Because of the quirks of the US constitution, Democrats find it difficult to assemble an electoral coalition capable of delivering working majorities in both chambers of Congress and a Democrat president. In the 2020 elections, Biden's electoral college victory was secured by 44,000 votes, distributed in three states. Republicans currently hold 59 state chambers to the Democrats' 39, and they will use this to further gerrymander boundaries and suppress votes. Trump took Reagan's Republican strategy - small government, populism and mobilising conservatives - to a logical conclusion by seeking to wreck government as a deliberate strategy and mobilising right-wing extremists to support his rule. Repairing Americans' faith in government is a long term task . However, Biden's continuing allegiance to the ideas of the New Deal, and the recognition the party must now give to its grassroots activists, particularly in black communities, may help to energise the Democrat coalition.