As liberal women shave their heads on TikTok and pledge to stop having sex with men who voted for Trump (not that they care), and hosts on “The View” screech ridiculously about supposedly sexist Latinos, it’s worth reminding everyone why Kamala Harris actually lost. And why Democrats did.
The best part of the Trump victory is that it was a broad coalition. More blacks, Hispanics, younger generation folks, Native Americans, and women joined the Trump movement. They feel part of it now. This is healthy for America. Trump’s victory in 2016 was a lot narrower.
No, all Latinos aren’t sexist, Americans didn’t just elect Hitler, Trump’s victory wasn’t due to conservative “misinformation,” and your Democratic mom doesn’t have to move to Costa Rica, women’s rights aren’t being stripped away by a “felon rapist,” or any number of insane comments liberals have thrown around in the aftermath of their embarrassing rout.
Here are 17 actual reasons that Democrats lost, in no particular order.
1. They Lied About Biden’s Cognitive Health
If Democratic leaders were smarter and had more integrity, they would have been honest back when the Robert Hur report came out (or earlier) and admitted that President Joe Biden had cognitively declined to a concerning degree. Hold a competitive primary then, and choose a moderate governor who could run against the excesses of the Biden-Harris administration. Harris tried, but she could not plausibly sever herself from an administration of which she was a part, and people voted for change. By the time they tossed Biden, it was too late, and he threw their efforts under the bus by immediately endorsing her (and perhaps refusing to go earlier.)
2. They Tried to Jail Their Political Opponent
You know the old adage – if you’re going to try to take out the king, you better not miss or he gets stronger. And we’re not just talking about Trump’s ear. Democrats didn’t just charge Trump with a felony once. THEY WOULDN’T STOP CHARGING HIM WITH FELONIES.
They charged him using novel legal theories and included tweets as predicate acts, gagged him and made him a martyr. As if that wasn’t enough, they tried to bankrupt him, made him sit in court instead of campaign, and then gaslit everyone into thinking he was dangerous because HE might go after political opponents. And that doesn’t even get into the assassination attempts he faced. Each time Trump survived an attack, he got stronger. Let this be a lesson to Democrats that lawfare doesn’t work.
3. They Were Humorless
No one wants to be lectured by a humorless scold for four years. Democrats and their media sycophants tried to position themselves as the party of “joy,” yet they came across as a bunch of angry schoolmarms yelling about threats to Democracy.
While Trump was making people laugh and dancing to YMCA, Democrats were angrily screaming about Hitler.
When you bring out the Hitler analogies, you’ve already lost. We lived through the first four years of Trump, and no one got sent to a concentration camp. “Threats to Democracy” is a nebulous theoretical concept in this circumstance, whereas the economy affects people DIRECTLY. Democratic rhetoric slid off the tracks.
4. They Didn’t Have A Coherent Economic Message
As Carville said years ago, “It’s the economy stupid.”
Democrats have forgotten how to reach the working class, those “forgotten men” of Trump’s 2016 victory. It’s true they’ve become the party of elite identity politics-obsessed coastal affluent professors. But it wasn’t just that. Harris never articulated a clear or coherent economic message. Babbling about an “opportunity economy” didn’t help. It was all too vague, and she was saddled with Biden’s economy.
5. People Were Better Off 4 Years Ago
We could stop and end with this one. Democrats lost because their policies didn’t work, and when push came to shove, Americans were better off 4 years ago. Harris could say whatever she wanted, but people know what they pay at the grocery store.
6. People Don’t Like Celebrities Lecturing to Them About Politics
Who thought it was a good idea to surround Harris with vapid celebrities and rappers? It just branded Harris as elite and out-of-touch with the concerns of average folks. No one cares what Cardi B thinks about politics. These are affluent celebrities who aren’t worried about their grocery bills. People get that.
7. She Didn’t Reach Out to Men
Tim Walz trying to load a rifle doesn’t count. The only time Democrats seem to support biological men these days is when they want to compete in women’s sports.
It was like Harris morphed into Hillary, pantsuit and all. Men did not feel included in the Biden-Harris movement.
We’re tempted to say Harris also lost because she picked Walz. Although Shapiro would have helped her win Pennsylvania, this loss is hers to own. Walz was a terrible choice (a far-left ideological extremist), but the loss was too big to blame him.
As an aside, it’s interesting that Harris didn’t tout the “I would be the first female president” thing at all.
8. ‘The View’ Comment
Harris sort of tried to separate herself from Biden – “She wasn’t Biden,” “A New Way Forward,” but it always seemed deeply disingenuous.
‘The View’ Tees Kamala Up To Explain How She’ll Be Different From Biden, And She Still Fails | The Daily Wire
"There is not a thing that comes to mind."
On ABC’s “The View,” cohost Sunny Hostin on Tuesday teed up the perfect opportunity for Vice President Kamala Harris to… pic.twitter.com/ArrvkPLI2T
— Owen Gregorian (@OwenGregorian) October 9, 2024
And then, in a turning point in her disastrous campaign, she declared on The View that “There is not a thing that comes to mind,” when asked what she would do different from Biden. And that was it. This was sort of her Dukakis in a tank moment – the moment the campaign never recovered from.
