Welcome back to be on the polls.

This week I'll talk about the tensions within the Democratic Party with Brookings Institution scholar Bill Galston.

Let's dive in.

Well, as we move into the Labor Day weekend, it is my joy and pleasure to be able to talk to one of the best observers of the

American political scene. That's Bill Galston, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a weekly

columnist at the Wall Street Journal. Bill, welcome back to be on the polls.

It's great to be here, as always, Henry. Well, I have to ask, what's going on with the Democrats?

Are they in as much disarray as we often hear about when we read our DC-based media?

Yes, but party disarray after a shattering presidential loss is nothing due.

As a matter of fact, it would be quite remarkable if it didn't happen.

The Democrats are famous for forming a circular firing squad after major defeats.

And so we are doing.

However, as I reflect on the history of past defeats, there is a cycle to the reaction, sort of like, you know, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's five stages

of grief, except with, you know, except with a happier ending,

because the solution to a party's woes, certainly the Democrats' woes, rarely comes early in the next four-year cycle. It almost never emerges from Congress or, you know,

or the clash of different, you know, in different think tanks and interest groups. It's all sorted

out during the presidential nominating contest.

That's when people who have developed views on what the party needs to do to improve its

prospects get to try them out before, you know, first small audiences, then state audiences,

and finally the country as a whole.

And historically, when the party has renewed itself, it has been through the presidential nominating process. So to those who say the Democratic Party is in disarray, I say,

so what else did you expect? Of course it is, you know,

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