Reporters Notebook: A Democratic majority could expose the limits of the progressive agenda

"You made me promises. Promises.
Knowing I'd believe.
Promises. Promises.
I knew you'd never keep."

— Promises, Promises by Naked Eyes

"I am a supporter of Medicare-for-all," declared Minnesotas Democratic nominee for Senate, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, D. "I'm going to get there with my friend Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. And we are going to power map the s--t out of the U.S. Senate and figure out how to build power for the things that we know that we deserve and the things that we need."

Hard-left progressive House and Senate candidates like Flanagan are pitching Medicare-for-all. The abolition of ICE. The Green New Deal. An arms embargo for Israel. And a $25 an hour minimum wage.

Flanagan is in a race with Republican Senate nominee Michelle Tafoya to succeed retiring Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn. The race favors Flanagan. However, its not a done deal that she wins. But Democratic Socialist candidates for the House like Donavan McKinney in Michigan, Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania, Melat Kiros in Colorado, along with Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York probably will. Come January, they will prospectively represent Democratic strongholds where progressive ideas are popular.

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But if Democrats win either the House or Senate, it wont be because voters pulled the lever for Kiros in Denver or Avila Chevalier in Harlem. Theyll win because Democrat Cait Conley defeated Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., in Dutchess County, north of New York City. Maybe because voters cast their ballots for Democrat Brian Poindexter in Wooster, Ohio, rather than Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio. Democrats could flip the House if Democratic nominee Christina Bohannan appeals more to voters in Davenport, IA than Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa.

This brings us back to the progressive agenda.

Democrats might win the House and or the Senate. But Valdez and Kiros arent the "majority makers." Candidates like Poindexter and Conley are. And if theyre elected to the House, its doubtful that moderates from swing districts can support progressive ideas like the Green New Deal or Medicare-for-all. Its about the math. And its more than likely that Democrats will need the voters of those moderate "majority makers" from battleground districts to enact those policies.

Thats to say nothing about needing 60 yeas in the Senate to crack a filibuster – even if Democrats do marshal a slim majority there. And, if something extreme did get through both bodies of a potentially Democratically-controlled Congress, President Trump would like veto it.

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It is said that you campaign in poetry but you govern in prose.

The left has pushed a lot of progressive poetry with their agenda items of late. Theyll tout the opportunity to enact some of those policies if Democrats win the majority.

However, the reality of advancing any of that into a legislative reality is slim. The progressive ideas may energize the base. But the Democratic base is sure to feel let down if Democrats cant make good on some of their campaign promises.

Weve seen this before. A pa