> In the last 4 years the needle went so far left, way past what even traditional Democrats wanted.

Not in many useful ways by global standards of "left." There was a certain amount of public investment in infrastructure, but beyond that...

Better public healthcare?

Getting prescription prices under control?

The use of left-leaning methods to address housing prices (rent control, say)?

The FTC went after some mega-corps, at least, but without much hope of success because the legislature didn't do anything new in the M&A or antitrust space.

Did the needle go far left? I didn’t see it go much past the American center (which is very right compared to most of the western world). We got some DEI that has for the most part been proven to be lip service, so much for equal under law and land of the free. We got some money for infrastructure, we put people who participated in an insurrection in jail, we got business as usual. We didn’t get universal healthcare, we didn’t get a reduction of the power of monopolies, we didn’t get a reduction in the military budget, we didn’t get a minimum wage that tracked inflation let alone was a livable wage, we didn’t get money out of politics and politicians, we didn’t get the rich to pay their fair share. The only way I’d measure the past 4 years as being left is because of the current jarring swerve into a right wing oligarchy

Not really. The Overton Window has been moving rightward recently and sadly.

Really? In the past four years, did we get land reform? Housing reform? Healthcare reform? Something that addressed wealth inequality? Police accountability? Worker rights? Anything to address the mental health crisis? Anything to tackle the problems people with drug addiction are facing? Any change to the trajectory of climate change, as opposed to just kicking the can down the road? Affordability of childcare? Cost of education? I could go on and on.

We aren't 'divided' on how to deal with our issues. The right doesn't see any of the above as issues, and doesn't see any need to address them.

Your perception that things swung left does not match the reality. The right echo chamber has driven itself into a frenzy to try to manufacture this perception, as justification for their reactionary politics.

People still didn't know what they voted for though. There are many reasons, voters often don't truly research on who they are going to vote. They either are going by just "the man" they vote for because of promises, they believe the garbage on social media without any second thought, and reject anything that doesn't fit their view because it comes from the deep state fake news. That's why Project 2025 didn't get the attention it should have.

That's a great question too.

Proposal 1: You don't get to leave the job until the replacement is hired.

Proposal 2: Follow the chain of succession to a position that did get elected / appointed. I wonder if cabinet members retain their jobs until replaced?

Also, that would count as an Emergency election. Maybe we could do a crack at 2 months to 'primary' and 1 month to campaign? Other countries seem to get by just fine.

Offhand memory of something from the weeks after the election, though Wikipedia's numbers likely reflect the final official tallies rather than the numbers of that time.

The popular vote seems to have been closer than I recalled hearing.