One reason why it is difficult to perceive this bill as a “first step” is the recent history of the GOP. When Obama was in office, the GOP sent at least one “full repeal” bills to his desk for the obligatory veto while crowing about how that same course of action would be how they would do it once they also held the Presidency.
We now know that was a lie.
Similarly, Ryan pushed the idea that last fall’s continuing budget resolution was a stop-gap to bridge the election and installation of a new, much more conservative President. Now, we see the Dems laughing about how they rolled the GOP in the latest spending bill.
Simply put, the GOP has squandered any trust they may once have enjoyed because they promised the sky while digging a deeper hole to hide away from actually governing.
Politicians lie. All of them, IMO. But the GOP has taken to wholesale reneging on promises made in many people’s eyes. Instead of standing up and supporting the border wall/fence - which was a central promise of the Trump campaign - the GOP congress instead accepted and/or endorsed a spending bill with zero funds to start the process of building the wall that was authorized during the W administration (including supporting votes by Obama and Clinton).
To see this as a first step in a long journey, one must accept that the congressional GOP is planning to head in the same direction as we, the people, wish to go.
Is the GOP over the new force heralded by Donald Trump, or is the new force over the GOP?
I think progressives at least grasped that patience was a virtue, when you are gathering forces.