One question that the Democrats need to be asking themselves in the wake of Tuesday's largely disappointing election is whether their struggles are the result of the public's distaste with them or do people simply swear by Trump. While some on the Left may want to come out swinging, Democrats need to read the results from Tuesday as a call for incremental change. There is a major legislative election in 2022 that could set the table for a more progressive agenda. Right now, Democrats need to tread lightly knowing that the public is not yet fully on board with their policies.

Why Did Almost Every Shining Senate Candidate Fail?

Every Democrat alive cannot help but to be disappointed at the failure of their Senate candidates to make much headway. The rule of thumb was that Democrats simply cannot play on red territory yet. As much as we all wanted to believe that candidates like Jaime Harrison and Barbara Bollier had the power to take races in unfriendly terrain, the numbers were never truly on our side. This does not mean that this will always be the case. Instead, the Democrats need to focus their efforts on winning Senate races in purple states. This is where their greatest success came on Tuesday.

The good news is that there are quite a few of these races in 2022. Even if the Democrats do not manage to win the runoff races in Georgia in January, they still have a great chance of retaking the Senate in 2022. However, as much as it pains progressives, they need to maintain a little restraint in the next two years to set up for the next legislative election. This will feature races in states such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, giving the Democrats more than enough room to take back the Senate.

Democrats need to treat this election as a repudiation of them, even if it meant Biden winning the White House. We simply lost too many down ballot races in a very high turnout election to think otherwise. While pundits are telling Democrats to stop acting like they are losing, the truth is that this election never should have been close. While we back progressive policies as much as the next person, the public might not be ready for the Democrats' wholesale vision of big structural change. Thus, any Democratic civil way between the Left and Center would be an absolute disaster. The GOP is waiting to pounce on any hint of party disunity as it seeks to move past Trump and set itself up for 2024.

The Democrats Need to Give Biden Some Breathing Room and Space

The Democrats need to be careful and give Biden some room to maneuver through a treacherous minefield. Taking power during a pandemic without control of the Congress puts him in a tough position. If he wants to get anything done for the American people, he may need to cross the aisle to work with Mitch McConnell. At least he needs to give McConnell a chance to show whether he intends to be a statesman or a partisan obstructionist. The Democrats are simply not in a position to demand ideological purity over ever last policy right now.

Even with Trump seemingly gone, this election was not a resounding success. Trumpism is alive and well, and the Republican Party will be gripped with it until the day that Trump becomes an inmate in a New York prison. Every Democratic Senate candidate running in a Republican state lost by more than five points. This is the ground that Democrats will need to take to ensure their shot at future governance.

In other words, even with a Biden win, Democrats need to do a postmortem on this election as if they lost. The party has performed below expectations in the last two presidential cycles. These are the elections with the heaviest turnout. This shows that the American public is not yet ready to embrace the Left quite yet. It also means that the Left needs to see the biggest picture and be happy with incremental gains to set up for 2022. After seeing McConnell stall every piece of major legislation that will help people and the Supreme Court dismantle social freedom, the American public may finally be ready to fully embrace the Democrats in 2022. First, we must learn the lessons of why we consistently underperform.