Can the Democratic Party Come Back from the Wilderness and Defeat Trump?

How could it happen?

How could the majority of US voters give their support to someone like Donald J. Trump after electing the first African-American President? 

What to do now?

Those are some of the questions thrown in the 15 episodes of The Wilderness, a series focused completely on the Democratic Party: its history and its future.

Jon Favreau, former speechwriter of Barack Obama, is the mind behind the podcast and the voice leading the way across the journey.

As you can imagine, it isn't objective.

Favreau is a convinced Democrat and he doesn't hide it. It's a biased podcast - he admits -, but it's also a honest and cathartic analysis - he promises - of the current situation the party of Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy is facing.

Many keys are given to explain how it all got to this point. But two main events are pointed: the financial crash of 2008 and the primaries between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. As I listened I couldn't help having the feeling Favreau was blaming Sanders and his criticism of Clinton as a member of the privileged establishment for the success of Trump. He doesn't get to say, but he implies it. One could argue exactly the opposite: at a time of growing inequality, it's precisely that rock-solid support for Clinton and her close links to the economic elite what at the end tilted the balance for Trump. 

The Democrats recovered the House of Representatives last November, but they still have lots of work to be done if they want to defeat Trump or any other extremely conservative Republican candidate in 2020.

And that's exactly the most interesting part of the podcast: the future of the party. From episode 4, in a topic-by-topic basis, Favreau looks into all the challenges and dilemmas it faces.

The series, which ended before the November midterm, is now fully available to listen. And it's worth a listen. Like or not, the future of the USA and the Western World depends on what path the Democrats take.