In every branch of the federal government, Democrats Next year they will find themselves on the outside looking in, leading to a wave of recriminations within the party as President Joe Biden He is preparing to leave office.

Despite an unprecedented reshuffling of candidates after the primaries, attempts by Democratic candidates to move to the center or erase past policy positions in many races, and dire warnings that fascism would come to the United States if Republicans prevail, this month’s election has largely been a bitter disappointment for Biden. party.

Democrats are undoubtedly most upset with the president-elect Donald TrumpHis return to the White House is expected to be imminent, this time leaving behind at least a majority of the national popular vote and sweeping seven battleground states. When asked by a reporter how he was doing, the former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) replied, “Terrible.”

However, while Republicans maintained a slim majority in the House of Representatives, they also gained control of the Senate. Republicans appear to have ousted three incumbent Democratic senators, but Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) is moving forward with a recount request and overwhelmingly won the open Senate seat in West Virginia.

This all comes after Democrats enlisted A-list celebrities and top campaign surrogates led by the former President, often at great expense. Barack Obamato try to support their tickets. Democrats were also buoyed by confidence that they had “closed strong” and that Trump had made a mistake at his big rally at Madison Square Garden, which appeared to have no significant impact on the election. While poll averages suggested a Trump win was possible and perhaps even likely after Vice President Kamala Harris replaced Biden, many Democrats were still stunned.

“This is a historic disaster of biblical proportions,” said Chris Kofinis, a Democratic strategist and former chief of staff to the Senator. Joe Manchin (I-WV), said the Wall Street Magazine. “The Democratic Party is dead as it is. This is a historical realignment. There were Reagan Democrats. “There are Trump Democrats now.”

Manchin was West Virginia’s only congressional Democrat until earlier this year, when he registered as an independent but was still caucusing with Senate Democrats. Manchin represents a state that former President Bill Clinton carried twice and was one of the few remaining centrists in his former party’s Senate coalition. He is among the members of the Senate Democratic Caucus who left Capitol Hill in January.

Democrats are now second-guessing whether Biden should have left the race sooner or not run at all. Or whether Harris will have to go through a more competitive process to win the Democratic presidential nomination. When nominated, should he have chosen Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) or someone else like Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) as his vice president? (It’s worth noting that Rust Belt governors don’t seem eager to join the ticket.)

“If the President had left earlier, there would have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said told New York Times after the election. “We are experiencing what happened. Since the President immediately supported Kamala Harris, it became almost impossible to hold a primary at that time. If it had happened much earlier, it would have been different.”

Pelosi and Obama’s roles in pushing Biden aside after he gave up leadership positions (in Obama’s case because he was term-limited under the 22nd Amendment) have also come under scrutiny.

“Nancy Pelosi, everyone talks about how strategic the retired speaker was, how she could count, how she did all this while she was speaker of Congress, but my question is: Where is your calculator now?” “He played presidential politics during this period and helped orchestrate the public death of the president,” Symone Sanders Townsend, Biden’s former White House official, said on MSNBC.

There are increasingly intense debates about what the core of the democratic agenda should be; some advocate more comprehensive progressivism, while others argue that the party should be moved to the centre. Harris’ refusal to publicly brand herself one way or another, an attempt to hold together a bipartisan, cross-ideological anti-Trump coalition that ultimately underperformed expectations, has made her campaign vulnerable to criticism in both directions.

“It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that a Democratic Party that has abandoned working-class people sees the working class abandoning them, too,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said in a blunt post-election statement.

But voters didn’t buy what Biden or Harris were selling. Could Sanders have been a better salesman?

“The truth is clear: Biden spent four years implementing Bernie Sanders’ vision for labor, employment and economic policy.” wrote Tahra Jirari from Progress Room. “The decision of the voters, especially the working class and union members who should have been the main beneficiaries, was a clear rejection.”

“Progressive economic messages, no matter how well-crafted, cannot overcome the experience voters have had under these policies,” he added.

Social and cultural issues also divide Democrats in the wake of the loss.

“Democrats spend too much time trying not to offend anyone, instead of being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face,” said Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA). New York Times. “I have two little daughters. “I don’t want a male or former male athlete to trample them on the field of play, but as a Democrat, I shouldn’t be afraid to say that.”

The Massachusetts Democratic Party distanced itself from Moulton’s comments, and there were reports that Tufts University planned to limit its support of internships in Moulton’s office, but a school spokesman later walked that back.

Harris’ every campaign decision is now under scrutiny. This includes a light interview schedule where he can reintroduce himself to voters. Democrats also wonder if she should have sat down with podcaster Joe Rogan instead of going on stage with Oprah Winfrey, whose production company received a million-dollar payment.

Harris’ campaign has raised a billion dollars in just three months, but is reportedly at least $20 million in debt and hasn’t won a single swing state. This led to reports of turmoil within the Democratic National Committee.

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Things can change quickly in politics. The pro-Clinton New Democrats burst onto the scene after the party lost three presidential elections in the 1980s, never carrying more than 10 states during that period. Former President George W. Bush was re-elected in 2004, and Republicans controlled 55 seats in the Senate. Two years later, Democrats won both houses of Congress. Trump’s political career looked set to end at the end of his first term. Now he’s about to head back to the Oval Office.

But many Democrats see this month’s election results as a wake-up call. We’ll see how many people decide to hit the snooze button.