Jon Chait:

The purpose of winning elections is to solve problems like health care. There’s something strange about advice that presumes it’s appropriate to value the preservation of popularity above all else.

I’ll be the first to point to institutional difficulties as the source of a lot our political parties, and that’s often at the cost of minimizing norms and ideas. But they are important too! Norms and ideas shape the environment in which our elected officials operate, and since the Clinton years, the Beltway has been gripped by the belief that expansive, ambitious legislation is a bad thing. Barring a new war or two, pundits want nothing more than for presidents and Congress’ to pursue minor, insignificant legislation, as the small stuff doesn’t distract from the horserace.

Whether they realize it or not, reformers are fighting a battle of ideas. For the better part of twenty years, Washington has all but given up on ambitious legislation, and as such, Americans have given up on Washington. But health care reform could change that. In addition to helping a lot of people, health care reform has the potential to rejuvenate the idea — among elites — that ambitious, expansive legislation is possible, and that government can successfully pursue it. That is why it’s important for Democrats to pass this bill. A failed bid for health care would vindicate the Village and prove, conclusively, that our government exists solely to protect the privileged and promote the inconsequential.