I don’t write about health care. I don’t know what I think about the health care bill or the efforts to kill it, and it doesn’t matter what I think, because I don’t know what I’m talking about. I have close friends on all sides of the issue. But I care very deeply about liberalism and the progressive movement, so this is all I’m going to say here.

There’s a film reel I can see unspooling. Marta captured it in her response to Chris Matthews’ fuck-you to the netroots. And that’s the idea that the measure of the progressive movement’s maturity is the way it compromises its principles when in power. (Matthews: “I think that a lot of those people are troublemakers who love to sit in the backseat and complain.” Well, fuck you, because I remember when you used to fellate George Bush on the air.) There is great value in compromise. Compromise helps you achieve your goals, and in a lasting way, by letting the other side gain something and save face during your advance. But compromising your principles doesn’t allow you to achieve anything. Compromising your principles isn’t compromise. It’s capitulation. And the distinction too often gets lost in the easy retreat to meta-critique over which faction is ascendant or which faction is destructive and so forth.

So the debate needs to remain centered around first principles. Is the health care bill is compromise or is it a capitulation for the progressive movement? Like I say, I have no ability to adjudicate that dispute. And you don’t read me for such adjudication. Read Jane and Ezra for that stuff, precisely because they don’t agree. But always focus on the core question, not the meta-critique about this or that apostasy or authenticity. Answering the core question typically allows the rest to fall into place. The only meta-critique that matters is whether some side in this debate is actually getting paid by beneficiaries of the bill, and there Jane delivers the killing stroke.

We will now return to your regularly-scheduled bile, agitation, enthusiasm and security coverage.