May self-flagellating Democrats and their gleeful critics please relax for one stinkin’ minute?
Earlier than remaking a complete celebration primarily based on one election loss — albeit a devastating one — let’s have a look at some numbers.
As the ultimate votes are tallied, it seems that President-elect Donald Trump has received 75.1 million votes whereas Vice President Kamala Harris obtained 71.9 million. That may be a victory margin of simply about 2 share factors.
In 2020, when President Biden beat then-President Trump, he obtained almost 81.3 million votes to Trump’s 74.2 million, a victory margin of 4.5 percentage points.
Did Republicans name for introspection? Did they spill barrels of ink questioning the place they went unsuitable? Did they slit their wrists in frustration and vow to start out courting the college-educated “coastal elites” they’d spent years vilifying?
Oh please. All of us noticed what occurred subsequent.
Led by Trump, Republicans engaged in a scientific and unlawful scheme trying to overturn the outcomes of the election. To at the present time, they cling to the fantasy that Trump gained. I snort when Trump tells his rally-goers that he obtained extra votes in 2020 than every other earlier presidential candidate. That was true. However he failed so as to add that Biden obtained much more votes than Trump, one thing Trump is pathologically unable to just accept.
(And, I hate to interrupt it to the president-elect, however to at the present time, Biden has received more votes than every other single presidential candidate. Oh, and in case anybody has forgotten, Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration crowd was a lot, a lot larger than Trump’s in 2017.)
After all Democrats should interact in critical evaluation about what went unsuitable and how you can win again the young men, Latino men and so many working-class voters who abandoned the celebration this yr. However that doesn’t imply all the basics of the Democratic platform and philosophy are unsuitable.
Democrats had been deprived in a lot of methods. Biden’s determination to remain within the race lengthy after he ought to have bowed out proved disastrous. After he handed the nomination to Harris, she had a mere 100 days to ascertain herself, to distinguish herself from him and his deeply unpopular insurance policies. She failed to take action in a method that was persuasive to voters.
Her failure was additionally in pondering that positivity may counteract negativity. The failure was in not totally greedy the amnesia People had been experiencing about Trump’s disastrous response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The failure was in not with the ability to convey the successes of the Biden administration.
Trump whipped up hatred, resentment and concern, which, ugly and disingenuous because it was, helped persuade voters that he cared about their struggles. Positive, inflation is down, wages are up and the economic system is buzzing alongside robust. However excessive costs smack you within the face each time you store for groceries.
And if somebody tells you typically sufficient that you’re in ache, or that you simply had been higher off when the pandemic was in reality killing tons of of hundreds of People, you may truly begin to imagine him.
Invoice Clinton, whose transfer to the correct in 1992 felt like a betrayal to the left wing of his celebration, was able to persuade voters that he felt their ache. Harris was not.
And naturally, Harris’ failure was in not with the ability to counteract the right-wing info sphere. Trump discovered how to court the bro vote. Harris didn’t. MAGA Republicans had been immeasurably aided and abetted by social media algorithms — which commerce on rage and anger for engagement — by billionaire tech bros corresponding to Elon Musk, who turned X largely into an alt-right cesspool, and naturally by the conservative-dominated media conglomerates that spout lies that rile up voters.
Fox Information, guiltier than every other single outlet for spreading the 2020 huge election lie, ended up agreeing to pay Dominion Voting Programs almost $800 million for defaming the corporate, whose poll machines labored completely nicely. That’s three-quarters of a billion {dollars}, people. Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s private lawyer, unfold so many vicious lies about Georgia ballot staff Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss {that a} court docket dominated he should pay them $148 million for defamation.
Numerous different Trump believers are in jail, bankrupt or unable to observe their professions as a result of Republicans merely couldn’t bear the concept that that they had misplaced.
Regardless of all of that, the Republican Social gathering in its present type by no means, not even as soon as, had a terrific public second of introspection.
As an alternative, it doubled down on lies and on whipping up concern about susceptible populations whereas exploiting Democrats’ weaknesses.
“The individuals who watched Trump’s tv advertisements throughout sporting occasions had not been harmed by a transgender individual, or by an immigrant, or by a girl of colour,” wrote the historian Timothy Snyder within the New Yorker. “The magic lies within the daring it takes to declare a weaker group to be a part of an amazing conspiracy.”
As an alternative of the circular firing squad Democrats have shaped post-election, they need to hunker down for the battle towards the merciless, inhumane and probably earth-shattering insurance policies coming our method. And be open to studying from the voters who abandoned them, or cut up their votes between Trump on the high and a Democrat additional down the poll.
New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose progressive politics have made her a favourite goal of Republicans, asked her social media followers to clarify why they solid their ballots for each her and Trump.
“I truly wish to study from you and listen to what you’re pondering,” she mentioned.
The responses had been enlightening.
“Actual easy,” wrote one. “Trump and you take care of the working class.”
“I really feel like Trump and you might be each actual.”
“Voted Trump, however I such as you and Bernie. I don’t belief both celebration’s institution politicians.”
Democrats ought to take these sentiments to coronary heart and act accordingly. It’s not their insurance policies — it’s their messaging.
Threads: @rabcarian
