Glad they're taking off the gloves a little, but it's always been a non-option to just make our lives significantly and irrevocably better like M4A or the PRO act and although they're good at trying and failing, they never talk about the consequences as dire as they actually are with few exceptions.
Goes way back before that. Carter was unable to get the DNC leadership support for budgets or reforms. And Carter was barely left of center. In fact, Ted Kennedy challenged him for the presidential nomination in 1980, with Kennnedy running as a more liberal candidate. Kennedy lost, of course, and then Carter lost to Reagan.