9. Republicans Became the ‘Cool’ Party
Say what you want about the dogs and cats thing, but the memes were hysterical, and that was the moment Trump truly became cool. Trump sparked a new dance move – and it was funny. He became a TikTok sensation. The dancing parody videos with Musk and Trump were funny as hell. Like Clinton with his sax on MTV, Trump gets that vibe matters. Trump is funny. Americans get that now because they got to see enough of him outside of the warped media filter.
It looked like fun to be at the Trump/Vance party, whereas over on the other side, they were scowling about Hitler or watching Maddow shout at the TV. Who wants to be part of that? Say what you want about him, but Obama was cool. Clinton was kind of cool back in his day. Reagan was super funny. McCain, Romney, and Dole were not cool. Vance is cool. Musk is cool.
If Trump is winning the 2024 election than I will dance with him like this. 🇺🇸
Who want this performance from us ? pic.twitter.com/2EINPBKvWK
— Elon Musk |Parody| (@Elongater17Q) November 5, 2024
Harris is not a force of personality. By the end of a couple months, many Americans were willing to vote for Trump just so they didn’t have to listen to her irritating patronizing voice for another four years. Trump is off the cuff and his rhetoric slips away from him sometimes, but Americans forgive him because they appreciate the authenticity. And he’s cool.
10. She Couldn’t Handle New Media Formats
It wasn’t that Harris didn’t go on Joe Rogan. It’s that she wouldn’t have been able to handle going on Joe Rogan. It’s kind of like when talkies killed the careers of some silent movie actors. Modern politicians need to be able to handle unscripted formats, like podcasts. JD Vance excels at this. Trump embraced this (thank you Barron) and he showed millions of Americans, including lots of young men, that he was nothing like the ogre they’d been told.
Harris didn’t project confidence.
Trump, uniquely for his generation perhaps, has always been quick to embrace new media formats, first Twitter and now podcasts. Like Reagan with TV, he has tapped into the tools of much younger generations. Brilliant. Meanwhile the legacy media have declined and have severed their unique bond of trust with the American people through overt bias and elite perspectives. Get out to the heartland.
To be honest, Harris’s campaign started to unravel after the debate when she started trying to copycat Trump’s new media blitz and go on podcasts and open herself up more to the regional media and even Fox News. It didn’t work because she couldn’t handle it and because, in fairness, she was trying to do the impossible and position as a change agent when she was the current administration.
11. Chaos Helps Republicans
In times of turmoil, people turn to the stronger persona who can restore order and security. This helped Trump in 2016 in the wake of the defund-the-police nonsense. The chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal. The scenes at the border. Drug addicts collapsed on street corners. Retail thieves running off with merchandise. Oct. 7. Ukraine.
The Biden-Harris years were chaotic.
12. Calling Us All Garbage Nazis
Calling everyone garbage Nazis, no matter how you clarify it, wasn’t a good play. And it allowed Trump to flip the comedian headlines back on them.
13. Picking a Fight With the Richest Man in the World
He used to be a Democrat. He moved to the center. He expressed concerns. They tried to destroy him. They mocked him. They disregarded him. Big mistake.
X made a huge difference this election – maybe THE difference – because it is truly a free speech space and, this time, conservatives had a level playing field. And Musk put his money where his mouth was, especially in Pennsylvania.
We are witnessing a major realignment of the media ecosphere and power center. The corporate legacy media did themselves no favors with their overt bias. The editorial board writers quitting in huffs because their billionaire owners yanked pro Harris screeds out of the papers didn’t age well.
14. Not Extending an Olive Branch to RFK Jr
Trump ingeniously perceived he needed to find new pots of voters somewhere. Those angry pockets of women are not coming back. Enter MAHA. This was only possible because rather than connecting with RFK Jr. on the issues that he truly cares about – childhood health – Democrats tried to lawfare him off the ballot and then onto it.
They trashed him as a conspiracy theorist and nutjob. He fought back. This allowed Trump to expand his tent. Trump created a real-life group of “Avengers” out of the remnants of an Old Democrat Party.
15. Abortion Waned as An Issue
Abortion fell down the list of Americans’ top concerns, after the economy and the border. That’s because abortion still remains legal in many states and after the shock of Roe v. Wade being overturned set in, it’s become clear that, you know, the US Supreme Court just left it up to the states. Trump compromised on the issue and neutralized it all the more.
16. They Picked the Border Czar
Yeah, we get it. The misinformation reporters argue she was never the Border Czar. Minimally, in the popular imagination, she was the Border Czar. They picked the one person who was most closely tied to the mess at the border, at a time that issue ranked high on the list.
17. Trump’s Fortitude
The resilience of this man is incredible. He’s turned into an American archetype of the renegade being chased by the system. It’s the plot of every Hollywood movie, and no one roots for the system. He’s a showman. We will never see another politician like him in our lifetime.
This is an opinion piece.
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