And what changed?

There is a tendency to say that it was Bernie Sanders and his ineffective whines (no policy behind them...) for universal health care etc that changed the fundamentals of the debate, that shifted the Democratic party leftward, but I'm going to disagree.

It's always been the policy of the Democrats to want those things. Universal healthcare has been in the party platform for a long time, and anyone remember Hillary Clinton working to get healthcare for all those years ago?

Now everyone is pushing these ideals.

What changed?

Hillary Clinton was, quite frankly, robbed of the presidency by a combination of the bros (it was rigged!!! Bernie shoulda been the nominee!), Comey, the Russians, and a media more hell bent on pointing out "both sides!" and playing into the Republican hands.

We saw that. The voters saw that. We saw the absolutely incredible misogyny. We saw the racism. A minority of hateful voters, well distributed hateful voters, managed to elect an ignorant racist pussy-grabbing moronic INCOMPETENT lunatic to the White House.

There is no longer any getting along possible. It's pointless. There is us, and then there are those of them who prefer ignorant racist pussy-grabbing moronic INCOMPETENT lunatics.

It didn't matter that against that ignorant racist pussy-grabbing moronic INCOMPETENT lunatic we had perhaps the most qualified woman EVER.

Then that ignorant racist pussy-grabbing moronic INCOMPETENT lunatic did three things. With the aide of Satan Mitch McConnell he completed the theft of a Supreme Court seat. And then, again with the complicity of the putrid Republicans, he gave an astronomical gift to the already wealthy, a tax cut that, a year later, has been prove to have NOT, in fact, spurred on hiring or investment or anything like that, but instead just enriched the already rich. And he tried to take away health care from people.

I think what that meant, in many ways, was that Democrats in general, and Democratic women in particular finally understood that there truly is an "us" and a "them" in this country. That nothing we never did would ever matter, that their hatred is, in fact, the fundamental value that drives them. (Read Amanda Marcotte's Troll Nation: How The Right Became Trump-Worshipping Monsters Set On Rat-F*cking Liberals, America, and Truth Itself for some excellent insight on them.)

This was liberating. Because it means... we only have ourselves to please. We can put up an extremely qualified person against their ignorant racist pussy-grabbing moronic INCOMPETENT lunatic and it will never matter to them. They eat, breath, and shit hatred.

We've always wanted things like universal health care, and higher taxes on the rich, and universal preschool and a whole slew of things that make people's lives better. We've never had, to be honest, the votes to get them, in part because of a lot of non-voters. People who agreed, but didn't bother to get out to vote. They're voting now. They voted in 2018. I suspect they'll vote in 2020.

But it wasn't just that. What was lacking, I think, was a realization at all levels of the Democratic party of how profound the change in the Right had been. They make up Troll Nation, and they've finally pissed us off.

It doesn't matter what we say, what we do, how far left, right, up, or down we go.

Between that realization and the ANGER at what they are, and what they did, I think a good number of people on the left are just saying "fuck it. Medicare for All it is." And what's more, unlike what happened before, going out to vote for it.

I don't think the core values of Dems in general have gotten any more leftist than before. I just think we're now angry, and using that anger to both focus on what has always been important and get people to actually vote their core Democratic values.