Change That Will Get Watered Down

I was grousing to a younger person today about the difficulties getting the climate control bill approved, as well as the diminishing of the health care reform bill, and he reminded me that it's the same old story: powerful special interests block real change in the Congress.

It caught me off-guard - - hearing the truth from a guy almost 30 years my junior.

I suspect that some form of health care reform will get approved, and there will be some benefit to both uninsureds and everyone else, but not the dramatic shift we need towards a single-payer system.

Same with the climate change effort. There will be some environmental improvements, but not the substantial break from all that carbon-based pollution that is melting the polar ice.

I am happy for the first steps that seem to be coming, and I don't want a return to the bad old days of George W. Bush.

But I'm disappointed, because I believe things will get worse before they get better, meaning there will be damage and loss that could have been stemmed if more Democrats - - forget the Republicans and their woeful marginalization - - were willing to stand up and lead.

As Mr. Vonnegut observed: So it goes...