Despite Trumps Victory, the Democrats Arent in Disarray

One year ago, Democrats woke up to find an authoritarian insult-comic headed for the White House – and their party slouching toward oblivion.

The GOP had nominated the most widely-reviled presidential candidate in American history – a man who suggested he’s a serial sex criminal, just a month before Election Day – and voters still evicted Democrats from the White House. Down ballot, things were even more dire. Republicans controlled the House, the Senate, 33 governor’s mansions, and 32 state legislatures – two more, and the GOP could unilaterally initiate a Constitutional convention. Soon, they would paint the judiciary red.

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What a difference a year makes. The first 12 months of the Trump era have been terrible for the country – but they’ve been better for the Democratic Party than most ever would have thought.

The party’s performance in Virginia Tuesday was nothing short of a triumph. In the face of a vicious, race-baiting Republican campaign; manufactured controversies over Confederate monuments, (non-existent) sanctuary cities, and kneeling NFL players – not to mention a rain storm that singled-out the bluest parts of the state – Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam defeated Ed Gillespie by a near-double-digit margin. As of this writing, Democrats are expected to overpower GOP gerrymandering, and reclaim Virginia’s House of Delegates – a result that most election analysts had thought impossible.

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http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/11/the-democrats-arent-in-disarray.html