With a small swing, the Democrats can still win a free and fair presidential election. They will be favored to win the House next year. But the Senate presents serious challenges due to its bias in favor of rural areas, and not just next year; it is hard to see how the blue team can win any kind of working majority in the absence of some sort of GOP policy-driven disaster. The rural bias and the filibuster are key components of the McConnell Project, which keeps the blue team from exercising real power even when in office. What can the Democrats do about them?
In the end, they will have to take the risk and abolish the filibuster if they want to do more than play with the budget. They will also have to figure out a way to win at least some reasonable proportion of rural votes. Since rural voters appear to be more motivated by values than interests–their views on policy matters, according to surveys, aren’t very different from ours–that means running candidates who don’t look weak and woke.