Where are the Democrats going next after their defeat by President Trump? That is one question that comes to mind as the Biden administration goes out not with a bang but a whimper. Nearly every county in America reddened — none more so than those areas previously colored ultramarine. The party, though, appears intent on squandering this season. Presented with a fork in the road, it is heading left. That way lies the fate of the dodo.

That is the view of one of the Democrats who won this month — Senator-elect Elissa Slotkin of Michigan. At a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee briefing, she ventured that “identity politics needs to go the way of the dodo” and that the party would be wise to adopt language “not from the faculty lounge, but the assembly line.” Our Maggie Hroncich reports that “nearly no Americans are using so-called ‘woke’ terminology.”

Employing language that nobody uses is one driver toward electoral extinction. Another is the growing furor surrounding Congressman Seth Moulton. By all accounts, the Marine from Massachusetts is a bright light for the Democrats, a young solon worth watching. Instead, commonsense comments he made about transgender participants in school sports prompted protests outside his home — and a promise to run him out of office in 2026.

He told the Times that he has “two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.” Never mind that 69 percent of Americans agree with him. A compelling political platform could be built from everything Democrats are afraid to say. Witness also Ms. Harris’s failing to appear on Joe Rogan’s podcast for fear of “backlash.”

Mr. Moulton explains that “The Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face.” For that, the left has the stakes out for him at Salem. Mr. Moulton tells Bloomberg that Democrats “have this arrogant culture where if you don’t meet every ideological litmus test established by our party’s left wing, then you’re not only wrong, you are a bad person.”

There in the shell of a nut is the fork in the road for the Democrats in the wake of Trump’s victory in the presidential election. The fear of what Democratic insider Jennifer Palmieri calls a “backlash” clouds the path forward for a once brave party, which holds no branch of the federal government, but nearly every American campus. Why would Ms. Harris’s foot soldiers be so exercised by their candidate pulling up to the microphone?  

These columns have long argued that the election would be won on policy grounds. In turning to Trump, Americans disclosed a preference for a secure border, less government regulation, and a change of strategy in the international arena. Also, a revulsion toward the censoriousness of Democrats with respect to culture. President Biden is unpopular. What was Ms. Harris’s when she claimed she “wouldn’t change a thing”?

With the naming of Trump’s cabinet, Democrats are beginning to take the measure of their defeat. In the campaign’s closing days we took note of the irony that the party did enjoy a “Sista Souljah” moment in respect of the Democrats’ pro-Hamas faction. The rub is that it came from a man who can never be president again — President Clinton. Democrats will have to channel some of yesterday’s man to stand up tomorrow’s winners.

Pivots are possible in politics. When Trump ran for president eight years ago, he swiveled attention to the plight of the working man. That adjustment paid dividends in spades this year. Democrats, meanwhile, keep getting tugged to the left. We don’t want to overstate the predicament of the Democrats, but the failure to evolve can be a prelude to extinction. There were once millions of dodos flapping around. The last one, though, was spotted in 1662.