Stewing these past few weeks over the US election, I have found myself thinking a forbidden thought amongst my fellow liberals - “I understand why Americans voted for Trump.”
It is undeniable that Trump is an abhorrent figure; misogynistic, racist, antidemocratic. However, It is not his voters or his party that I have found myself angry at, but the Democrats. Trump made significant gains among almost every demographic; women, minorities, young people, old people, educated people, uneducated people. He is undoubtedly a divisive figure, one hated by his party elders, dogged by legal problems, and weighed down by the baggage of 8 years as the defining figure in US politics. So, why did he win?
The Democrats have a number of excuses for why they lost, blaming everyone from Joe Biden to both the left and right wings of the party. As comforting as the internal blame game might be, it will do the party no good to shift responsibility onto a lame duck President or warring factions - if the Democrats wish to become a viable Presidential force again, they must step up and reckon with their failure in this election as a whole. It was the Democratic party which propped up Joe Biden as a candidate, before forcing him out and replacing him with an anointed successor, who was less popular even than Trump. It was the Democratic party which chose to run a campaign that focused more on Trump’s flaws than the future of the economy. It was the Democratic party that dropped the ball this election.
Four years ago, the Democrats won the most votes in Presidential history; perhaps because they ran a campaign which based itself around issues that touched people’s lives, a campaign that promised to build back better, a campaign supported by a ‘blue collar’ candidate who echoed America’s greatest reformers. This election, the Democrats ran a campaign focused on the myriad flaws of their opponent, a campaign that did not lead with a policy alternative to Trump’s, a campaign led by a candidate who appeared out of touch with the issues. The progressive left can only win when it owns the future, and the campaign this year was bogged down by the past - Trump’s past and their own. Campaigns are about voters, not candidates. Trump understood this, running on his (appalling) vision of America’s future. It’s time the left did the same; it is time we be the sea change in politics, not fighting against the tide.
The Democrats have lost two out of three presidential elections to one of the least popular Presidents in history, and this time they must face the future and change how they fight elections.
I wanted desperately to see a Democratic administration re-elected in the US: I wanted to see a US government that tackled poverty and inequality, that no longer entertained a system where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I wanted to see a US Government that champions western values on the world stage. I wanted to see a US Government that improved the conditions for small businesses, that tackled inflation, that made it easier for the working and middle classes in society to create wealth. Sadly this is not the Government that the Democrats convinced voters they were going to be last time out, and they lost because of it.
The Democrats must take this opportunity to change their approach, to get back to fighting for the future, to campaigning on the issues that touch everyday people. The Democrat coalition is finished, and it's time for them to start campaigning for every vote, to stop appealing to liberals worried about democracy and to start appealing to ordinary people struggling to keep food on the table, to keep the lights on, to keep going. Government is about the people, it's time for progressive campaigns to be as well.
It makes me sick to my stomach that in the world’s most developed democracy, the populist right owns the issue of the economy, that the left has lost the support of workers, that Donald Trump is the avatar of ordinary people. Next time around, the Democrats have to make sure that things are different, and if they keep blaming the voters or Joe Biden or making the mad suggestion Harris should run again then nothing will change. Trump made gains across the board because people felt the Democrats weren’t speaking to what they cared about, and they felt that way across the board. Democrats didn’t lose because Kamala didn’t have enough time or because they were too far left or indeed because they were too centrist. Democrats lost because they were out of touch, Democrats lost because people vote for their future, not a candidate's ethics and above all, Democrats lost because their message managed to appeal to less people than the message of a convicted felon with myriad known and acknowledged personality defects.
The Democrats must now get off the mat, acknowledge their failures, and rebuild - because they owe it to the left to beat the populist right next time over, they owe it to America to provide a real alternative vision to the GOP’s, and they owe it to the world to face the future.
Image: Wikimedia Commons/Office of the President of the United States
Licence (public domain).
No image changes made.
Comments