Now that we've had a chance to catch our breath a little bit and get through the grieving process over last Tuesday's election, the inevitable recriminations have begun in earnest. Social media is awash with accusations against the Biden administration, the Kamala Harris campaign, the left, the right and everything in between. The Democrats are out of touch with Real America, they don't know how to talk to Latinos, men, young voters or anyone really except college-educated women. Was it an expression of deep desire for fascism, misogyny and racism or a simple admiration for the reality show ringmaster who tells them what they want to hear? I suspect we will spend many years dissecting what happened that put Donald Trump back in the White House this year.

Trump was one of the earliest casualties of this anti-incumbent movement. Unfortunately for us, we could not vanquish him sufficiently to prevent his return.

There is no doubt a kernel of truth in much of what people are saying. Any losing team has to look at their game plan and question where they went wrong. This campaign was especially fraught with President Joe Biden belatedly realizing that he wasn't capable of campaigning, and the party taking the risk of running a woman and person of color against one of the most racist, misogynist demagogues ever to run on a major party ticket. It was never going to be easy. It's astonishing that we ever thought it would be. As Salon's Andrew O'Hehir observed, liberals will have to do some deep soul searching to determine what the party really is and how to adjust itself to what is clearly a new political landscape.

I think many of us just assumed that the nation would never elect Trump again........

© Salon