Are the lead items of the Democratic agenda empty promises?

They are if the Democrats, assuming they become the majority in the senate in 2020, don't dump the filibuster.

If they won't get rid of the filibuster for the principled reason that it is an at best questionably constitutional, ludicrously anti-democratic feature of an already inherently anti-democratic chamber then they had better do it for the pragmatic reason that it is a ludicrously anti-Democratic feature of an already inherently anti-Democratic chamber.

Otherwise their entire progressive agenda is fake news.

The Dems Need to Debate the Filibuster

You’d think the presidency of Donald Trump would provide a big warning about winning first and figuring out how to govern afterwards. 

If you go out on the campaign trail and make a bunch of promises that you can’t keep, you’re going to suffer some nasty consequences and the already monumental cynicism and distrust of the electorate will only grow more intense.

. . . .

We don’t need 27 candidates competing to outdo each other with a laundry list of progressive reforms that they’ll have no chance of implementing.

If they think they can get these things done with a Democratic House and Senate if they eliminate the legislative filibuster, then they should own that. 

And they should explain how they’re going to convince the Senate to make the change. 

Because, it’s not just Republican senators who are opposed to doing away with the filibuster entirely, but also Democrats from every band of the party’s ideological spectrum.

. . . .

I think what is more likely to happen, if anything happens at all, is that a new Democratic administration will be stymied in their efforts to do much of anything. 

They will do what they can through budget reconciliation, just as Obama did to pass health care reform and Trump did to get his tax cuts. 

And maybe eventually, the Senate Democrats will come around to the conclusion that they have to eliminate the filibuster to address something critical like climate change or gun violence.

It might help if the candidate actually ran on getting rid of the filibuster and explained precisely why this would be a necessary move for implementing their agenda. 

If they are not willing to advocate for the change then they shouldn’t be making big promises that could never happen without it.

The worst thing to do is to say that you’ll win first and figure this all out later. 

People are desperately tired of politicians making promises they have no plan to keep.