The Great Discombobulation

Democrats will be back. The laws of physics in American politics will rescue them even if they cannot yet figure out how to rescue themselves.

For now, Donald Trump’s comeback victory in 2024 is especially demoralizing to Democrats in ways that previous defeats (1988, 2004, 2016) were not. The first is that Donald Trump actually came back stronger than ever. He has a greater mandate than he could have achieved in 2020. And he comes now, for the first time, with a political apparatus that is largely aligned with him, enabling him more than restraining him. He comes into office with a judiciary that he already transformed in his first term.

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Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review Online.

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Democrats will be back. The laws of physics in American politics will rescue them even if they cannot yet figure out how to rescue themselves.

For now, Donald Trump’s comeback victory in 2024 is especially demoralizing to Democrats in ways that previous defeats (1988, 2004, 2016) were not. The first is that Donald Trump actually came back stronger than ever. He has a greater mandate than he could have achieved in 2020. And he comes now, for the first time, with a political apparatus that is largely aligned with him, enabling him more than restraining him. He comes into office with a judiciary that he already transformed in his first term.