How the Democratic Party Self-Sabotaged
How the Democratic Party Self-Sabotaged
Some Perspective from a Friend
I had to wait until things simmered down just a little bit before writing this, but best believe, there are a few things to say about the outcome of the 2024 election.
First off, I am not surprised. If you were, and I promise this is not meant to offend, but there is a very high probability that you live in a bubble. The writing was on the wall for quite some time. Anecdotally, it was my friends on the left that caused me to see the nail approaching the coffin. Many were not nearly as vocal as my friends on the right, but their issues with their lifelong party was in many ways identical to lifelong conservatives.
Here are the top 4 ways the Democratic Party torpedoed their own operation.
(This is in no particular order)
I. Chronic Gaslighting
Just weeks leading up to the election, former CNN host, Don Lemon, took to the streets of New Jersey to ask random passersby who they planned to vote for in the 2024 presidential election. Many of his spontaneous guests answered “Trump.” When Lemon asked them why, they often cited the sharp increase in the price of gas as well as other costs like groceries. The guests would tell Don Lemon that they cannot afford a Biden economy.
Don’s response to every person who cited this was “the economy is actually better under Biden.”
This is quite literally the worst thing he could have said in response to this. If his goal was to convince voters to vote Democrat, he may as well have punched them in the face.
The people Don spoke to weren’t reading from a right wing script. Chances were that some of them were probably democrats, or at least until 2024. They weren’t programmed to say “the economy is bad.” They weren’t his opponents on a debate segment of CNN. They were regular people that he approached. They were speaking from their own experience, and for many of them, their bank accounts. They were essentially saying “this is what is going on in my personal life,” and he responded with “no it isn’t.” Common sense would have at least been to admit the economy is bad and make it Trump’s fault. Anything would have been better than telling someone who already does not support your party that they’re situation is not real.
Condescension and gaslighting are the quickest ways to drive someone away, and the worst way to bring them back.
II. Chastising
In early October, former president Barack Obama was in Pittsburgh campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris. Obama lectured Black men, telling them to vote for Harris, and that not doing so meant they didn’t like women. Obama said:
“You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses; I’ve got a problem with that,” he said. “Because part of it makes me think — and I’m speaking to men directly — part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.”
Needless to say, a whole host of Black men did not take well to that.
Like Don, Obama was extremely tone deaf. Black men, democrats and republicans alike, have serious and legitimate grievances with Harris during her time as both California's Attorney General and San Francisco’s District Attorney. Instead of addressing and discussing those grievances, Obama cuts right to “you’d better vote for her or else.”
When the backlash happened, not only did he not change course, he applied the same tactic to the Muslim voters who endorsed President-Elect Trump; doubling down on the chastising, and adding a little alarmism to boot.
Again, finger-wagging at groups who are leaving you is a surefire way to make sure they stay gone.
III. The Worst, and Most Badly Timed Article of 2020
(I couldn’t think of a better name to give this one, but you’ll get it)
After the 2020 election, Donald Trump, and a large number of his supporters felt the election was stolen. The resounding response was that it was a fair election, despite it being the most unusual and drawn out election in our country's history. While millions of Americans were feeling disenfranchised, and highly suspicious of the entire process, a national political correspondent at Time Magazine by the name of Molly Ball wrote an article entitled: THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE SHADOW CAMPAIGN THAT SAVED THE 2020 ELECTION.
I kid you not.
This article does everything but admit to stealing. You can read the full article here, and I highly, highly encourage you to.
Ball goes into excruciating detail to highlight the stratagem used to, as she would say, ‘save’ the election. One quote that is the most damning says:
“This is the inside story of the conspiracy to save the 2020 election, based on access to the group’s inner workings, never-before-seen documents and interviews with dozens of those involved from across the political spectrum. It is the story of an unprecedented, creative and determined campaign whose success also reveals how close the nation came to disaster. “Every attempt to interfere with the proper outcome of the election was defeated,” says Ian Bassin, co-founder of Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan rule-of-law advocacy group. “But it’s massively important for the country to understand that it didn’t happen accidentally. The system didn’t work magically. Democracy is not self-executing.””
“That’s why the participants want the secret history of the 2020 election told, even though it sounds like a paranoid fever dream–a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information. They were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it. And they believe the public needs to understand the system’s fragility in order to ensure that democracy in America endures.”
This article was written by someone who was happy about the results of the 2020 elections; not a Trump supporter. While millions of Americans voiced that something was off about 2020, they were responded to with ridicule on the one hand, and somewhat of an admission on the other. Voters were essentially told “you’re crazy. The election was fair and square. All the rigging we did do, however, was for your own benefit. You’re welcome.”
The act of heavily influencing an election, then publishing an article gloating about it in Time Magazine is… well… the fact that no justice has come from that alone is still a chilling thought to me.
So many people like to throw around the word ‘fascist’ when describing President-Elect Trump. The thing is though, that one of the things a fascist does is suppress the press and other information that makes them look bad. According to Time Magazine’s own admission, they suppressed certain stories that would hurt Biden’s campaign; stories they later admitted were real, like Hunter Biden’s laptop. They also continued pushing and circulating actual hoaxes like the ‘very fine people on both sides’ story.
That, my friends, is what fascists do.
We’ve all seen President Trump scold, mock, and argue with reporters. That never stopped any of them from writing scathing reports about him, however accurate or not. No journalist was jailed for comparing him to Adolf Hitler. No column writer was suddenly missing after writing an op-ed calling him xenophobic.
What his opponents did admit to, however, was silencing any voices they could find that dissented from their agenda. Again, not my assertion. Their admission.
IV. Demonization
Now, even though the Republican Party is the most diverse it has ever been in over a century, with record high Black, Latino, Jewish, and Muslim support, many disaffected democrats have resorted to labeling those who voted differently than them racists, misogynists, and most of all, White Supremacists.
The bitter irony here is that it is exactly that type of knee-jerk rhetoric that is a huge reason why so many in the Democratic Party left in the first place. It is why “I’m voting republican for the first time in my life” was probably one of the most common phrases the whole election cycle.
h/t
_
There are many more, but I will stop there.
The Democratic Party is out of touch. Some in the party see the problem for what it is, like Representative Ritchie Torres.
For the party as a whole, however, it will probably take a very long time before they collectively figure out what went wrong, if they ever do before our republic falls.
The Republican Party has a chance to bring some sanity back to our country. One of many things they need to take care to do swiftly is weed out the fringes in their ranks, something the Democratic Party failed to do. For instance, there are many of those who support Trump who are jihadi sympathizers, including not all, but some of the Muslims who voted for him. Other Nazi-style Jew-haters and anti-Israel big-names like Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, and more. That’s another article for another day.
We can either move forward, or be right back to where we are now. One thing is for sure though; the power still lies with the people.