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MASON CITY, Iowa Senator Cory Booker glided into the state first, offering himself as a herald of peace in a northern Iowa church that advertised radical hospitality on its marquee. As a rainbow cracked the frozen sky outside, Mr. Booker spoke of restoring grace and decency and erasing the lines that people think divide us racial lines, religious lines, geographic lines.

Senator Elizabeth Warren arrived soon after, still thrumming with the energy of a weekend announcement speech in Lawrence, Mass. Having vowed there to fight my heart out against government corruption and corporate power, Ms. Warren roused the crowd in Cedar Rapids on Sunday not with bounteous optimism but a call to arms.

This is the time, she said, to take on the fight.

In the space of a weekend, the two Democrats mapped the philosophical and temperamental fork their party must navigate as it challenges President Trump. Down one path, Mr. Bookers, lies a mission of healing and hope, with a campaign to bind up social wounds that have deepened in the Trump era. The other path, Ms. Warrens, promises combat and more combat a crusade not just to defeat Mr. Trump but to demolish the architecture of his government.

As much as any disputation over policy, this gulf defines the Democratic field, separating candidates of disparate backgrounds and ideologies into two loose groups: fighters and healers.

And the 2020 primary, Democratic leaders say, could hinge on whether their voters are more determined to reunite a divided country or to crush Mr. Trump and his party.

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Bonnie Campbell, a Democrat who served as Iowas attorney general, said Ms. Warren of Massachusetts and Mr. Booker of New Jersey vividly captured the two approaches. Praising Ms. Warren for her forceful economic critique and Mr. Booker for his forward-looking pragmatism, Ms. Campbell said there was thirst for both outlooks among Democrats and sometimes within individual Democrats like herself.

Honestly, I think theres a bit of schizophrenia on what our message should be, Ms. Campbell said. You can be angry and passionate about whats happened, and also recognize that the task ahead of us is to bring the country together. Either one of those messages will carry the day, or theyll be blended together.

A range of blends is already available in the Democratic primary, with Mr. Booker and Ms. Warren representing the purest archetypes and their competitors arrayed on a spectrum between them. Senators Kamala Harris of California and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York entered the race last month on footing closer to Ms. Warrens, with differing policy agendas but overlapping political vocabulary. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a fiery populist, is expected to join the fray soon, and perhaps Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio.

Mr. Bookers rhetorical space has been less crowded so far, but several Democrats exploring the 2020 race have been wielding similar themes. Joseph R. Biden Jr., the former vice president, and Michael R. Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor, have both extolled bipartisanship. Beto ORourke, the former Texas Senate candidate, told Oprah Winfrey last week that he was preoccupied with uniting a deeply divided country.

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It is perhaps not an accident that the most confident Democratic tribunes of good feeling are all men, while the partys sternest warriors are mainly women. In a contest for the presidency, a position traditionally viewed in martial terms, it may be easier for a man of Mr. Bidens backslapping swagger or Mr. Bookers athletic stature to show tenderness or vulnerability without fear of appearing weak.

And it was with enthusiastic physicality, and regular references to having played high school and college football, that Mr. Booker preached love and understanding. He clasped his chest and his face at moments of emotion, usually stirring murmurs of appreciation and sympathy; in one case, he wrapped his arm around a voter for a midspeech selfie. While Mr. Booker said he was ready to spar with Mr. Trump, stating matter-of-factly that there is nobody in this race tougher than me, his overarching theme was about reconciliation.

At an airy adult learning center in Waterloo, Mr. Booker insisted that the capacity to conquer all manner of hardships was within human reach a contrast with Ms. Warren and other populists, who tend to describe ordinary people being stripped of power by big institutions.

The most common way people give up their power, Mr. Booker said, is not realizing that they have it.

Forces of darkness appeared in Mr. Bookers political narrative the country, he said, has a cancer on our soul but there were few villains. Where malignant people intruded, Mr. Booker leavened their presence with humor: Strom Thurmond, the South Carolina senator who embodied virulent racism, became the subject of a laughter-inducing vocal impression. Describing how a racist white real estate agent directed a dog to attack his father, Mr. Booker added a punch line: Each time his father told the story, he joked, that dog got bigger!

At times, Mr. Bookers calls for conciliation had an ideological subtext. He repeatedly detailed distinctions with the Democratic left, calling on progressives to reclaim the fiscally responsible label and denouncing corporate power selectively, focusing chiefly on consolidation in the agricultural sector.

