United States | Donkey Rashomon

Democrats are still processing their defeat

Three factions are competing to explain the party to itself

A 2024 balloon can be seen at an empty County Democrats Election Night Watch Party.
Photograph: Getty Images
|WASHINGTON, DC

THESE ARE NOT the reports Democrats were hoping to prepare. Instead of transition plans for the incoming Kamala Harris administration, draft executive orders and legislative outlines, Democrats are producing post-mortem analyses of how their campaign came apart in 2024. Those Democrats who are honest with themselves are recognising an uncomfortable truth: as awful, immoral and weird as they consider the Republican Party, the American people considered it to be the better option for governing America.

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This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Donkey Rashomon”

From the November 23rd 2024 edition

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