While reading this article I came across the following sentence:
Today Democrats are wondering what went wrong, but before too many fundraising dinners have been digested they will have concluded they don’t need to worry, that demographics will bail them out sooner or later, and that the right and noble course of action is to proceed as before.
I'm a little bit puzzled as I just can't get the right chronological order of events. Am I wrong, or the author places a completed future event before a past one that continues up to the present?
Please let me know your thoughts on this.
Best Answer
It's a little confusing but most of the sentence is "what the Democrats will think in the future". Here's the total sequence of events:
Today: Democrats are wondering what went wrong.
In the future: Democrats will conclude that:
Farther in the future: many fundraising dinners have been digested.
I think the tricky part is "before too many fundraising dinners have been digested" - that is, before this event is complete - "they will have concluded" - this other event will be complete.