The current outrage among progressives about the tax deal negotiated by President Obama and Republicans reminds me of a philosophical debate we used to have when I was an anti-poverty community organizer in the late 1960s in southern West Virginia. Most organizers were idealistic middle-class college students or recent college graduates who were convinced they were on the side of the angels in trying to change a system that unfairly condemned the powerless to a daily struggle for economic survival while those with political and economic power wielded their power for personal gain at the expense of the powerless. We believed passionately that compromise equaled "selling out" and that it was better to fail while standing on principle than to take half a loaf.

But while we could and would trade our community organizing efforts for economically secure careers after a few years, those who were struggling to put food on their tables, a roof over their family's head, and clothes on their children's backs were less interested in changing the system than they were in making it to the next day. To them, as President Obama alluded to in his press conference, an abstract debate about principle was a luxury they couldn't afford. That's what progressives need to keep in mind over the next few days as this deal moves toward a vote in Congress.

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