So, to further elaborate on the bolded, yes, Trump winning was a sad affair; however, it's not all gloomy either. The bright side is that we know for a fact he'll be a nonfactor in terms of running for the presidency or being on the ballot anymore, his influence will be hanging around but it'll be a fresh of breath air knowing he's no longer opposite of the ballot, so the Dems will be facing a new character which could be a good thing or a bad thing for Democrats in '28.
This means that the Dems are going to have to run a much better campaign, not necessarily in regards to policies and such but rather attitude and mentality, one of the things that have led the Blue side into becoming stagnant in their approach is the fact many Democrats as well as their voters overestimated, underestimated, miscalculated, and overly reliant on running on the idea of “not being Trump” failing to understand that's a losing strategy and is not good enough to win.
The Dems are going to need a candidate that can “restore the feeling” that was present in '08 and, to some extent, in '12. Now, the nominee doesn't have to be Obama 2.0, but they need to have that ability to galvanize the people similarly. The truth is that Biden, Kamala, and Hillary all had too much baggage (some out of their control; gender, age, political scandal, etc) and “perception of character” issues that proved to be too much to overcome in the minds of voters.
The problem is that the Dems will no longer have Trump and his boogyman persona to campaign against which means they could be potentially facing a GOP candidate who is arguably better than Trump, in other words, they'll have their shyt together, no political or legal baggage holding them back, no perceptions of being a clown or a joke but rather someone who can legitimately win the votes of the people based on merit, basically a worthy adversary.
It's hard to say if the Democrats have a candidate that's good enough to restore the feelings of '08 and '12. I'm not convinced that Newsom, who people keep drooling over, can get it done, and Whitmer, unless she's a VP option, the Dems would be setting themselves up for another loss to run her as a #1 because America simply isn't ready nor interested in appointing a woman as leader of the country.