Gotta get everything or else you get nothing

There are two campaigns in the running for the Democratic Presidential nomination presenting a  (kinda sorta) left-ish policy platform.  There are key differences of detail between those two policy platforms that deserve your attention but the more significant matter of distinction has to do with building power. If the next President is committed to turning campaign plans into lasting and impactful change, they're going to need some muscle to get it done.  And that comes from having been elected on the strength of an actual mandate. Fostering a continuing movement outside of the government is the only way to overcome the inertia on the inside.

Because if the next President has to walk into this mess with no one to have their back, then we're all in for a whole lot of nothing happening.

Most Democrats expect the governing agenda of the next Democratic president to be set by, well, whomever that next president might be. Ben Cardin, Democratic senator from Maryland, has other ideas.

“I think we’ll take up our own proposals,” Cardin told The Hill on Tuesday. Asked if he would vote for a “Medicare for All” package — a policy supported by the two most popular 2020 contenders in the Iowa caucuses ― the 76-year-old Cardin suggested the bill wouldn’t even be granted a vote.