Right off the bat I’m going to knock out two arguments about the Trump coalition, they are racist and sexist. Firstly, Kamala Harris saw a significant bump in the poles compared to Biden, her identity served as rallying call for previously uninspired democrats. And secondly, exit polls showed 70% of the country to believe the economy was in poor shape, 70% of that 70% voted for Trump. As is often the case, the economy is what determines the election.
Another avenue of analysis is the percentage of split-tickets, and what those split ticket democrats ran on: the border, the economy, and freedom. So did Kamala, so where is her mistake, did 53% vote against her or for him. I think the answer lays in the logic of the economy argument. When the economy is good the incumbent wins, but the economy is good so why do 68% of americans say otherwise. For the same reason they voted democrat down the ballot but not for Kamala. Kamala and the economy on paper are strong, but their strength discredits them. Their strength discredits them because the price of eggs and gas is up and the daily experience that you are somehow not liberal enough. These men are not the white moderates described on the edges of a newspaper, they are the men that you have grown up with, that you trust, they have voted for democrats for 20 years, with full belief in liberal vision. Kamala does not fail that vision, she is not too far to the left, her promises would make the middle class stronger, but just like the economy these men saw something strong and felt left behind. Here is where her race and gender come in, she doesn’t have to say woke for them to see it. Who’s fault is that? Ours. It is the fault of Democrats for becoming elitists who do not admit their own faults. Yes for hundreds of year politicians have dodged questions and never admitted they were wrong. But when did we as citizens? Is it tribalism or is it self-righteousness?
In a survey asking whether the respondent would date someone of a different political party 51% said no compared 32% in 2012. Imagine how that has grown in four years. But this is not the problem,greater polarization does not cause demographic shifts as seen in 2024, Harris lost women voters, trump lost whites and gained the college educated. In the same year that men’s college enrollment dropped to 41%. The demographic shifts are not policy or rhetoric based they are driven by the undateable cultural idea of a democrat that is confirmed for the liberal college kid who just got cussed out for not having pronouns in their bio. The undateable democrat believes that college campuses should release free palestine statements on October 8th, that call hamas freedom fighters. This is a clear extreme just like space-laser taylor green. The difference is you can imagine a moderate republic who says she’s not a trump, you can’t imagine a democrat who is willing to question the origins of Covid-19 for fear of being called xenophobic. Then again I might be wrong, the question is what is perceived and what supports or changes that perception. The perception is democrats are identity politic zealots or they shelter zealots.
So what is the vision for America that trump offers? It is a vision of protection from injustice. A vision, while holy untrue for my sister who can’t purchase birth control, my lesbian parents who’s marriage is threatened by the judicial precedent set by Dobb’s, the millions of people that “look like immigrants”, the congressmen and women who trump wishes to attack, the government agencies that protect our oh so dear freedoms such as freedom of the press, freedom to live past 2050, freedom to receive accurate health information, and the thousands of other civil servants who we take for granted that will be purged by a leader with a keen case of cronyism. We have four years to change the way we are perceived by our friends, we must leave this higher than thou, fill-in the boxist knee jerk reaction, centralism that makes us look like van-gogh only listening to our left, culture. In the lecture halls, at thanksgiving tables, instagram stories, political rallies, and sporting events we must adopt an aspect of humility that becomes our national heritage of discourse. Leftists and Trumpees keep screaming but if you are a democrat party loyalty should not limit disagreement. Had Kamala once disagreed with a friend instead of agreeing with chenemy she would have more integrity than 99% of Americans, not just Donald Trump.
