Why Kamala Harris Lost
I voted for Kamala. She lost for a lot of reasons.
We need to deeply reflect on this and do better.
I'm writing this half as a coping mechanism, half as a call to arms.
We're going to have a tremendous amount of ground to make up for. Buckle up.
1. We Lost Voters, Republicans Gained Voters
1.1 We Vilified Moderates and Independents
We called the other side "Nazis", sexists, and worse.
We can't win if we're more interested in attacking people than working together.
While we were vilifying everyone, Republicans were building bridges and forging new alliances.
Do you really think someone who orders Chick-fil-A is your mortal enemy?
1.2. We Lost Latinos
The Latino vote was one of the biggest surprises of the election, but is it any surprise that we've been losing them?
We speak at Latinos and for Latinos rather than to them. We've been calling them "LatinX" and they hate it.
Latinos are hard-working, family-oriented, and many of them are Catholic.
Latinos like crude jokes, they don't like to be coddled.
The Republicans are winning Latinos on all counts: family values, work ethic, and not treating them like little toy minorities. The identity politics treatment is demeaning and disrespectful. Treat them as ourselves.
1.3. We Lost Black Male Voters
The idea that Harris sent a lot of Black men to prison during her time as district attorney is really hard to shake.
1.4. We Lost Male Voters Overall
We obsessed over calling men "toxic".
"Toxic masculinity" is a term thrown around in almost every conversation about men. Men are tired of it.
Men commit more suicide, have fewer friends, are told they can't be emotional (frequently by romantic prospects), and face a lot of challenges and hardships that are flat out ignored and downplayed.
Men got tired of hearing it. They need real solutions, not to hear that they're the problem.
For every one toxic male, there are dozens of others you're not listenting to and that you're blaming.
1.5. We're Losing Labor and Unions
The Republican party is courting labor unions.
It might seem counter-intuitive, but they're realigning themselves and the party around labor. This is a huge voting bloc, and they're close to pulling off a heist.
We really shouldn't let this happen.
2. We Divided Ourselves
2.1 Israel-Palestine
This issue deeply divided the democratic party.
So many liberals refuse to vote for Harris because of Israel-Palestine. It became a single issue.
2.2 Jill Stein and the Green Party
While Jill Stein soaked up a few "anti-neoliberal" progressive votes, it wasn't enough to really make a huge difference. More of a death by a thousand cuts, and this was one tiny contributor.
One thing to wonder: if the Green Party represented the majority of progressives (which I don't think they do), then maybe progressives aren't the biggest and most important part of the Democratic party's coalition.
(Also, Jill Stein is oddly close to Putin.)
2.3 Progressives
The elephant in the room. A lot of progressives, Bernie voters, etc. constantly complain about the party and tell us they won't vote when they don't get their way.
We have two choices: we either lean in closer to progressives or we begin to pull the other way. I'm not sure which approach is best.
The problem with progressives is that their views are poison to moderates, and if we want to build a broader coalition of voters, we'll need to have more moderate views. But doing so might turn off progressives for good.
Progressives might actually be a tiny minority of our coalition. They speak with a loud voice, but they steer us away from moderates. But maybe that's the heart and soul of the party?
This is a thorny issue.
The Republicans are lucky that all the members of their coalition get along. The factions within our Democratic party coalition hate each other. It sucks.
2.4 Chappell Roan
This is mostly meant as a joke, but Chappell Roan couldn't endorse Harris?
Please don't do that next time, Chappell. There's too much at stake and the cost is far too great. Hopefully you learned your lesson.
3. Not the Right Candidate
3.1 Biden's Age
The single biggest problem was how long we stuck with Biden.
Biden was too old to run and he repeated the failing "RBG strategy".
Biden should have bowed out a year ago and allowed for the primary process to take place, but he stuck in the race far too long, when it was too late to correct the problem.
3.2 No Open Primary
Without an open primary, we don't get to vet candidates for likability.
Harris is an alright candidate, far better than Biden. But she's not a great candidate.
An open primary would have let the base pick a stronger candidate. It's a "survival of the fittest" process that finds an optima much better than the secretive insider selection process that happened behind closed doors.
3.3 First Woman President
Sad to say, but there are a too many people in this country that will not vote for a woman president.
There are too many voters that won't show up for a woman candidate. Including women voters.
It's incredibly sad and unfortunate, but it appears to be the reality.
3.4 First Black, Asian Woman President
(See above. This really sucks, but a lot of people have a racist/sexist "vibe check".)
4. Unhealthy Democratic Party
4.1 Bad Party Leadership
The Democratic party is clueless and rudderless. This must change. We need to have new leadership with a new vision.
4.2 Echo Chamber
The news media, Reddit, TikTok, etc. are all an echo chamber. They are not the real world. It's make believe.
We think the world is a certain way until the harsh reality bites us.
4.3 Too Confident
We assumed we represented the American people.
We should never assume victory.
We took blue wall for granted, and it failed us.
This was 2016 all over again.
4.4 Democrats are just an "Opposition Party"
The Democrats do not stand for any issues, but rather the Democrats stand against Republican, MAGA, and Trump issues.
Democrats don't resonate or inspire hope. A Democratic vision of America is of an America that is frail and infirm. It's not a vision of an America that is mostly awesome.
Democrats don't inspire.
4.5 Celebs are Inauthentic
The hundreds of celebrity endorsements are fake and pretentious.
The only time they stand out is when celebrities make a big deal of not endorsing (like Roan).
Everyday Americans know this is all fake bullshit from one percenters.
4.6 Bill Maher was Correct
Bill Maher, Democrat, has been vilified by the party recently.
He called out almost everything I've outlined here and said it would cost us. He was right.
Maybe we should listen before shutting down people we disagree with. He's been trying to help.
5. The Economy
It doesn't matter who caused the bad economy, it doesn't matter who printed the money.
All that matters is how the economy is performing during the election. If it's bad, the incumbents will be blamed.
Job numbers were good, the stock market was good. Lots of great metrics.
But average Americans were hurt by incredible inflation to the most essential things that they need: food and housing.
6. Republicans are Strong
Republicans soaked up all of the people the Democratic party cast aside.
Men, Latinos, Blacks, Whites. Labor, Unions, etc.
Republicans planned for this and got their party hyped up.
Meanwhile, Democrats devolved into lots of in-fighting.
Still not going to vote because of Harris' Israel-Palestine stance?
In Closing
Here's an idea that might not be popular, but could kickstart the healing and soul-searching process:
Biden should step down and let Harris become the first female president for the remainder of the term.
This is a ceremonial passing of the guard, gives Harris a small victory, and whets the appetite of America for a woman president. (Harris will never have another shot at the presidency anyway, so it doesn't hurt her future political career.)
It also starts the process of restructuring the Democratic party. It lets us start from a place of strength rather than fear.
After this, we need to do a lot of long and hard thinking.