Why Are Democrats So Upset?

Should Democrats have ignored the pandemic and done more door-to-door canvassing? Should they have diverted resources to South Florida to cut into President Donald Trump’s margins with Cuban-American voters and bolstered Joe Biden’s standing with immigrants from Venezuela, Colombia and elsewhere? Should Biden have championed your pet issue or renounced that thing you really don’t like?

Such questions are inevitable after a campaign, especially one that doesn’t go as well as hoped. But they are more tangential than usual this year. This election was — and could only have been — a referendum on Trump and Trumpism. As pundits and partisans engage in their traditional rounds of woulda-coulda-shouldas, they might keep in mind this looming fact.