[brenden2]

What people say in debates is irrelevant. The only thing that matters are their actions. People keep falling into the trap of listening to the speeches, but ignoring the actual policies, policy implementation details, and the whole bureaucratic side of things. People are hyper focused on the TV version of reality, and completely ignore the day to day humdrum action.

I think part of the problem today is the TV-ification of politics. For example, Trump is obsessed with "ratings" and Twitter likes, rather than actually doing anything meaningful. What's incredibly bizarre is how many other politicians have started copying him by focusing on grandstanding, Twitter likes, and getting more news airtime, rather than actually getting work done.

[standardUser]

Democrats have had minimal power at the federal level since 2014, which is around when the party started seriously drifting leftward. Look at the state and local level. Cities have gotten rid of bail, states legalize marijuana, protections for trans people, hugely increased minimum wages, widespread criminal justice reform, tons of environmental laws, etc, etc. Not all Democrats are bold lefties these days, but some are, and they are actually doing shit.

[jeegsy]

> What's incredibly bizarre is how many other politicians have started copying

It has always been this way. Professional politicians are just better by nature at hiding unseemly attention grabs. Which is most definitely not something that fits with Trumps personality type.