Quo Vadis, Democrats?

[Iormlund]

None of that stuff meaningfully improved the life of Americans.

Healthcare overhaul, education reform, worker rights (say maternity leave), bringing some sanity to electoral and judicial systems.

That's the sort of legislation I'm talking about.

Healthcare overhaul was attempted by Obama, and the courts, after Trump nominated his cronies, rescinded most of the act.

Education is primarily a State responsibility.  They don't intervene directly in the way you suggest:
https://www.ed.gov/about/ed-overview/federal-role-in-education

Workers rights is shared between States and Federal. 
https://uniontrack.com/blog/federal-and-state-labor-laws
It's unclear up to where can the Federal govt legally go without the Supreme court backing.  But Kamala Harris did promise to raise the minimum wage to 15$.  There's only so much things you can do in 2 years of a congressional session.

Excuses.

It took fundies almost 50 years to overthrow RvW. It seemed impossible, but they did it.

What have the Democrats done that is comparable in investment, planning and impact in the past 30 years?

[viper37]

None of that stuff meaningfully improved the life of Americans.

Healthcare overhaul, education reform, worker rights (say maternity leave), bringing some sanity to electoral and judicial systems.

That's the sort of legislation I'm talking about.

Healthcare overhaul was attempted by Obama, and the courts, after Trump nominated his cronies, rescinded most of the act.

Education is primarily a State responsibility.  They don't intervene directly in the way you suggest:
https://www.ed.gov/about/ed-overview/federal-role-in-education

Workers rights is shared between States and Federal. 
https://uniontrack.com/blog/federal-and-state-labor-laws
It's unclear up to where can the Federal govt legally go without the Supreme court backing.  But Kamala Harris did promise to raise the minimum wage to 15$.  There's only so much things you can do in 2 years of a congressional session.

Excuses.

It took fundies almost 50 years to overthrow RvW. It seemed impossible, but they did it.

What have the Democrats done that is comparable in investment, planning and impact in the past 30 years?

The Affordable Care Act was a lifetime achievement. From this, the US could have evolved toward universal health care.

Undone by stupid voters who considered Clinton worst than Trump, mostly.  Helped by Russian propaganda and complacent social networks, but mostly stupid voters from the left who decided to snub their candidate.  And the re-did it with Harris leading to the current situation.

The left expect perfection.  If it's not perfect, they're angry and they reject their candidate, either not voting or voting for worst.

The right is often very patient and willing to compromise.  Best example is probably Trump.  Don't tell me the Christian Right voted for him because he's God's chosen.  He got them the Judges to repeal Roe v. Wade.  He wasn't perfect but he could get them there.  He was morally and financially corrupt, he would destroy the US, but he would bring forward their Christian conservative agenda with the Justice they wanted.

When did the leftwing voters acted this way?  Never, they just keep whining that their candidat is flawed.

[The Minsky Moment]

Roe was under siege from the day it was handed down until the day it was struck down.  There were a number of close calls but some conservative justice would always switch at the last minute.  With Trump, the fundies finally found someone willing to put in enough true believers who wouldn't flinch.

[Neil]

Roe was under siege from the day it was handed down until the day it was struck down.  There were a number of close calls but some conservative justice would always switch at the last minute.  With Trump, the fundies finally found someone willing to put in enough true believers who wouldn't flinch.

There were a number of decisions from that time that were heavily opposed.  Obviously Roe, Bakke has been under fire forever, and probably most profoundly Swann. 

[Valmy]

It took fundies almost 50 years to overthrow RvW. It seemed impossible, but they did it.

What have the Democrats done that is comparable in investment, planning and impact in the past 30 years?

I guess. They came close but failed time after time after time.

And due to cruel fate, or maybe God's will, virtually all Supreme Court Justices since 1968 have been appointed by Republican Presidents. Jimmy Carter appointed zero. Clinton appointed two. Obama appointed two. Biden appointed one.

Five. Five in 57 years. That is some pretty remarkably shitty luck.

Whereas Nixon appointed 4, Ford appointed 1, Reagan appointed 4, HW Bush appointed 2, W Bush appointed 2, and Trump got 3.

So 16-5. Just on pure luck. The Republicans had it handed to them.

So unless the Democrats should have sent out specially trained Supreme Court justice assassins I am not sure what they could have done about that. It was a damn miracle Roe held on as long as it did.

What the Democrats should have done was what they ended up doing on Gay marriage and codify Roe into law. But oh well.