Patti Downs, who went to hear Mr. Booker speak in Waterloo, said she believed he had the leadership abilities to be a good president. Ms. Downs said she was also eyeing Mr. Biden but already admired Mr. Booker for his bipartisan instincts and his attention to everyday problems, like wages and health care, rather than more abstract debates.

We need more of that, and I think he might be the person to do it, said Ms. Downs, a retiree who used to run a health care clinic. I think maybe he can bring about the changes of civility, and bring politics down from that lofty place that most of us have no way to relate to.

If Mr. Bookers remarks projected the jaunty optimism of a marching band his announcement video literally featured one Ms. Warrens echoed with cannon fire. In a hall at the Veterans Memorial Building in Cedar Rapids and during an afternoon rally at the University of Iowa, she drew roars of applause when pledging to attack corruption head-on and wrangle power from a set of named foes: drug companies, oil companies, student loan companies, private prison companies, gun companies and the National Rifle Association.

All, Ms. Warren declared, should be tamed through legislation and regulation.

Rules matter, she said, and thats why Im in this fight.

Ms. Warren punctuated her rhetoric with a different set of gestures, pumping a tight fist for emphasis or slicing the air with an open palm; in Cedar Rapids, she closed by raising both hands overhead like a boxer soaking in applause.

Unlike Mr. Booker, Ms. Warren taunted Mr. Trump, urging Democrats not to build their 2020 message around him because he might not be president that long. In fact, she said, he might not even be a free person.

On Sunday, Ms. Warren made only a glancing reference to unity, cautioning a voter who raised the idea of impeaching the president that the process would divide Americans and that, if it came to that, Democrats must help pull this country together.

Cindy Garlock, a leader with the liberal activist group Indivisible Iowa who watched Ms. Warren on Sunday morning, said she had not picked a favorite but believed that Ms. Warren had a winning message. Ms. Garlock said she had also seen Mr. Booker during his visit but found Ms. Warrens presentation dotted with plans to raise taxes on the wealthy and crack down on pharmaceutical and student-loan companies more convincing.

She is a fighter, but I think that will also unite the country, if were fighting for the right purpose, Ms. Garlock said. Her purpose is to help regular people who are going to work every day, trying to pay their bills, which is the majority of this country.

Both approaches have a rich history in Democratic politics, nationally and in Iowa a state that has helped elevate conciliators like Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama to the presidency, while for decades sending prairie populists like Tom Harkin to Congress.

Mr. Booker shares a clear political lineage with Mr. Obama, who captured the Iowa caucuses in 2008 with a message of national unity. But the party has also shifted left since then, and has grown more suspicious of Republicans who harried Mr. Obama and elected Mr. Trump. In 2016, Mr. Sanders nearly upset Hillary Clinton in Iowa as a populist insurgent.

Mr. Trumps slashing style may also weigh on primary voters and caucusgoers, Democrats say, guaranteeing that even a kindhearted nominee would face a blizzard of personal attacks and crude trash-talking.

Still, Representative Dave Loebsack, a veteran Democrat whose district covers Iowas southeastern quadrant, said he believed that even partisan Iowans yearned for political reconciliation. Though he is neutral in the race, Mr. Loebsack predicted that Mr. Bookers uplifting narrative would resonate.

I think we have to be careful with anger and outrage and alienation because that can also feed into the worst instincts of folks, Mr. Loebsack said, adding of Mr. Booker: I love his message of love and redemption and all the rest.

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Democrats 2020 Choice: Do They Want a Fighter or a Healer ...

RICHMOND, Va. Justin E. Fairfaxs refusal to resign as lieutenant governor of Virginia in the face of two allegations of sexual assault has presented Democrats with an excruciating choice: whether to impeach an African-American leader at a moment when the states other two top leaders, both white, are resisting calls to quit after admitting to racist conduct.

Less than a week after Gov. Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark R. Herring said they wore blackface as young men, Mr. Fairfax on Friday faced a second assault accusation in three days. On Saturday night, Mr. Fairfax called on the F.B.I. to investigate the allegations, and asked that no one rush to judgment and for due process. But he is now under intense pressure to resign or face impeachment, transforming what had been a crisis for Virginia Democrats into a searing dilemma for the national party.

The political turmoil for Democratic leaders this weekend is unfolding at the intersection of race and gender, and risks pitting the partys most pivotal constituencies against one another. If Democrats do not oust Mr. Fairfax, at a time when the party has taken a zero-tolerance stand on sexual misconduct in the #MeToo era, they could anger female voters.

