Election’s over, but battle over its meaning is just beginning

The just-concluded 2020 elections showed that America’s democracy remains resilient.

It was a rebuke of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, given that President-elect Joe Biden, a moderate, ran ahead of many down-ballot Democratic candidates.

It was bad news for the whole Republican Party, whose loss of the White House portends a difficult future as the nation becomes more diverse in years ahead.

The takes above are all true – unless they aren’t, and democracy showed its flaws, moderate Democrats stumbled, and the GOP can take hope, given the makeup of its down-ballot electorate.

A week after voters went to the polls, the nation’s political class writ large is already engaged in fierce debate about what the election means. As more data emerges about vote breakdowns and voter demographics, those on the left, right, and center are struggling to frame the results in ways that

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