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.

This week’s events were a preview of the perils of governing that face Trump and Republicans in Congress, despite their narrow majorities.