normal hockey - otherwise the other side will butcher you, will just perceive you as weak and ripe for the picking. And we also need the AOC's who come in and say, "rules? who made this dilapidated shit up?" - not just to derail everything for no reason, but to clean out the drain every once in a while and get intelligent things moving.

I was fine with Clinton reforming welfare (with controls and reviews et al) - the Great Society approach had some pitfalls, sacred cow as it was. Doing that, dealing with crime, refinding a foreign policy that included security and military options allowed us to grow up, to compete. So the Republicans abandoned policy and went for emotional/religious touchpoints instead - lots of gotchas to exploit instead of actual serious plans, with a major propaganda arm to feed the frenzy. We don't know how to compete yet, and I'm pretty sure Steny Hoyer isn't going to be the one to figure it out.

Even the EU has to come down from its lofty perch and realize that its nice-guy approach to social democracy is weak in the very area of allowing populist barbarians to come in and steamroll people who play by the rules. It's not just a gentleman/woman's club - it's politics, where we earn the genteel approach, we're not guaranteed it.