Single Payee

The good news: Firedoglake is now pushing for single payer!

The bad news: people who have fought for single payer this past year, in the face of constant abuse and marginalization at the hands of the likes of Jane Hamsher, are getting kicked to the curb.

The ugly news: the only way to be considered a legitimate activist is to contribute to Jane Hamsher's fundraisers.

Read the linked comments thread, and you'll see what I mean. Well, you might not see it, if like most folks you're addicted to established tribal pecking orders of who's a saint and who's a sinner.

I mean, it's not like Jane and her sycophants and peers actively squandered this year's generational opportunity to reform health-care access. She didn't call single-payer advocacy "kabuki" or install a shill from HCAN't on her blog, did she? Not our Jane!

While she was busy achieving and enforcing unanimity for The Fuck You Act, Lambert "sewed disention and pissed everyone off."

A couple of typos in that, sure. But hypocrisy is hard, especially at this scale, so cut her a little slack, will you?

C'mon, could you keep a straight face when — after arrogantly insisting all year that a blatantly vaporous plan like "public option" was the only thing anyone should support — calling the people who (oops!) advocated for the right policy in the face of your own hyper-organized opposition pigheaded? That shit ain't easy.

Besides, she's so noble and modest that she didn't even take credit for this signal achievement on the way to the current bill:

The problems in the current health care debate became apparent early on, when single payer advocates were excluded from participation.

Gawd, it really sticks in the craw that people like Lambert "sewed disention" against that dynamic, and it totally makes sense that after being obnoxiously correct while she was inspiringly wrong, he should be banned from FDL just as it rightly claims the authority (and overhead fees) for what's left of this historically historic health-care reform wave.

If there's one thing we hate in the progressive blogosphere, it's people who stand up to wayward power in the name of good policy, so I hope you're ashamed, Mr. Strether, I hope you're very ashamed.

Well, there's one other thing we hate in the progressive blogosphere: ordinary citizens thinking their voices, values, and ideas matter.

You can’t take a day player and start demanding a movie star’s salary, because nobody will take you seriously.

Thankfully, we have leading lights with real star power in this bold, new age of netroots progressivism, and they're big enough to piss on the little people not just when the policies they advocate are being ignored, but when they're being belatedly embraced, as well.

UPDATE:

I have to give a standing ovation for Jane's invoking of the construction "This particular element in our community...." Is there a Godwin's Law codicil about comparisons to McCarthyism? Just in case, I'll leave it to the reader to consider the healthiness of an elite culture that frames out-classes in such terms.