The DEMOCRATS are Lucy continually yanking the football away [View all]

[HomerRamone]

"Democrats started endorsing a progressive economic platform just as soon as they lost Congress."

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/pat-garofalo/2015/01/15/are-dems-trolling-the-left-with-paid-sick-leave-transactions-tax-push

The problem, of course, is that Democrats recently got shellacked in an election, leaving them without control of either chamber in Congress. The odds that a Republican-controlled House or Senate takes a keen interest in paid sick leave or a tax that primarily effects Wall Street are, presumably, nil.

Now, a charitable reading of the situation is that the Democrats have acknowledged their shortcomings when it comes to economic policy and messaging. The travesty of the 2014 election was that, while electing Republicans almost across the board, voters endorsed economic policies, such as increasing the minimum wage, that are much more closely associated with the Democrats. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is ably showing that there's a hunger for economic populism, and that it can translate into a message that's broadly appealing...

A less charitable reading, though, is that the Democrats are seizing on the opportunity to be progressive at a moment when it's cheap and easy; being out of power (or in Obama's case, term-limited) they won't have to pay the price in campaign dollars or blowback that would come from pursuing these policies in an environment in which they could actually become law. After all, when Democrats controlled all of Congress and the presidency, it's not like they made a move on paid sick leave or a financial transactions tax or any of a host of other ideas that would have helped out the middle class. (Which isn't to diminish the very real accomplishments of that Congress.) Now they can stoke the fire and garner the goodwill of the left, without having to deal with the downside.