This is my comment as an outside observer. If President Obama's two terms, Donald Trump, Trump's impeachment trial and its aftermath demonstrate anything, it is this:
The rule of law depends on not just the President upholding it, but also on the House and the Senate doing so.
This fundamental fact applies to every legislation and government program you set your heart upon. Health care, new Supreme Court judges, big structural reforms, restoring international agreements, climate change, the environment, women’s reproductive rights- everything you wish and hope for.
Voting for the right Presidential candidate with the right amount of revolutionary fervor will not do it. You need to have the right Senate and the House go along with it.
This applies to every single thing debated among Biden, Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg and others for hours during the Democratic Presidential primaries. This applies to the billionaire candidates, Bloomberg and Steyer.
You may finally get the President you want or can live with (a worthwhile achievement in itself). But you will get very little more, including a restoration of rule of law, unless you also have the Senate and House composition you need, which will be co-equal to the President.
Unfortunately, the Presidential election cycle appears to ignore this completely. Arguably, it is worthwhile(and vital) to treat Presidential candidates as persons expected not just to capably advocate for themselves but also as leaders who will lead the most number of his/her party members to victory in their respective Senate and House races.
Supplementing the scrutiny of Presidential candidates with questions about their work as leaders helping down ticket candidates would help illuminate this. Voters should demand to know from Presidential candidates what they have done to help other Democrats win their own elections.
There appears to be a narcissistic focus on the person of the President, and a companion blinkered vision of how government works, leaving the rest of the Democratic Party to sink or swim on its own. Ultimately, you end up with a lonely superstar President stuck in limbo, saddled with a chancy mix in the Senate and House helping/hindering him/her in pursuing the very same programs which were debated for 1000s of hours before the election.
Asking a couple of questions about a candidate's 'bipartisanship' skills will not do it. Maybe spare a few of those 1000s of hours of debate to ask how the Presidential candidate already works with his/her party’s down ticket candidates.