Paul Crookston makes an important point, from which follows a test we can all apply going forward:

Democrats are not doing anything to adjust to the changed political landscape, as evidenced by their retention of Nancy Pelosi as House minority leader, and it seems that elite news media are also sticking to the same playbook. They are wasting opportunity to understand the voters who are dissatisfied with them.

Voters of all political persuasions should watch the national Democrats and the news media.  If they don’t make changes to reflect the people they’re supposedly representing, it means they aren’t intending to represent, but to rule, and are hoping the demographics of the nation will change sufficiently that they can dismiss without repercussion the people they’ve been dismissing to their own detriment.

So far the signs that cynics like me will be proven wrong are nowhere to be found.