Post “Hope and Change” you see a real asymmetry between the parties in that Democrats lack a credible account of how they are going to deliver on their supporters’ aspirations.

Republicans have different, more achievable goals.
Trump’s presence in the White House guarantees that banks and polluters and telecom companies and everyone else get friendly regulatory treatment.

And for the rest, Trump punches back against progressive cultural forces in media and higher education.

Low bars, cleared.
But Democrats promise sweeping policy transformation. The most moderate choice in the field says he’ll overhaul labor labor, solve climate change, deliver universal health care. *and* expand the housing and child care safety nets.

Oh and also end structural racism.

How?
Obama doesn’t talk about Change You Can Believe In anymore just a twilight struggle to preserve the basic trappings of political democracy.

Biden gestures vaguely at a dealmaking concept nobody believes in. Bernie gestures vaguely at an organizing concept nobody believes in.
Dems held 59 senate seats in 2009-2010 and had to leave huge swathes of their wish list unachieved.

Since then the list has gotten much more ambitious but the road to 60 votes has slipped away completely. And there’s no stated plan for accomplishing anything.
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