Why Kamala Harris Lost So Spectacularly To Donald Trump
There are many reasons Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election. This is part one of a series.
I remember a Tuesday night eight years ago, watching the election results in a state of shock. Trump was winning. Hillary Clinton, the presumed next president of the United States, was going to lose to this joker. And why shouldn’t she? Clinton wasn’t popular. She didn’t inspire people like her husband did back in the 90s. I was a Bernie supporter who held my nose when I voted for Hillary, especially after the bitter primary, but I was still shocked.
I’d say that 2024 is deja vu all over again, but that would be a lie. I’m not at all surprised Donald Trump won, even though I voted against him.
There are many reasons why Kamala Harris lost so spectacularly to Donald Trump. I am not one of them. Not only did I vote for Kamala, I have spent the last decade writing about the myriad ways the left has gone off the rails, and increasingly finds itself alienating the American electorate. I’m working on a piece about how the left’s strident social justice rhetoric and misguided priorities have helped lead us down this path. These misguided efforts are more to blame for Trump’s victory than all the money in Elon Musk’s basement.
But before we get into that, let’s rattle off a few of the big reasons why the Democrats lost the election so utterly. Feel free to chime in with anything I miss in the comments.
Inflation. I say this all the time, but when it comes to elections the big question on voters’ collective minds is always the economy. The financial crash ensured John McCain would lose to Barack Obama in 2008. Inflationary pressures were at the heart of Trump’s victory in 2024. Sure, this changes from election to election in terms of degree—in 2020 we had COVID-19 to worry about, but that was also largely an economic problem—but it’s always true. When times are good, when business is booming and you can get a good job and afford rent, it’s easy to be satisfied with the powers-that-be. When inflation has priced out everything from groceries to gas to housing, it’s just as easy to feel disgruntled, even to the point where you might cast a vote for an ex-president who has no qualms with lying and cheating and various other outrageous behavior (after all, don’t all politicians lie and cheat and hoodwink the public?) Inflation was a driving factor in the Democrats’ sweeping losses, not just of the presidency but the House and the Senate. Now Republicans control all three branches of government.1
Other Economic and Social Problems. Beyond inflation, we have other social and economic problems facing the nation that many voters believe Biden and Harris were weak on. Homelessness has been a huge problem since the pandemic, and many people are fed up with tent cities (a tragic manifestation of inequality in this nation). The opioid epidemic continues and this was a winning issue for Trump in 2016 and continues to be a losing issue for Democrats. Then, of course, there is immigration, which many voters believe has gotten well out of hand. While I personally believe we need more immigrants, not fewer, there’s little doubt that tough immigration policies are very popular. Obviously, this was going to be a big issue especially along the border.
Biden. There is only one legacy for the 46th president now: Joe Biden is the man most responsible for Trump’s victory Tuesday. This is how he will be remembered, as the man who wouldn’t step aside for the nation, vainly choosing to run for a second term despite his age and declining mental facilities. I’m pretty sure that most savvy voters and observers in 2020 assumed that Biden would serve just one term—a transition president—and that we would get a Democratic primary before the 2024 general election. This would have given the public a chance to pick a suitable candidate, one popular enough to beat Donald Trump and, more importantly, one who could clearly articulate differences in policy between their own and the very unpopular Biden administration. Kamala Harris was never popular and she could not distance herself from her boss. She was barely known before the 2020 election and made no waves during her presidential bid. The fact that voters were given her by way of default after Biden was essentially forced out of the race sat badly with just about everyone, Democrats included. Yes, new vigor and verve was “injected into the race” when Biden stepped down, but for many voters, Harris was part of the failed Biden administration.2 She was never able to truly shake that reputation.
Gaza. I believe that the situation in Israel and Gaza and the Middle East more broadly is incredibly complicated and that there is little anyone or any government can do to really heal those deep wounds or bring about a lasting peace, but even as someone who supports Israel and its people’s right to exist, I cannot support the lengths to which Netanyahu’s government has gone in this latest war. Biden’s administration alienated many voters on the left (and many voters in general) with its full-throated support of Israel during what many have called outright genocide. I don’t want to get into the dark thicket of that debate here, but there’s no doubt it played a role in the left’s enthusiasm—or lack thereof—in the 2024 election.
The Neocons. If I were running for president against Donald Trump and Dick Cheney endorsed me, I would publicly denounce that endorsement. I would publicly denounce the endorsement of anyone involved in the murderous campaign of aggression that was the Iraq War, and I would do it in no uncertain terms. The fact that Democrats thought it was a good idea to embrace the support of neocons—many of whom are “never Trumpers” because his foreign policy isn’t hawkish enough—is baffling to me. I’m not sure how much it impacted the race, but it played a part, especially with the Gaza crisis looming. It appears that the neocons have no home in the Republican Party now, so they are slithering over to the Democrats. They should be cast out, exiled, given to the void where they can wander, aimlessly, forever into obscurity. (Whenever I think of the neocons, I think of Eddie Vedder singing Bob Dylan’s Masters Of War and how perfect that song is, and that performance is, even if it was written for another generation of warmongers).
