When President Obama took office in January of 2009, all of America was poised to reap the benefits of Hope and Change, and looking forward to the country’s rebound from the Great Recession.  As Obama is leaving in 2016, most have found instead that hope has dwindled and change was not apparent, at least to working class Americans.

The President has just said we are all better off today than we were when he took the reins, but voters disagreed and decided to force change by electing Donald Trump as his successor, instead of continuing his legacy with Hillary Clinton.

During Obama’s eight years in the Oval Office, the Democratic party has seen its numbers of representatives, senators and state governors fall remarkably, as Republicans now have a solid majority in the House, and control of all three branches of government.  Trump’s term in office could also see a few appointments to the Supreme Court, which arguably could shape America’s direction for quite some time, long after Trump himself is gone.

In other words, the Democratic Party has been decimated over the last eight years, and it wasn’t the fault of the Russians.  The loss in the presidential election was just one of the straws, but the main cause was the majority of the country didn’t see that Democratic policies and platforms were working for all of them, even if Clinton did receive more votes than Trump in the General Election.

The Democratic Party has become a niche party, and their message was targeted to identity politics, pledging to support certain groups of Americans, but largely ignoring the majority.  Democrats wanted to reach gay rights advocates, women’s rights activists, environmentalists, and Hispanic activists, but failed to connect to the average Americans, who may be in favor of all of the above to a degree, but are more concerned with things like the economy, homeland safety, and job creation.

Average citizens viewed these issues to be of greater importance than which bathrooms were available, climate change, and income equality.  They want to see more action by the government that will assist the working middle-class, and less about adding more people to the government entitlement programs.  They also, strangely enough, considering the Republican party has traditionally been seen as the party of the rich, viewed the Democrat candidate as an “elitist” and out of touch with mainstream America.

But, now the realization that Trump did indeed win the presidency, and will be in charge with control of both houses, is beginning to set in, and the future of the Democratic Party itself is troublesome.

Voters showed they were not happy with the course the country was going under Democratic leadership, and despite the popularity of Obama himself, opted for a change.  So now, the Dems are faced with the frightening prospect of what can happen if Trump turns out to be a successful president?

If Trump can jump-start the economy, improve the quality of life for the middle-class by providing jobs and income, and can follow up on his slogan, “Make America Great Again,” where does that leave the Dems?

Democrats are faced with the decision to support some of Trump’s policies, and risk further decimation of their ranks, or try to block Trump’s efforts and be seen as anti-American.  Either way, they stand to lose face among the voters.

That leaves them with hoping Trump’s presidency will be viewed as a failure, but that sounds sort of like rooting for America to fail, so what can they do?  Aren’t we all in this together?

Democrats have some hard choices to make.  It certainly seems the country wants the party to move a little toward the center, but the party’s base wants to move even farther to the left.

Should Trump have a successful first two years as president, it could be a long, cold time for the DNC.