But the specter of Mr. Fairfax, 39, being pushed out while two older white men remain in office despite blackface behavior that evoked some of the countrys most painful racist images would deeply trouble many African-Americans.

[If Justin Fairfax is forced out in Virginia, who would take over his job?]

I think the Democratic Party would lack credibility if they followed a double standard, said Representative Karen Bass of California, who is the head of the Congressional Black Caucus. Ms. Bass said that both Mr. Northam and Mr. Fairfax should step down.

On Saturday, an adviser to Mr. Fairfax said the lieutenant governor was deeply distraught over the allegations and had no intention of resigning. In Mr. Fairfaxs statement on Saturday night, the lieutenant governor confirmed he had an encounter with his second accuser, Meredith Watson, but said it was consensual. He asked for an independent investigation of all the allegations and for he and his accusers to be respected during this process.

In another sign that Mr. Fairfax will attempt to remain in office, he has added an African-American woman from the states most politically influential law firm to his legal team. The woman, Ava Lias-Booker, is a partner at McGuireWoods who, like Mr. Fairfax and Ms. Watson, graduated from Duke University.

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Almost all of Virginias Democratic leaders and lawmakers on Friday night called on Mr. Fairfax to resign and a legislator vowed to introduce articles of impeachment if Mr. Fairfax did not quit by Monday. A statement released Saturday night by Ms. Watsons legal team said she would be willing to testify at an impeachment proceeding against Mr. Fairfax.

The state Democratic Party, after a conference call of its steering committee on Saturday morning in which there was near-unanimous support for Mr. Fairfax to resign, issued a statement saying he no longer had their confidence or support and should quit.

Its a nightmare right now, said Representative A. Donald McEachin, a Virginia Democrat who can trace his history here back to Revolutionary War-era slaves.

Weve worked hard on the Democratic brand for so many years, he said, and now we have to deal with this.

Gov. Northam also insists he will not resign. He does not face an imminent impeachment threat, and neither does Mr. Herring, the attorney general and second in line to the governor, who has been effusively apologizing for once wearing blackface. The governor, in an interview on Saturday with The Washington Post, said he intends to use the remainder of his term to pursue racial reconciliation and has been reading works like The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Alex Haleys Roots to learn more about experiences of African-Americans.

Just how far Virginia Democrats go to confront these three statewide officials who swept into office in 2017 on the first wave of backlash to President Trumps election will send a signal about how committed they are to taking a hard line on racial and sexual transgressions, and will echo well beyond this states borders.

To some Democrats, Mr. Fairfaxs alleged conduct is the most serious because he is the only one of the three accused of a crime. But that does not make the political quandary any less torturous at a moment when the partys 2020 presidential primary is getting underway with more black and female candidates than have ever run for the White House.

To show a firm grasp of the obvious, the optics would be difficult and the substance would be difficult, said State Senator J. Chapman Petersen, who is white, about how it would look if Mr. Northam and Mr. Herring remained in office while Mr. Fairfax was exiled.

Women and African-Americans have never been more politically powerful: The Democrats 40-seat win in the House midterm elections in November, as well as their 2017 triumph in the top Virginia races, was powered in no small part by those voters. And with Republicans barely hanging on to their legislative majority in the Virginia Capitol, Democrats were counting on the same two blocs to propel them to victory in this falls election of all 140 delegates and state senators.

Ultimately, some Democrats here said, they must begin the process of emerging from the wreckage that is the executive branch of Virginia state government by turning to what is perhaps their most loyal constituency: black women.

And barely hours after Ms. Watson came forward on Friday saying she was raped by Mr. Fairfax in 2000 when they were students at Duke University, several senior Virginia Democrats began making the case that should Mr. Northam continue his refusal to resign, he ought to appoint State Senator Jennifer McClellan to replace Mr. Fairfax if he quits or is impeached. (It is not certain that Mr. Northam could appoint any successor to Mr. Fairfax, scholars said, because of conflicting provisions and interpretations of the Virginia Constitution and state law.)

Ms. McClellan, who is black, is a longtime Richmond legislator who was already thought to have statewide ambitions and has a close relationship with Senator Tim Kaine.

Jennifer would make an exceptionally good lieutenant governor, said C. Richard Cranwell, a former state Democratic chairman and legislator, when asked about the senator.