Kamala Harris. We cannot let Harris off the hook here, either. I don’t have strong feelings about her, personally, but there’s no doubt in my mind that she came off to many as artificial and elitist. Conservatives did a great job spinning her time as California Attorney General into political gold, but that spin has its roots in reality. Watch this ad about her efforts to improve truancy rates by jailing parents:
And the fact of the matter is, parents were jailed in California over truancy, which is truly galling and unconscionable. A mother in Kings County was sentenced to 180 days in jail in 2012 because she allowed her kids to miss more than 10% of the school year. Other parents around the state were likewise arrested and jailed over truant children. This is the kind of punitive bullshit that hits poorer communities the most and that the left, especially, should denounce. Nobody who had a hand in this kind of monstrous program should ever make it this far in a party ostensibly dedicated to improving the lives of the poor and working class.
In the end, Harris never felt relatable, and foolishly refused to let her guard down and, for instance, go on Joe Rogan’s podcast to prove that she could just be . . . human. Her efforts at sounding down-to-earth (talking about her gun, her job at McDonald’s) all fell flat. Trump, despite being a weirdo billionaire who has said all kinds of willdy bizarre and troubling things, still feels more relatable to a lot of people. If you can’t understand that, I don’t blame you, but you should at least try. Despite being totally full of shit half the time, he comes across as more genuine, less plastic, and he speaks to a deep, earthy, hoary humanness within his supporters that many on the other side can’t quite comprehend. That’s always been his greatest strength, both against Democrats and against the politics-as-usual career politicians in his own party. It’s also what makes him dangerous—and why anti-Trumpers, casting him as a “fascist” and other unsavory things, will always fail when using these tactics.
A Woman President? I actually don’t believe that Harris being a woman was one of the main reasons she lost, though I absolutely do think sexism played a role. Still, a better and more popular female candidate—one who actually won a primary, and not by doing Bernie Sanders dirty in the process, alienating a huge chunk of her voting base like Hillary—could absolutely win in the general election. I do think this will always be harder for a woman and that’s not fair or right, but in this instance I think it was more about how voters perceived Harris as a Biden leftover than her being a woman. It’s true that historically white dudes have had a lot more success becoming president! That being said, I believe Biden would have suffered an even greater loss had he clung to his own candidacy.
Social Justice Scolds. Finally, I will just hint at the subject of my next piece. I believe that the left has abandoned its core mission—helping the working class push back against the rich and powerful—in favor of an elitist social justice agenda that favors censorship over freedom, language-policing over free exchange of ideas and is ultimately counterproductive when it comes to furthering its stated goals of increased tolerance and acceptance of LGBTQ people, minorities and so forth. I believe this spreads beyond the realm of the political into the realm of popular culture, and has become pervasive and we are seeing a reaction to it unfold. The approach of the “overly woke” crowd is extremely popular in the press and Hollywood, on Twitter and across social media, and in the various enclaves where its purveyors hold sway, but is enormously unpopular everywhere else. At no time in the history of modern politics has the left come across as so out-of-touch, elitist and hoity-toity. That this snobbish and often authoritarian approach to everything these days has alienated not just white voters, but Hispanic and black voters as well, should come as no surprise. The left should not be at the forefront of cancelling comedians like Dave Chappelle. It has become one giant, sneering Karen, constantly wagging its finger, condescendingly from on high, only stopping to curl that finger into a fist. It’s a bad look. Nor is it a winning proposition. Ultimately, it makes the Democrats appear more concerned with scolding people over their use of pronouns than over bread-and-butter issues, jobs, housing costs, etc. and that’s just not how you win elections. It’s not how you actually help people, either. More on this later.
As to the various things you can’t blame for the Trump victory, I will pass you over to Freddie deBoer, who very eloquently expresses his feelings on the matter.
There is plenty more to be said on this election and on the next phase of American politics and I will gather my thoughts accordingly. One big question is simply: What now? Not simply what the left and the Democrats should do next, though that’s a huge one, but what will they actually do? (And what will the Republicans do now that they have so much power?) This truly incredible defeat should inspire soul-searching on the left at the very least, through not just in the halls of power, but the halls of Disney and media outlets and corporate board rooms. My fear is that none of this introspection will occur despite every warning sign, that all the usual scapegoats will be trotted out and our political leaders and the churlish activist class will simply double-down. More on that, and on the “Childish Era” we live in, to come.
What are your thoughts on the 2024 election? Let me know in the comments, or on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
I will never forgive Ruth Bader Ginsburg for refusing to retire when Obama snagged a second term. He could have appointed a young Supreme Court Justice, forever changing the course of events.
Frankly, the Biden administration was not nearly as incompetent or terrible as most people believe, but Biden himself was not an inspiring leader and it was easy for the right to cast his presidency in a negative light. He certainly helped cultivate that image.
I have read your commentaries for years. Your commentary on why the Democrats lost the election so completely is the best I have seen so far. But then, your work is always excellent.
I agree with almost all of that. All my friends roll their eyes when I say the Left's identity politics is fueling the right - they don't see it because they all live in San Francisco and New York echo chambers. i'm amazed at how formerly rational and scientific people now agree that sex is a social construct and that you can be healthy at any weight.
But it's not that alone - it's also the abandonment of the working class, which is much larger than the elite class, and much more in need of the programs that the left is supposed to favor. We're now an elite party of college graduates giving condescending lectures on how to be a good person to our intended constituents.
And the deepening alienation of men is scary and dangerous.
The silver lining is that with total control over the government, the GOP will be held wholly responsible for everything it does, and I suspect there will be a reckoning when it turns out that all they want is to benefit the rich and disenfranchise everyone else.