For the last 20 years or so, a tension has defined the Democratic Party. There has been a party that has been looking forward; and there has been a party that has been leery of forward progress. The forward-looking party has consisted of the people who said, for example in 2008, let’s nominate Barack Obama. Let’s be fearless; he can win. The leery caucus has been those who just weren’t sure, the people for whom American history’s grim lessons suggested that these wild dreams just weren’t possible.

The forward-looking side has been the more emotionally compelling one, and of course it won the argument in 2008. But it must be said that it has sometimes been too optimistic, a little more aggressive about the future than reality warranted. It also got a cold slap in the face after the 2016 election results came in, and the seemingly unstoppable forward-spinning wheel of history was jammed, in the most sobering way possible. Team Leery got a tragic win there, and with other developments—like Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory and the improbably important loss by Terry McAuliffe in the 2021 Virginia governor’s race, which seemed to say that the........

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