In a stunning comeback, Former President Donald Trump won the presidential race over Vice President Kamala Harris on Nov. 5th.
Winning the support of voters from different socioeconomic and demographic groups, from middle-class communities in Pennsylvania to Arab voters in Wisconsin and Latinos in Arizona, Mr. Trump’s victory was decisive.
Now, as President-elect Trump — a convicted felon and adjudicated sex offender — returns to the White House, many of his opponents are pointing fingers at each other about who is to blame for Harris’ disastrous loss. Some claimed that this win was due to the backing of 46% of Latinos and 39% of Asian Americans while others say it was the 60% of white men and 53% of white women who voted for the former president.
While the Democrats’ loss can be attributed to multiple factors, a few things are clear. First, the Democratic Party, which has built its coalition upon working-class Americans and minority groups, failed to recognize what their voters care most about right now — the economy.
According to APVote, 96% of voters said that “high prices for gas, groceries and other goods” were a factor in their vote. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy has become a significant concern for many voters. The current administration has taken the brunt of responsibility for inflationary rates due to President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan and the supply shortages caused by the Russia-Ukraine war and the pandemic.
Harris tried to separate herself from Bidenomics by advocating for her own ban on “price gouging” for groceries and handouts for first-time homeowners and childcare, but she was ultimately unable to do so, as she often avoided tough questions about how her policies would differ from Biden’s.
Trump’s campaign strategy wasn’t much better. He attacked and faulted Biden and Harris for inflation and couldn’t provide a comprehensive plan of how he would help Americans, aside from pledging to eliminate taxes on tips, overtime pay or Social Security benefits. But, with his constant reminders about how much better life was four years ago, he persuaded many Americans to vote for him. Unsurprisingly, 80% of Trump voters agreed that their financial situation under his administration was better.
Second, the Democratic Party’s disconnect was exacerbated by the issues it ran its campaign on. In other words, the majority of American voters — from all different backgrounds — don’t care about Trump’s threat to democracy, loss of reproductive freedoms or climate change issues as much as they care about their ability to pay for groceries or buy a house. In prioritizing these issues over kitchen table issues, the Democrats failed to address what matters most to their historical voter base.
Third, President Biden should’ve kept his promise to be a “transitional leader” and passed the baton earlier to a younger generation of Democratic leaders so the party could have held an open primary and selected from a slate of diverse candidates.
Even if Harris had emerged as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate after winning the primaries, she could have had more time to run her campaign, better define herself as a candidate, explain her changing position on issues like climate change and fracking, and gain the trust of American voters — something she wasn’t able to do.
Finally, there’s also the unfortunate fact that there are many people who will never vote for
a woman, no less a woman of color. For an unapologetic figure like Mr. Trump, who personifies white wealth and appears invincible from every scandal and assassination attack, he fits the political “strongman” archetype who can solve the country’s problems through brute force and control. Current examples of this archetype include his allies, Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin and the President of China, Xi Jinping. However, these leaders also show us that authoritarianism doesn’t solve a country’s problems.
Moving forward, the Democratic Party needs to take a hard look in the mirror and think about how they can return to the roots of their coalition. For too long, Trump’s political chaos has defined American politics to the point where both Republicans and Democrats have lost their way. As Vermont’s Senator Bernie Sanders said in a statement about the election, “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.”
In such an uncertain time, young people must come together — including the Generation Z men and women who voted for Trump — to have some real discussions about how to move forward. This election shows that the country’s future depends on redefining the two-party system, which needs new leaders to step up.
