I’m not an alcoholic or participant in any 12-step programs, but the Serenity Prayer seems like a broadly useful sentiment.

Trump was just elected president for a second term.  Prominent Democrats are considering where they went wrong.  Blaming the American voters, Joe Rogan and new media, Trump’s rhetoric or Elon Musk, are futile.  Worse than futile, blaming those external factors lead Democrats to resent those factors and attempt to suppress them.

When the Cavaliers won the NBA National Championship in 2016, it wasn’t because they influenced referees, replaced the fans, influenced the conference rules or infiltrated the Golden State Warriors organization.  Successful coaches focus on the things that they can control.

The Democratic Party can control their principles, people and processes.  Those are the factors they should be discussing.

Party principles are their business.  They seem popular on social media, but not in the broader culture.  That has got to be a longer-term discussion.

Kamala Harris has never been a popular candidate.  In 2020, she was a presidential candidate, but dropped out before reaching the Iowa Caucus.  A dozen more popular candidates remained.  They need to get better at choosing people that appeal to the broader public.

The process that resulted in Harris being chosen to be the presidential candidate, was shady and as undemocratic as possible.  Nancy Pelosi and other powerful Democrats coerced Biden into dropping out of the 2024 presidential election.  That was done so late in the game, that there wasn’t an opportunity for the power brokers to choose a more competitive candidate.  Harris was sitting right there, and as a woman of color, was impossible to avoid.  That process was fatally flawed.

In 2019, prior to the 2020 presidential election, Biden implied, but didn’t commit, to being a one-term president.  After the 2022 congressional election, Biden should have announced that he was not running or endorsing a candidate for 2024.  He could have pledged to not exert any influence as the party was handed over to the next generation.  Eight years as VP and eight years as POTUS, is too much for anyone.

The Democratic Party could have run a conventional primary and picked a candidate with popular support.

George Bush, Sr. should have done the same thing in 1992.  Ross Perot may have swung that election, but it still wasn’t a good idea for Bush to run.

This situation can’t come up for 12 years, and hopefully by then, both parties will figure out why it’s a problem.