It happened the day Hillary Clinton declared herself “part of the resistance.” That was the moment the whole movement died, in parody of itself, as the presidential candidate who lost the election fair and square tried to position herself as a leader in the effort to delegitimize the winner.

And no, it wasn’t when Bernie Sanders, the leader-in-exile of “the resistance,” attacked a nameless bureaucrat at a Senate confirmation hearing for believing as a Christian that eternal salvation can only be obtained through Jesus Christ.

I think I know the exact moment “the resistance” came to a crushing end. No, it wasn’t Tuesday night’s loss in Georgia’s congressional race, when Democrat Jon Ossoff — described as a “near ideal candidate” — was steamrolled by Karen Handel, a frumpy, charisma-less Republican running in a district where President Trump barely squeaked out a win in 2016.

And what a spectacular failure it has proved itself to be. A genuine resistance movement has the people on its side, at least in theory, and can point to a tactical victory here or there, but not this one.


Already, the excuses are flowing forth from battered Democrats to explain the results of the special House election in Georgia, the fourth in a row claimed by Republicans in the Trump era.

“The rain depressed the turnout.”

“It was a Republican district.”

“The Democrat was an inexperienced, first-time candidate.”

Some Democrats have gone even further and tried to rewrite history with their memory eraser stick, like Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones wielded in the movie “Men in Black,” and pretend it was never a “must-win” race for them.

But the truth is, it was a winnable contest for Democrats, who widely saw it as a test of Trump’s popularity. They pumped tens of millions of dollars into the race. When Trump flew to Atlanta to fund-raise for Handel, Democrats gleefully passed around a photo of the two embracing.

Famous Hollywood celebrities, from Samuel L. Jackson to Rosie O’Donnell and Debra Messing, announced their support for Ossoff.

Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez confidently predicted an Ossoff victory would “send a big, loud message to Donald and the Republicans who are backing him that Democrats are fired up and ready to fight.”


So what have we learned?

In the short term, Republicans are going to feel emboldened to push ahead with the Trump agenda on health care, tax reform, and border security. Republicans who might be tempted to retire ahead of the midterms will likely stick around. It will get harder to recruit Democratic candidates.

Longer term, anything can happen between now and next year’s midterms, but Republicans have proved they can hold down the suburbs, where they are thought to be vulnerable among wealthy, more educated voters. We already know they can take the fight to Democrats in aging Rust Belt communities. It’s not going to be easy to beat Trump or retake the House.

Oh, and “the resistance”? Trump’s opponents need a new approach besides pretending they are living in German-occupied France.

A new strategy for Democrats should not only lay out a positive vision for the future, it must also distance them from the failed leadership of the past and generate the potential to attract crossover votes from moderate Republicans and GOP-leaning independents who have never been fans of Trump.

Much has been made about Trump’s sliding poll numbers, as if this foretells his doom. It is worth bearing in mind that on the day he was elected president, Trump’s favorable rating was 38 percent. Winning is going to require more of Democrats than blind opposition.

Eric Fehrnstrom is a Republican political analyst and media strategist, and was a senior adviser to Governor Mitt Romney.