What now for the Democrats?

By James Bennet, Lexington columnist, The Economist

Left to their own devices, American political parties are weak, befuddled things. When they wind up in the political wilderness they tend to wander, muttering to themselves, until some new leader—a Ronald Reagan, a Bill Clinton, a Donald Trump—comes along to supply direction. In blazing the Republicans’ path back to the White House, Mr Trump has sparked a frenzy of finger-pointing and even some soul-searching within the Democratic party that will continue throughout 2025 and beyond. The Democrats can at least console themselves that they have a strong generation of rising politicians from outside the Beltway who are, at last, free to compete to set the party’s direction.