The fundamental progressive failure

In the wake of the agreement that prevented the federal government, the Obama Administration has planned an address this week to lay out fundamental entitlement reform.  Progressives have been loudly disappointed by the deal that prevented the shutdown, particularly the appearance of President Obama cheering the historic cuts the deal involved.  Thus there is little enthusiasm for Obama's speech among core progressives, even if he calls for the "grand bargain" which would raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans to shore up Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.  (Whether that "bargain" is necessary is a whole other   subject).

But no matter what the immediate causes and reactions to these events are,  they represent a fundamental failure of progressives.  The most important economic issue being debated is not jobs, or income inequality,   or even basic societal fairness, but rather the federal deficit.  The most urgent issue for the future is not climate change, whose effects are approaching the point at which they will be irreversible, but the federal debt, which is reversible by a growing economy and some policy adjustments.

Essentially, the progressive view of the world which prioritizes a growing economy, greater economic opportunity for more people, and a future where we aren't faced by catastrophic climate effects, has been trumped by a worry about government debt.  And what is the real worry about the government debt?  That we won't we will have to have radical cuts in the social safety net because of that debt.  And what's the solution to that problem?  Radical cuts in the social safety net.

Are there structural impediments to making our case?  Yes.  But right now, even progressives tend to buy the frame around which these arguments take place. And that's a failure of persuasion.

We figure out a way to get people who don't already agree with us to listen to and believe in our arguments.