Opinion | The Democrats Are in Denial About 2024

Last year’s election was close, despite President Trump’s hyperbolic claims about his margin of victory.Still, the Democratic Party clearly lost — and not only the presidential race.

It also lost control of the Senate and failed to recapture the House of Representatives.Of the 11 governor’s races held last year, Democrats won three.

In state legislature races, they won fewer than 45 percent of the seats.In the aftermath of this comprehensive defeat, many party leaders have decided that they do not need to make significant changes to their policies or their message.They have instead settled on a convenient explanation for their plight.That explanation starts with the notion that Democrats were merely the unlucky victims of postpandemic inflation and that their party is more popular than it seems: If Democrats could only communicate better, particularly on social media and podcasts, the party would be fine.

“We’ve got the right message,” Ken Martin, the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said while campaigning for the job.“What we need to do is connect it back with the voters.”A key part of this argument involves voter turnout.

Party leaders claim that most Americans still prefer Democrats but that voter apathy allowed Mr.Trump to win.

According to this logic, Democrats do not need to worry about winning back Trump voters and should instead try to animate the country’s natural liberal majority.“I don’t think we’re going to win over those 77 million that voted for Donald Trump,” Gov.

Tim Walz of Minnesota, the party’s 2024 vice-presidential nominee, said this month.“I’m concerned with the 90 million who stayed home.” It was an unfortunate echo of Hillary Clinton saying that millions of Trump voters were “deplorables” and “irredeemable.”As comforting as these explanations may feel to Democrats, they are a form of denial that will make it harder for the Democratic Party to win future elections.Even many c...