This Michael Gerson op-ed is worth noting,  He thinks the progressives have lost contact with political reality.  We have the most liberal/progressive president we have had in our lifetime, and he is unable to persuade.  Instead of asking why he (and Pelosi, et al) are unable to persuade, they are now relying on their own conspiracy and sabotage assertions.  This forces them to  assume, according to Gerson, that "the case for liberal policies is so self-evident that all opposition is malevolent."  If this is true then they are not likely to engage in the conversation we think we want in the next many years.  This will have an affect on our attempt to revive fundamental political questions on behalf of self-governance, on behalf of constitutionalism.