Democrats have held a 60 majority in the senate for 2 years since columbine despite repeatedly getting millions more votes in senate races than Pubs. They used their one 60 vote window to pass a Republican health insurance plan and then the pubs destroyed them in the media at at the polls. I do think that Dems really like to hold on to issues to try and inspire voters to vote so when they do actually have a chance to pass legislation the go half way, call it a compromise and a first step and then continue to use the issue to attract votes. but I am also noting that despite major advantages in numbers and support for their policies, they have a major spatial disadvantage and that explains a lot more about how we got here than almost anything else.