Delegate Charniele L. Herring, who is the chairwoman of the House Democratic Caucus and a former chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia, said, African-American women have been a core, consistent base, and its important that we as a party reconcile with them.

But some of the countrys most prominent black women were just as confounded about the way forward as any Democrat in Virginia.

This has been one of the most difficult political weeks of my life, said Donna Brazile, the former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. Theres no playbook for this.

Even before Ms. Watson made her accusation Friday, Mr. Fairfax was in grave jeopardy. He infuriated Virginias three freshman Democratic women in the congressional delegation with his dismissive treatment of the initial assault claim made by Vanessa C. Tyson, and then compounded his difficulty by not calling any of them. Similarly, he had not called Mr. McEachin, one of two African-Americans in the delegation, before Ms. Watson spoke out.

You dont need to be a woman to be upset about the way Justin has handled this, Mr. McEachin said.

It came to no surprise to Virginia Democrats, then, when Mr. McEachin and the three female lawmakers Representatives Elaine Luria, Abigail Spanberger and Jennifer Wexton were some of the earliest on Friday night to demand Mr. Fairfax resign.

As for Mr. Northam, the governor, he told his cabinet on Friday that he would not resign. In an email to state employees acknowledging that the state is in uncharted waters, he said: You have placed your trust in me to lead Virginia forward and I plan to do that.

But some black Democrats are unhappy about the prospect of him remaining in office, after he acknowledged he wore shoe polish to go in blackface as part of a Michael Jackson costume for a dance contest in 1984.

Yet Ms. Bass, the Congressional Black Caucus leader, and other Democrats offered some measure of praise for Mr. Herring, who revealed that he wore blackface to imitate a rapper as a University of Virginia undergraduate but has pleaded for forgiveness from the states black lawmakers.

At least he came forward and seemed to be sincere and apologized, Ms. Bass said.

Other national Democrats also praised Mr. Herring, who methodically reached out to nearly every prominent African-American lawmaker in Virginia, and said it was time the party reconsider its demands for instant accountability for the transgressors in its ranks.

Its unrealistic to expect politicians to have lived perfect lives the general public doesnt expect that, and they are much more forgiving than the Twitter outrage mob, said Elisabeth Smith, a Democratic strategist, singling out Mr. Herring. If anything, weve learned the importance of taking a step back and taking a deep breath before demanding these guys heads on a plate.

But there is far less sympathy among black lawmakers in the Capitol for the governor, who has flip-flopped about whether he was in a racist photo that appeared on his medical school yearbook page.

Northam called me Friday night and took ownership of that photo and said, Im sorry, thats me in the photo, recalled Ms. Herring, who is not related to the attorney general. Then, Saturday, moonwalks it back, and then adds some more pain with the description about how he needs to only put a light coat of shoe polish on because its hard to get off. He doesnt get it.

For Ms. Herring and other legislators, the controversies over blackface were painful reminders of the states not-so-distant past and its lingering prejudices. Ms. Herring said she had often thought about a particular red glow from her childhood: what she saw when a cross burned outside her Georgia home when she was 9.

And just a few blocks north of Virginias elegant state capitol, several black Richmonders were downright suspicious of Mr. Northam. The Virginia crisis began a week ago Friday when Mr. Northams yearbook page surfaced on a conservative website, with one photo featuring a man in blackface and another in Ku Klux Klan robes, and Mr. Northam said he was in the photo and then, a day later, said he was not. Now it is Mr. Fairfax who is under far more pressure to resign or get impeached than Mr. Northam.

Deon Wright, 42, said he did not know what to think about the various parts of the political crisis. But one thing is certain, Mr. Wright said: Youre more able to survive as a white man in America who wore blackface than as a black man thats facing #MeToo accusations.

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Justin Fairfax Puts Virginia Democrats in Bind on ...

For now, at least, the president seems to have maintained support for his uncompromising position.

Hes like the Missouri mule who sits down in the mud and says, Im not moving, said Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana.

Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, said Mr. Trump had made the case that Republicans had a much better chance of prevailing if they remained united in opposition to spending bills to get the government funded again.

What did Benjamin Franklin say at the constitutional convention? Mr. Cornyn told reporters. We need to hang together or well hang separately. Thats what it reminded me of.

