Ten years ago, another rogue red wave crashed over the country, taking nine Democratic senators and 54 House Democrats with it. As he sifted through the wreckage, President Barack Obama struggled over how to talk to his fellow Democrats about their shocking misfortune, why the polls failed to foresee their peril, and what they should do about it.
He could have been honest about the extent to which Democrats spent 2014 talking only to themselves about the supposed scourge of income inequality, the illusory gender-pay gap, or the persistent and animating unpopularity of Obamacare. He might have debuted a humbler tone and refocused his party on voters’ chief priority at the time, “the economy,” which suffered from frustratingly sluggish job growth. He should have taken it on the chin so his party could learn and grow from the experience. But he did not.
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