Wagner introduced the bill in February, 1935. It passed the Senate in May by a vote of 63 to 12. The House followed suit, and by the end of June it was on the president’s desk. And while Roosevelt quickly signed the bill, he had actually been ambivalent during the process, wary of antagonizing business interests ahead of his re-election campaign in 1936. (The F.D.R. who welcomed the hatred of reckless capitalists would come later.) Energetic, liberal lawmakers had forced his hand.

Liberal, left-wing, or moderate, the next Democratic president will be ice skating uphill against Congress. That’s true of Warren’s wealth tax or Sanders’s tuition-free college. It’s true for Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, with their more modest solutions and tweaks. Even Senator Amy Klobuchar’s small-scale proposals — for building rural broadband and reducing prescription drug costs — will falter in the face of unified Republican opposition and the supermajority requirement.

What, then, is the way forward?

Long term, it’s a democracy agenda. Truly participatory elections — with fairly-drawn districts, automatic voter registration and easy access to the ballot — might make Congress more representative of a public that favors progressive solutions across a wide number of issues. Democrats at every level of government should use their power to make those changes a reality. Likewise, strengthening labor and workplace democracy is an indispensable part of building energy for progressive change.

The short term is much harder.

At the very least, everyone on the Democratic campaign trail — and on the debate stage two weeks from now — should be able to say what they intend to do about the Senate. Instead of bickering over health care spending, they should speak frankly and openly with the public about the serious barriers to virtually any kind of major reform.

Arguably the most important divide in the Democratic primary field isn’t by ideology, but between those candidates who understand the obstacles ahead and those who don’t. Despite the example of the last 10 years, the centrist candidates are still running as if persuasion and compromise will win the day.