It’s Not Too Early to Begin the Reckoning

As the contest for the White House draws to a close, I asked a wide range of scholars and political strategists where they think the blame will go, whether it is Kamala Harris or Donald Trump who wins.

Their answers varied widely.

William Galston is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Harris, he wrote in an email,

But, Galston noted, even if Harris wins,

How would Harris exercise presidential executive authority?

Galston:

Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank, also replied to my queries by email:

Harris’s embrace, Kessler continued, of

What if Trump wins?

Kessler:

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How will Republicans react to a Trump defeat?

“Let’s be realistic,” Kessler wrote:

Ruy Teixeira, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a co-author of “The Emerging Democratic Majority,” contended that even before the votes have been counted, the progressive movement in the Democratic Party is dead in its tracks. His views of the cultural left are unrelentingly hostile.

In an Oct. 24 essay, “The Progressive Moment Is Over,” Teixeira wrote:

Each of these policies in fact was opposed by majorities of the electorate, Teixeira contends, and “now the backlash against these ideas is strong enough that it can’t be ignored.” As a result, “the progressive moment is well and truly over.”

Many on the Democratic Party’s progressive left adamantly reject the analyses of Galston, Kessler and Teixeira.