Democrats, who are confident Mr. Trump is taking the brunt of the blame for the impasse, showed little sign of capitulation. The House vote to fund financial agencies and the White House was the first of several this week on individual spending bills that are intended to pick off uneasy Republicans. But in the end, it drew only one more Republican than a vote last week to reopen the government. A White House official said Wednesday that Mr. Trump would veto any such bill.

In the Senate, Democrats had managed to grind to a stop unrelated foreign policy legislation to increase pressure on Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, to relent on his insistence that he will not put any bill to reopen the government up for a vote there without Mr. Trumps support.

Democrats offered other warnings to the White House. Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said he had warned Patrick Shanahan, the acting defense secretary, in a private meeting that a national emergency declaration by Mr. Trump would constitute a major breach of relations between the Pentagon and Congress.

Mr. McConnell continued publicly to insist that the dispute was for Democrats and the president to solve. He has largely absented himself from negotiations, and did not speak during Wednesdays White House session, a position that appeared to be validated on Tuesday by a Politico and Morning Consult poll that found only 5 percent of respondents blamed congressional Republicans for the impasse, compared with 47 percent who blamed Mr. Trump and 33 percent who blamed congressional Democrats.

I cannot urge my Democratic colleagues more strongly to get past this purely partisan spite, rediscover their own past positions on border security and negotiate a fair solution with our president to secure our nation and reopen all of the federal government, Mr. McConnell said in remarks on the Senate floor.

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Trump Storms Out of White House Meeting With Democrats on ...

Migrants from Honduras, part of a caravan of thousands from Central America, at the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Tijuana, Mexico, December 26, 2018.(Mohammed Salem/Reuters)Democrats will keep a quarter of the federal government shuttered, if that will stop Trump from fulfilling his biggest campaign pledge.

The Democrats dont want to let us have strong borders only for one reason. You know why? Because I want it, said President Donald J. Trump Wednesday, to the laughter of U.S. troops at Iraqs Al Asad Air Base. But you gave me an idea, just looking at this warrior group. I think Ill say, I dont want the wall. And then theyre going to give it to me.

President Trump is on to something. Democrats seem determined to stop his plans for a southern-border wall as revenge for beating Hillary Clinton. They hate Trumps guts more than they love America. In Fiscal Year 2018 alone, federal officers apprehended 396,579 illegal aliens on the southwest border. The Left loves the fact that those who were caught and released, and others who break into America undetected, likely will become Democrats. So, from their perspective, why give President Trump this win?

Some of this might be semantics. The name for the U.S.Mexican divide could matter politically.

I had over a half a dozen Senate Democrats tell me just Friday [December 21], that if we call it anything but a wall, theyd be all for it, Senator David Perdue (R., Ga.) told Fox News Channels Maria Bartiromo on Sunday. This is ridiculous. This is all about resisting Trump and not taking care of the business that we have as a Senate.

Building a fence seems less than what Trump promised. Perhaps, then, erecting a barrier would let Democrats believe that they kept Republicans from getting what they want while Republicans just might find that they got what they need.

Such a linguistic compromise could end the nearly week-old partial shutdown. After all, this word worked just fine for then-presidential candidate Hillary Clintons in 2015: I voted numerous times when I was a senator to spend money to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in, she bragged to voters on the campaign trail. I do think you have to control your borders.

However, even that might not satisfy todays Democrats. They seem committed to keeping a quarter of the federal government shuttered, if thats what it takes to stop President Trump from fulfilling his biggest campaign pledge.

So, as Democrats just say, No! to President Trumps wall, they are colluding in several serious, deadly ills. Until they support a wall:

If Democrats want these evils to continue, then they should remain on their current course. If they prefer to limit or end these horrors, they should cease their hatred for President Trump, approve the Houses $5.7 billion in barrier funds, and conclude their partial government shutdown.

Incoming Bucknell University student Michael Malarkey contributed research for this opinion article.

Link:
Democrats Wall Opposition about Trump | National Review

History will record that, by narrowly taking control of the House of Representatives in 2018, the Democrats avoided what could have been a catastrophic defeat, engendering fratricidal warfare among leftists. Democrats lost most of the marquee match-ups in this year's midterms, they lost ground in the all-important Senate, and they remain the minority party at all levels of government except the U.S. Congress. Nonetheless, Democrats feellike winners, and the media portrays them as such, and those two facts in themselves represent a kind of victory for the Left, given the peril it was in. In politics, as in life, perception is (nearly) everything.

