What does it mean to be a "democrat"?

[Opoponax]

But that is the way it works. Hillary's stance on same-sex marriage progressed. That's not a rightward drift; it's the exact opposite. 

It didn't, it was negotiated, and if you're willing to call the set progressive on the balance of one line item...well, maybe that's what went wrong with the dem party and "progressives"?

And there is the reality of political expediency. Same-sex marriage wasn't going to happen until most of the population was ready for it. Pushing it in 1992 would have been political suicide.

Why do anything if it's hard, amiright?   Sounds like a hell of a progressive message.  

Here's a good example. In 2004, the mayor of San Francisco announced that same-sex marriage was legal in that city. Up until that time, George W. Bush was on a steady decline in the polls against Kerrey. Many Republicans didn't like him and weren't going to bother to vote. But when that news hit, it galvanized conservatives to get to the ballot box because whether they liked W. or not, they wasn't gonna have no faggits gettin' married while they had some say so. It also simultaneously caused a backlash against same-sex marriage that lasted for years. Now, that wasn't the only thing that got W re-elected that year, but it played an important role. 

That's because the public wasn't ready for it. But as time went on the public warmed to it until the point that it was ready.

"Progress now" is a slogan, which most often doesn't reflect what can be accomplished in the moment.

Especially if the "progressives" tuck tail and run at every politically expedient moment.......and can only manage a modicum of "progress" -when- it's politically expedient.  Would you be willing to apply the same rationale to obamacare, what with the trumpster riding that one all the way to the bank?  Was it too much, too soon?  Political suicide?  

It's the Democrats who had the first black President, and [leaving out a lot of my own bullshit] almost got the first woman elected President. Did it take way too long? Absolutely. But this kind of stuff is not going to come from the GOP---that's certain. And that's the reality of the political situation in the U.S. The Greens aren't going to do shit and as Libertarians become more vocal we realize what a nightmare they would be. 

I think I see the problem.  A black president is "progress", even if he turns out to be a center right drone warlord.  Gay marriage is "progress", never mind that its opiate for all the other shit that was done in the same time by the same people.

Despite this most recent election, a majority of Americans are center to just left of center. So if more far left-leaning progressives show up and vote for more progressive Democrats, then we will see more progress. But it isn't going to happen overnight and it's not going to happen with any other party.

Looks like it's not going to happen with this party either, the conservatives just routed the every inch of the executive and legislative, and are set to capture the judiciary.  "Progress never."

The cretins aren't -always- wrong about liberals.  Too spineless for my vote.  Yall wanna win -something- next go round...right?  Grow a pair and you can count me in.  If being a liberal, or a dem, or a progressive has to do with little more than picking low hanging fruit.....meh.

That's all well and good, but it gets nothing done. It's easy to fire away with rhetoric about high ideals, but doing the actual work to make a thing happen takes timing, compromise, and more work. 

The question is not whether you can get everything. The question is whether you can get something. And that something isn't going to be gotten just by insisting upon it. It's not spineless to compromise. It's not cowardly to understand that the given political climate will only allow so much room to maneuver. When one doesn't understand that, it can be disastrous for the very thing they're hoping to accomplish.

Obamacare is a good example of what I'm talking about. I hope that having the ACA will give enough Americans a taste of what's possible with healthcare. It was highly imperfect and far from the universal system I want. But it was a step in that direction that we'd never taken before. And millions of people who didn't have healthcare before the ACA now have it. That's good. It's not where I'd like us to be, but it's still better than what we had before. And if the GOP doesn't completely ruin it, then it has a chance to begin moving forward at some point in the future. 

Sorry for my verbosity.