Good Friyay data time!

@BernieSanders talks about a revolution. Does he act on it? https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/04/09/bernie-talks-about-a-revolution-does-he-act-on-it/

Throughout the primaries (including 2016) Bernie has successfully branded himself as a revolutionary, focused on advancing political reforms that make the system work for the average American.

But several of his nomination opponents ( @HillaryClinton and @ewarren among others) said that reputation was built on talk rather than action. In other words, Bernie talked about a revolution, but he didn't work towards one as a Senator.

@amyklobuchar went further and said she was the one with real "receipts" of legislative accomplishment, a clear jab at Bernie's talk.

So, @charlesrhunt, @TreyBilling, and I decided to see if the criticisms of @BernieSanders were warranted.

They were. Here's why:

We collected data on which members of Congress took action on all matter of political reform (think everything from campaign finance to increasing staff pay). Using counts of reform actions we created an index to compare which presidential contenders were most active on reform.

This index shows that Bernie was the leader of the pack on reform actions.

But, this is incredibly misleading. Stay with me.

We then differentiated those actions on legislative actions (intro-ing bills, etc.) and public actions (tweets, etc.).

Doing so separated the workhorses who put in legislative actions and showhorses who talk about reform but don't back up their words with policy work.

This allows us to see which candidate had the highest percentage of reform actions that were legislative in nature. Those with higher percentages took more tangible actions towards reform. Lower %s = they talked about it more than they worked for it.

Using this metric, Bernie was dead last of all members who ran for president in 2020, and even well below the Senate average. @ewarren, @amyklobuchar, @KamalaHarris, @MichaelBennet, @CoryBooker, and especially @SenGillibrand have far more legislative receipts on issues of reform.

There's a clear gender double standard here. We write, "the 2020 race saw four female Senators with above average legislative records on issues important to voters never gain enough traction against fellow Senator Sanders who was far more vocal but far less legislatively active."

Go read the piece for more depth. And wash your hands.