These are challenging days for Democrats ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Their party has yet to land on a clear message or a leading messenger, leaving the president-elect mostly unchallenged,

At the Atlantic, Russell Burman details this reasoning in his new article “Maybe Democrats Didn’t Do So Badly After All ”: Now a clearer picture of the election has emerged, complicating the debate over whether Democrats need to reinvent themselves—and whether voters really abandoned them at all.

Instead of asking what’s the matter with Kansas, the question for 2025 and beyond is what’s the matter with Democrats.