Facing 4 More Years of Trump, Democrats Can't Agree on a Plan
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BY PHILIP ELLIOTT Senior Correspondent, TIME
Editor's note: Today, we're highlighting Phil's latest feature for the Inauguration package in the next issue of TIME.
When Senator John Fetterman got word that President-elect Donald Trump wanted to meet, the Pennsylvania Democrat didn't have to think it over too long. Even though Trump had savaged Fetterman during the 2022 campaign—going so far as to allegehe had an affinity for cocaine, heroin, crystal meth, and fentanyl—Fetterman reasoned that he represents all Pennsylvanians, including the 3.5 million who had just voted for Trump.
"If the President invites you to have a conversation and to engage, I'm not sure why anybody would decide not to," Fetterman tells TIME. "I'm in the business of creating wins for Pennsylvania."
Eight years earlier, such a meeting would have drawn outrage in Democratic circles. This time the response to Fetterman's pilgrimage, which caught most senior Democrats by surprise, was more ambivalent. Some party officials believe working more closely with Trump this time will be necessary as the 47th President takes office with political capital to spend and a Republican Congress lined up behind him.
At the start of Trump's second term, the Democrats are stuck somewhere between discombobulation and despair. Conversations with two dozen Democratic sources reveal a party still struggling to figure out how they found themselves losing the White House and Senate and stuck in the minority in the House. Prescriptions for a comeback abound.
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