Noah Rothman guest-hosts for Rich on today’s edition of The Editors, and he is joined by Charlie, Phil, and Ramesh to talk about the Democrats’ leadership struggle.

“There’s gonna be somebody who satisfies Democrats’ desire for some kind of real garment-rending resistance-style performance art,” says Noah. “And they’re not getting it from the Democratic elected leaders. So they’re going to get it from somewhere, right?”

Charlie says, “They might get it. They might not need it. I think what you’re seeing at the moment is the fruits of impotence. The Democrats are very unpopular and more important than that, they just lost an election they really didn’t want to lose. And that has left them justly speechless. You can’t really say much when you have thrown as much rhetoric at Donald Trump as they did only to watch him win every swing state and the popular vote.”

However, he believes that “what we’re seeing is a fairly normal dearth of obvious leadership coupled with the failure of the party to stop Trump when it was convinced that it had to and would, and peak Trump. I just don’t think any of those conditions is going to obtain in two years.”

Ramesh agrees with Charlie’s assessment, adding, “Now the truth of the matter, though, is that later in the year it will actually matter quite a bit if Democrats in the House can hold together in opposing Republican budget plans because that does in fact maximize the pressure on the Republicans because they have such a tight margin in holding together and getting their plans through. And it’s not, I think, clear that they’re going to be able to do that. And if they do do that, they might end up disappointing some of their core supporters based on how little they end up accomplishing. But that’s going to take time to play out.”

Tune in below or on your podcast app of choice to hear the rest of the conversation.

The Editors podcast is recorded on Tuesdays and Fridays every week and is available wherever you listen to podcasts.