Democrats begin the
Donald Trump presidency in sad shape. They lack a clear power base,
they've got no distinct national leader, and party brokers are searching
for a formula to counter the new Republican-dominated government and
figure out how to win again.
It's a curious
and dispiriting position for a party that has led the national popular
vote six out of the past seven presidential elections. Yet Hillary
Clinton lost the Electoral College count, while Republicans maintained
their largest House majority since 1928 and kept control of the Senate -
with 2018 advantages that offer the potential of a Senate supermajority
in two years.
Outside Washington, Democrats
now have just 16 governors and run 14 state legislatures, compared to 33
Republican governors and 32 GOP-run legislative bodies.
"We haven't been in this shape in a while ... but we will rebuild," insists interim Democratic Party Chairwoman Donna Brazile.
And Republicans have their own challenges.
Control
means answering for everything from the economy to health care. Trump
enters the Oval Office with the lowest approval ratings of any newly
inaugurated president in more than a generation, and he's an
unapologetic freelancer who sometimes flouts GOP orthodoxy.
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