Are you part of the "better than nothing" crowd or the "all or nothing" crowd?

[jefferson_dem]

Sorry, folks. No middle ground or "don't know" option this time.

Must. Pick. A. Team.

[BlooInBloo]

1. On the internetz, everyone is all or nothing. In real life, not so much.

[Oregone]

5. explain

[depakid]

18. Sometimes of course, it's just the opposite

as in: "if we do it that way, it's professional negligence."

[Oregone]

2. I thought single-payer is a better solution than band-aids with no empiracal evidence to stand on

But since single-payer isn't socializing medicine (just insurance) and taking all profit out, then it is clearly a "better than nothing" approach.

It is "better than nothing", yet not grossly less than appropriate like band-aiding a failing private system.

[ruggerson]

3. I'm part of the "Keep your word" crowd

:)

[emilyg]

14. All. Now.

Don't placate me with crumbs.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

16. "I'm part of the "Keep your word" crowd"... I'm with you. ..n/t

[Duer 157099]

4. So then, you're with the all or nothing crowd I'm guessing?

"Either you're with us, or against us."

[jefferson_dem]

12. Me. Personally?

I'm a realist...a pragmatist... I know how progress is actually realized.

[Duer 157099]

15. It was sort of a joke, about your poll

and how there was no "other" etc.

[Buzz Clik]

6. Other: less than zero.

[jefferson_dem]

11. Hell ya! Classic Elvis!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msAIYGBzcks

[cloudbase]

7. Half a loaf

well, you know the rest.

Political reality is that you take what you can get. I'm reasonably, though not fully, satisfied if the trend is moving in the right direction.

[xchrom]

8. i'm with the 'pearls go with everything' crowd. nt

[XemaSab]

9. I posted a similar poll

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5942806&mesg_id=5942806

[Uzybone]

10. It should be progress crowd vs. instant gratification or hell crowd

no major change has ever happened without incremental progress in US history. Ever.

[rwheeler31]

13. We all know these things take time, keep pushing.

[Touchdown]

17. Fence sitters get barbed wire in their asses

n/t

[LooseWilly]

19. Those satisfied with "better than nothing"...

don't seem likely to ever get what they are after... and soon enough won't even remember what they were after (maybe a good thing?)...

[BzaDem]

20. The all-or-nothing crowd actually never gets what it is after.

This is partly because they are a sufficiently small minority to prevent enough similar all-or-nothing representatives to be elected to Congress (see Kucinich not being able to derail the climate bill). But it is also partly because of their nature. If they all of a sudden got what they want, it would be too hard to transition out of perpetual criticism mode and they would change what they wanted to be always ahead of what is actually in the realm of possibility.

[jefferson_dem]

21. The fact that Kucinich wanted to derail the climate bill (in the first place) is...

reason enough to question the method of "all or nothings".

[ecstatic]

32. Better than nothing-ers realize that change might be incremental

so we don't shit on advances, no matter how small. Imagine if people had done that during the civil rights movement? Said "no we'll pass" to the small changes that solved very little and then on top of that voted the other party into office? Would that have made sense?

[backscatter712]

22. Sucky legislation does become a stepping stone to better legislation later on.

So yeah, put me in the "better than nothing" crowd.

Take, for example, the Civil Rights Act of 1957. It was a crock of shit that was impossible to enforce, but it did act as a stepping stone to the Civil Rights Act of 1960, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which finally had enough teeth to actually protect voting rights.

[cliffordu]

23. I belong to the 'don't mean nothin' crowd

[LWolf]

24. Neither,

since neither label is accurate.

"Better than nothing" is a label used to pretend that a sop thrown to pacify the masses, that accomplishes no authentic, constructive change, is "better than nothing," when, in reality, it is WORSE than nothing, since the appearance of "something" legitimizes continuing to march in the wrong direction.

"All or nothing" is a label used to pretend that anyone holding out for actual, authentic, constructive change can't, or won't, recognize steps in the correct direction. As opposed, of course, to the march to the right that we are so sick of. An exaggeration that ignores the fact that "all" would encompass a hell of a lot more than single-payer health care or ending our military involvement in the middle east.

It's not a middle ground. It's not a "don't know." I do know exactly where I stand.

There are the partisans, there are the corporatists, the conservatives, the religious bullies, the "centrists," and the left.

I stand with the leftists.

[omega minimo]

25. I'm with the "Too Little Too Late Welcome To Corporate Government" crowd

[rucky]

26. "Better than nothing" will go on, without anybody actively supporting it. n/t

[Seldona]

27. All or nothing?

You mean vote repuke? Stay home, thereby helping said repukes?

No thanks. Just say it to yourself, "President Pallin."

*shiver

[PurityOfEssence]

28. How about "better than this"?

The glass is half-baked.

[Zavulon]

29. I'm part of the "way too early to have your panties in a wad" crowd.

I'll see what comes from his presidency AS IT COMES, instead of BEFORE IT COMES, and then evaluate it instead of whining that all my wishes haven't been taken care of in all of a half a year of his first term.

To answer the question as it was put, I'm in the "better than nothing" crowd because "all or nothing" is unrealistic and will likely cost us not only victories and progress on Capitol Hill, but quite possibly cost us dearly in the midterms and maybe even in 2012.

[ZombieHorde]

30. I like it when pretty girls crawl out of their own scar. What team is that?

[Armstead]

31. I'm with the "Something meaningful -- Willing to compromise, but not sell out"

Sorry that doesn't into your template, but there is a large middle ground between craven surrender and "scorched earth."

When it comes to health care specifically, I live in Massachusetts -- Here the "better than nothing" crap gave us something that was worse than before.

[bigwillq]

33. With a DEM pres and a DEM Congress

All or Nothing. Shouldn't settle for anything less.