What Went Wrong?

For starters, we need to agree that Democrats can’t blame the winners for winning.  Trump, his advisers and his MAGA voters got what they wanted.  Democrats can’t fault them for Democratic failures.  Then, the only reason to ask this question is: Democrats don’t want to repeat the mistakes that caused them to lose this time.

The most obvious and agreed upon reasons why Harris lost are: a) she only had a few months to campaign, b) Biden was a very unpopular president (history will judge him very kindly, the American people – polls – not so much), c) Harris was even more unpopular than her boss, d) her debate performance was her high point in the polls, but it was downhill from that point on, and e) being an agent of change and not being able to give a single example of what she would do differently from President Biden didn’t help – on an immensely popular, and pro-Harris, TV show called The View.

The most obvious and agreed upon reasons why Trump won are: a) everyone in the country knows him, as he has self-promoted his brand for 50+ years, b) he is an entertainer before being a politician, c) the American people don’t like “politicians,” d) he has tapped into white rage, which is partially racist and sexist, partly "poorly educated" and partly because Americans are hurting, genuinely, as the folks at the top continue to reap the benefits of a growing economy while most of us have been left to stagnate, if not lose jobs to offshore movement and automation and AI.  This last used to be a Democratic issue; Democrats traded it away for identity politics and get-out-the vote, and campaign contributions from big donors (often the same as donate to Republicans).

Now for some ooold rusty reasons that professional political pundits keep throwing at us.

“The Far Left killed us.”  OK, then, please explain Bernie Sanders’ 31%age points plurality, Elizabeth Warren’s 19%age points plurality, AOC’s 38%age points plurality.  “Far Left” all.  Indeed, a rock-solid case can be made that Bernie Sanders would have beaten Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024 too.  At the same time, Far Left ultra-liberal Vermont re-elected its (moderate and not a fan of Trump) Republican governor Phil Scott for the fifth time, by more than a 50%age! points plurality.  Maybe it’s not about too progressive, too liberal, too “Far Left.”  Maybe it’s about the candidates.   Maybe voters give their vote to the candidate whom they TRUST!  (I know, who can TRUST Trump?  Unhappily, tens of millions of our fellow Americans). Many voters will never vote for a Republican, many will never vote for a Democrat, but more voters are not party loyalists, even those who are registered with one party or another.  Explain the more than 50% of Vermont’s voters who voted for Bernie Sanders and Phil Scott on the same ballot.  Or explain the 175,000 Arizona votes for Trump that did not go ultra-MAGA Kari Lake’s way.

“We are not ready for a woman in the White House.”  OK, then, please explain how “likeable enough” (said Barack Obama, sarcastically) Hillary Clinton won three million more votes than Trump in 2016.  There isn’t a political pundit alive who would not swear that Michelle Obama would have beaten Trump by 20 points.

“We are not ready for a president who is not white.”  Forget about Barack Obama, I guess.   He had a white mother, of course, while Kamala…”.  To racists, Obama and Harris were equally unacceptable.  While we are surely still a racist country, far from a majority of us are racist.  Not enough to keep a good non-white woman down.  Like Harris, Obama and Winfrey.

Far too many American get their news from the candidates themselves (and no politician in American history has so loved – indeed, needed – the adulation of crowds quite so much as Donald J Trump) and from Right-Wing media, led by Fox News and X (formerly Twitter, now Elon Musk's free speech for himself platform).  Right-Wing media has no shame, like Trump himself, it lies for a living; it is committed to winning, not reporting the news or the truth.  Left-Wing media is for the most part “legacy media” like the NY Times, the Washington Post and the three TV networks, and they have lost the trust of millions of Americans over the years, covering for liberal (which is to say, normative / “don’t rock the boat”) politicians.  Nor have they been an effective counter to Right-Wing media.  And Team Harris did not mount an effective battle plan to take on the relentless barrage of Right-Wing lies.  Freedom of speech is under attack when so many so-called journalists abuse the privilege.

In the end, Americans didn’t know who Kamala Harris was.  She had been silent for three-and-a-half-years as she watched her poll numbers decline.  And when she had a chance to be really clear about her politics, she seemed to waffle.  Trump and his minions fought like hell to win, Harris and the Democrats didn’t fight like they really wanted to win.

Will Democrats take this to heart?  Their slide began forty years ago, why should they change now?  Most new candidates for public office come ready to do battle; but the party apparatus knocks them down.  “Either you play ball, or we won’t support you financially.”  I wonder how many voters are swayed by the hundreds of emails and messages every day that beg us for donations for a good cause.  Democrats need more AOCs, candidates ready to give the party the finger and take it over with youthful idealism and the wisdom of its elders (yeah, like Bernie Sanders).  Does this mean going backwards?  Maybe so, to a time when being a Democrat stood for something, the good fortune of the American people.  “The fault, dear Brutus, …”

Addendum: Sunday, 11/14/2024

This just in!  Sherrod Brown, the three-term Democratic senator from Ohio, got beat by 3.5%; in other words, it was close but it wasn't really close at all!  He blames his loss on "Donald Trump and withering GOP attacks" and of distorting his record."  In other words, he put the blame for his losing square on the shoulders of those who won!  But that was their job and they succeeded, his job was to win but he lost!  Many Democrats seem to think that the key to their own electoral success is spending as much money on TV ads as Republicans do and on having them not lie about us.  But lying is legal (1st Amendment, ya know!) and most politicians surely DO lie.  I'm NOT suggesting that he shoulda lied, I AM suggesting that blaming the winners for winning will never make one a better candidate, a candidate who wins!  I wrote a book about Democrats winning their elections; clearly Senator Brown has not read it!  Best he does so before he tries again next time.