Democratic leaders demanding standards that all police and sheriffs in the country follow isn't 'caving'

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18. I don't agree that they are 'hat in hand'

...it's just not supported by anything other than:

The fact that, due to factors outside of their control, they are in the minority and don't have the actual ability to do more than get enough republicans to adopt their proposals.

And it's a bit simplistic to represent this as something they can just shape according to what they want.

It's almost a certainty these proposals are in line with the republican votes the leadership understands they can garner.

Again, what reponsibility does proposing 'stronger' provisions that have no apparent support from any republican; or proposing something that falls short of the support it needs to get them actually enacted assume for getting us the protections we need out here? It doesn't look to be counting any votes, as the Democrtatic leaders are certainly doing in this effort.

What's the actual value of that kind of 'stronger' politics that's more concerned with making a political point, than negotiating reforms that have a change of passage and might save someone's life?

I mean, what evidence do you have that your 'stronger' stuff has enough votes. This macho stuff doesn't usually come with anything more than a puffed up argument that goes nowhere, because, it recognizes it's futility and substitutes bravado for actual progress.

In this case, a lot of lives are depending on politicians agreeing to something. Doing nothing but puffing up and appearing 'strong' without the means to act is what so many detractors who push stuff like the HuffPo article want.

They don't care if we spend our time demanding things that can't be achieved; bashing our leaders claiming they didn't do enough to get republicans to act.

Dem leaders' messaging is the sum of what the membership has already told them they would collectively support, which is the actual game here: getting unified support in the form of committments to vote on something - not just performing acrobatics and weight lifting for show, but reconciling diverse and often disparate interests and concerns into action or law.