Reply #34: It depends on whether better legislation was actually impossible

[Hippo_Tron]

For example, if we don't get health care with a public option I will be angry because it certainly would've been possible if we would stand up to the health insurance industry and gotten a strong grassroots movement behind it.

On the other hand, an uncompromising bill on climate change isn't possible. America is the Saudi Arabia of coal and that's an unfortunate economic and political reality. It's not a simple matter of our legislators growing spines and standing up to the coal industry, it's a matter of the fact that too many peoples' livelihoods are intertwined with the coal industry.