having had more than two weeks to ponder one of the most humiliating presidential defeats in its history, the democratic party is moving to apply its lessons to the legislative battles ahead, as well as to the daunting but essential task of rebuilding the party<u+2019>s fortunes. much of the burden will fall on democrats in the closely divided senate, where arcane rules give the opposition party leverage to shape or block legislation passed by the rigidly conservative, republican-dominated house. the challenge facing the senate minority leader, chuck schumer, is to determine when to say no and when to compromise on matters of broad economic benefit. mr. schumer vows to block all efforts to kill obamacare, or gut dodd-frank financial regulation. <u+201c>we<u+2019>re not going to undo it, period. and i have the votes.<u+201d> and the democrats are sure to resist ideas they abhor <u+2014> a far-right supreme court nominee, or efforts to undermine environmental protections. yet other issues in which both sides and the larger public have an interest, like infrastructure, could offer room for collaboration. the stakes are high: in 2018, 10 senate democrats must defend their seats in states that mr. trump won. democrats are desperate to do better in 38 governors<u+2019> races in the next two years, and in state legislative races, since state legislatures will determine the shape of congressional districts after the 2020 census. <u+201c>when you lose the way we lost, you can<u+2019>t blink, you can<u+2019>t look away,<u+201d> says mr. schumer, who has been in touch with mr. trump over the past two weeks. <u+201c>above all, our economic message was not sharp enough, was not bold enough, was not strong enough. all those blue collar voters who voted for donald trump, even many who had voted for obama, they thought he was the change agent.<u+201d> leaders of both parties missed middle-class voters<u+2019> determination this year to blow up a political establishment that had failed to improve their lives, the <u+201c>primal scream on the part of a lot of voters who are disenchanted with the status quo,<u+201d> in the words of david axelrod , an architect of president obama<u+2019>s 2008 call for change. that scream emanated early on from passionate supporters of bernie sanders<u+2019>s calls for revolution, against which hillary clinton, for all her experience (indeed, in part because of it), seemed an emblem of the status quo. mrs. clinton<u+2019>s popular vote totals surpass donald trump<u+2019>s by more than two million and counting <u+2014> an edge not seen in an electoral college loss since 1876. but her fate was sealed in industrial and rural battlegrounds, chiefly wisconsin, michigan, iowa, pennsylvania and ohio, majority-white states whose 70 electoral votes president obama won in 2012. sexism and racial bigotry obviously played roles in her defeat. but far greater problems were her strategists<u+2019> bet that a coalition of minority voters and white democratic stalwarts would deliver a landslide and her failure to crystallize a broad economic vision from among her many proposals for helping working-class voters regardless of race <u+2014> the kind of message mr. obama was able to send. her characterization of a swath of mr. trump<u+2019>s supporters as <u+201c>deplorables<u+201d> and <u+201c>irredeemable<u+201d> didn<u+2019>t help. to avert a future of increasingly factional politics, the united states needs at least one major party with a message that transcends the boundaries of race and class. mr. trump says he intends to govern for all americans, and he will have his chance to prove a commitment to helping more than just the electorate that supported him, which was overwhelmingly white. democrats are now in search of their own unifying message, as they sort through the wreckage of 2016. <u+201c>the party started looking at people through interest group coalitions, and we thought, <u+2018>if we talk to them all in different ways, that will be enough to cobble together an election coalition,<u+2019> <u+201d> representative ruben gallego of arizona says. <u+201c>but i think there is a common interest in our economic policies between the laid-off white worker in flint, the african-american and the latino in phoenix.<u+201d> despite personal revulsion at mr. trump<u+2019>s stances on immigration, islam and refugees, prominent democrats have said he deserves a chance. president obama, for one, has said : <u+201c>i want to be respectful of the office and give the president-elect an opportunity to put forward his platform and his arguments without somebody popping off in every instance.<u+201d> but he has also made clear he will not yield on <u+201c>core questions about our values and our ideals.<u+201d> negotiating in this spirit could help democrats shape mr. trump<u+2019>s amorphous ideas into useful legislation. if he resists, he<u+2019>ll supply democrats with an argument to take to the heartland, as well as the coasts, and claim the loyalty of americans who deserve hope, regardless of race. follow the new york times opinion section on facebook and twitter (@nytopinion), and sign up for the opinion today newsletter . a version of this editorial appears in print on november 27, 2016, on page sr10 of the new york edition with the headline: can senate democrats save the party?. today's paper | subscribe
can senate democrats save the party?
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