The media pundits are currently obsessed with slicing and dicing the election results, because, after all, that’s their livelihood. I’m not sure what there is to be gained by rehashing and/or refuting all the finger-pointing and recrimination, but my own thinking is as simple as applying Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. According to Maslow, people’s most basic needs (such as food, water and shelter) must be met before they’re motivated to achieve higher-level needs (morality, fulfillment and creativity being at the top). As a result of America’s increasing economic inequality, far too many of us are struggling to meet our basic needs. People not only need to feed their families, they also want to buy homes and cars and have hope for a better future for their children. But then, suddenly, during the Biden/Harris Administration, regardless of whether the Covid pandemic was partly responsible, they couldn’t. The administration should be commended for achieving a “soft landing,” but many people felt like they were already in a recession and didn’t care. We shouldn’t be surprised if the threat of fascism also failed to make an impression on them.
How can people be expected to care about democracy or “America’s place on the world stage” (let alone the war in Ukraine or NATO), if they’re struggling to make ends meet and keep their heads above water? A low unemployment rate doesn’t mean very much if good jobs aren’t available and wages aren’t keeping up with the cost of living. A booming stock market making wealthy elites richer every day isn’t proof of a good economy but salt on the wound for people who have no investments and live in fear their car will break down. We might assume that Kamala Harris and her fabulously wealthy celebrity supporters shouting about “joy” and “freedom” only made things worse. Taylor Swift may be an honest-to-goodness “childless cat lady,” but she certainly doesn’t need to worry about paying her bills.
Too many Americans are maxing out their credit cards because they have no choice, and I fear Donald Trump is about to do the same with the federal budget to keep his unrealistic promises (“promises made, promises kept”). He passed a tremendous tax cut (mostly for corporations and the wealthy) during his first term, which is estimated to have increased the federal deficit by approx. $1.9 trillion, and now he’s embarking on a similar course, whether via ill-advised tariffs or otherwise. Unless Trump drastically cuts government programs, putting a lot of people in a lot of pain and putting the economy in jeopardy, America will continue to go further into the red, kicking the proverbial can down the road with no endgame in site. While Trump’s billionaire donor class (Elon Musk, of course, is in a class by himself!) takes an even bigger share of the pie, America’s middle-class is likely to be even worse off under a second Trump administration.
Kamala Harris was Unquestionably the Victim of Racism and Misogyny, but Those were Hardly the Only Problems.
So much has already been written about the election that I hardly know what to add, but let me hazard some thoughts. Despite what numerous liberal pundits have said, Kamala Harris didn’t run anything even close to a “flawless campaign.” Whatever the challenges she started with (including Biden not getting out of the race sooner), she can’t be excused for failing to adequately address the electorate’s two greatest concerns—inflation and the immigrant crisis at the southern border. A “word salad” is a generous description for what came out of her mouth when confronted on these issues. How is it possible that someone who served as vice-president didn’t at least have some thoughts to share, let alone an honest appraisal of the administration’s failings? Even if she was never truly the “border czar,” for her to have nothing substantive to say about the border crisis is on par with Donald Trump still having nothing but “a concept of a plan” to replace the Affordable Care Act. Not only did she try to dodge the inflation issue with a silly promise to stop “price gouging” at the grocery store, more importantly, she showed little real empathy for the pain that inflation and high interest rates had inflicted on so many voters. Despite what she said on The View, wouldn’t she have done some little thing differently than President Biden?
“We’re not going back” was a respectable attempt to seize upon voters’ aspirations, but unfortunately most of them were focusing on their financial circumstances, not women’s bodily autonomy or racial justice. Ultimately the Harris campaign blew through two billion dollars and Donald Trump ended up back in the White House. I’ve previously bemoaned the fact that Democrats are no longer the party of the working-class, but it was never so painfully obvious—or had such a disastrous outcome for the country.