The Democrats should not rest on their laurels, however, because possession of a majority in the House of Representatives brings with it many disadvantages, and it conveys remarkably little power. Republicans, lest we forget, have controlled the House and the Senate since 2014, and they managed few substantial legislative accomplishments, beyond a modest tax cut and the elimination of the Obamacare mandate. How much less will Democrats accomplish with a very slender majority in the House and a hostile Senate to deal with? Indeed, the only way that Pelosi and company could achieve anything substantial is by working with Senate Republicans and with President Trump and nothing would discredit the Democratic leadership in the House more quickly and more irredeemably in the eyes of hardcore leftists than a willingness to do business with Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump. Legislatively, therefore, the Democratic House seems destined to be a total bust.

Democrats comfort themselves with the notion that, even if Pelosi and her narrow House majority can't produce any consequential bills, they can produce investigations and hearings. This prospect makes liberal media elites and left-wing activists salivate, because they imagine that every member of the Trump administration, not to mention the Trump family, is knee-deep in illegality. Surely, therefore, even the most cursory glance at the evidence (tax returns, of all things!) will cause the Trump administration to collapse like a house of cards.

The problem with such reasoning is that this supposedly monstrous and endemic illegality has only ever existed in liberals' fevered imaginations, and in any case the vast majority of Americans, despite their doubts about President Trump, do not favor impeachment, which is clearly the direction in which most Democratic House investigations will point. Recently-elected Democratic members of the House, most of whom are from very competitive swing districts, will be even less enthusiastic for investigations and impeachment proceedings than their constituents. The hearings that a Democratic House will convene, therefore, while they may produce compelling political theater for Trump-haters with a great deal of time on their hands, are unlikely to change fundamentally the nation's political dynamics. Trump has already been raked over the coals by the media, by politicians on both sides of the aisle, and by leakers in his own administration. That some committees of the House will now be added to the long list of Trump's enemies is a prospect that the president should view with equanimity. After all, the Deep State has already thrown everything its got at Donald Trump, and he's still standing. There's little more, seemingly, that House Democrats can do.

Worse still for Democrats is the fact that their unending and multifaceted critique of President Trump and his administration will inevitably grow tiresome, especially for middle-of-the-road and independent voters. Democrats will appear to be persecuting the president, and obstructing his initiatives based solely on spite, which is a dynamic that many a president has used to his political advantage. Harry Truman proved that a do nothing Congress is a magnificent foil for a president to run against. Even better, though, is a Congress, or in this case a House of Representatives, distinguished by nary an accomplishment except an excessive and unprecedented loathing for the Chief Executive. President Trump, if he is wise, can easily capitalize on the opportunity that this loathing presents.

In this light, we should recall that the president-versus-Congress dynamic helped Presidents Clinton and Obama to win re-election. Both of those presidents led their party to electoral disaster in their first midterms in 1994 and 2010, respectively. Those shellackings, though, ultimately redounded to the president's benefit, since holding the line against the perceived excesses of a Republican Congress gave Clinton and Obama a new lease on life and gave voters a compelling reason to retain them in office. Arguably, in fact, for Clinton and Obama, initial midterm losses were the precondition for long-term success.

All in all, Democrats should have been careful what they wished for in 2018. A slim majority in the House of Representatives affords the Democrats a reprieve from the inevitable reckoning that their party faces between the Left and the Center, yes, but it also confronts them with a host of new problems.

Democrats must keep their constituents happy, despite the fact that they will be unable to produce any legislative accomplishments; they must, to a minimal degree, work with Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump to govern the country, despite the fact that their base despises both figures with an unholy passion; they must satiate the Trump-haters with a litany of investigations, and somehow they must mollify these same zealots when these investigations fail to produce the removal of President Trump, which is the only standard of success that many leftists believe in; and, finally, they must share center stage in American politics and accept their own measure of scrutiny and blame, when up to now it has been exclusively the Republicans who have borne the burden of leadership.

If the Democrats had taken the Senate in 2018, they at least could have successfully blocked President Trump's future cabinet and judicial picks. With a narrow House majority, they can't even do that much.

2018, therefore, may emerge as the definition of a Pyrrhic victory for Democrats. Their glory may be short-lived, and their frustrations immeasurable.

Dr. Nicholas L. Waddy is an Associate Professor of History at SUNY Alfred and blogs at:www.waddyisright.com. He appears weekly on the Newsmaker Show on WLEA 1480.

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Democrats: Be Careful What You Wish For - townhall.com