a position of power where she and the other members of the executive branch could take action as well as “striking a tough tone”.

Ah, here's where you're mistaken. The Vice President is not a position of power. They can try to influence the president, like any other cabinet member, but that's it. They're effectively ceremonial.

Republicans in Congress gave a standing ovation. Important distinction.

I think a lot of Democrats were actually unaware of how bad Biden was, even within the party apparatus. It sounded like his close advisors were seriously sheltering him.

Just goes to show that you need advisors and friends who aren't just going to blindly support and defend you, but will also call you out on your shit

It's a prospect that should make any American on the left happy to vote for her.

It doesn’t matter what happened after.

It absolutely does. The administration fought to get the workers what they wanted. That's more effective than a strike.

Unions have not been set back decades either. In fact, they're more powerful than they've ever been. UAW brought auto manufacturers to their knees. SAG joined forces with writers to get their due from Hollywood and secure worker protections against AI.

This is what a pro union administration emboldens. Let's not pretend that the rail strike was a simple black and white issue. It could've caused delays that would make water undrinkable in cities, prevent electricity or heating in winter, and delay crucial medication shipments.

And look how far that went. How Bernie was still unable to turn out massive numbers of young people.

It's absolutely incorrect to say that voters are blameless. Bernie had a platform that was the dream for young people, and they didn't show up -- and I say that as someone who was 24 at the time and did vote for him in the primary.

And then Democrats convinced Biden to not run for a second term. Sounds like the party did in fact listen to the voters' will, and that's being reflected in the excitement that we're seeing across the board.

And you know what? I wish Republicans made backroom deals. I wish they recognized Trump was a significant threat and aligned to go against him.

Women just can't win huh. If they police their emotions and try to be neutral, they come across as bitchy and unlikeable like Clinton.

If they're genuine and open about how they feel, they're giddy and acting like they're drunk.

"I.. I guess that... I'll just mark it down as a win and move on"

...or they were linking you the two effective platforms of the parties for comparison's sake.

I really detest him. As an Indian guy I hate seeing conservatives extol him as a genius, when he's actually just a billionaire grifter pandering to conservatives.

..... Every day, I find out some new idiocy about this man

Vivek? Smart? Lmaooooooooo

I mean, we have statistics that say this is a racially biased problem. By default the conversation needs to involve race.

So hang on, you've correctly identified there's a lot of racism in the US, but your solution... Is that we shouldn't bring up race in racially biased situations? We shouldn't call out racism?

???

The American public has swung back towards more moderate policing. Progressive approaches were rebuked in the Pacific North West. It's absolutely a strength right now

That's irrelevant to your original point.

And there's actually only one person to blame -- Lieberman's vote was required to pass the legislation, and he refused to vote for it unless single payer was removed.

The speaker of the house is a Republican you nitwit

when you factor in funding logistics

This is an incredibly important point. Unless rich donors said they'd fully make up the current campaign war chest for the new candidate, there would be a significant funding issue. Being able to use the existing funds is extremely important.

why we have had almost zero meaningful legislation to help the normal people for 40 years.

The Affordable Care Act is why I was able to take a year off work to focus on my mental health after the pandemic crushed it. The Inflation Reduction Act is helping keep the renewable energy company I work for afloat and offering an optimistic future.

No one expects to end up on government assistance or using FMLA to take a few months off for an illness. We support it on the left because we know it's the fucking right thing to do.

It's all good and fine to criticize programs as useless theoretically when you don't rely on them. But when you've actually experienced them and needed them, your perspective changes heavily.

Democrats have gotten good shit done for the average person, and I've personally benefited from it when I really needed it.