Obama did it (kind of); he moved the party line to be policy oriented instead of stunts and cutthroat politics.
At the same time, he never gained a sufficient majority to enact his platform (in truth we’re lucky we got the affordable care act). Biden ran into similar issues with what was technically a majority but that had weak votes (e.g. Manchin).
Honestly the problem is the Senate; Democrats just can’t get past the threshold that would let them actually govern. So we get Democratic presidents that appear ineffective … when really we just have a Senate that’s broadly ineffective at doing anything that isn’t center right.
A Promised Land by Obama is an extremely good book if you want to understand the modern democratic party. Obama did a lot to get the spark back but also was in a very difficult position.
Obama did it (kind of); he moved the party line to be policy oriented instead of stunts and cutthroat politics.
At the same time, he never gained a sufficient majority to enact his platform (in truth we’re lucky we got the affordable care act). Biden ran into similar issues with what was technically a majority but that had weak votes (e.g. Manchin).
Honestly the problem is the Senate; Democrats just can’t get past the threshold that would let them actually govern. So we get Democratic presidents that appear ineffective … when really we just have a Senate that’s broadly ineffective at doing anything that isn’t center right.
A Promised Land by Obama is an extremely good book if you want to understand the modern democratic party. Obama did a lot to get the spark back but also was in a very difficult position.