A few thoughts on the outcome of the recent presidential election:
- It’s the Economy Stupid-If there is one constant in American political history, it is that the American people usually punish the party in power if the economy is bad. Inflation convinced most of the American people that the economy is bad, and that provided the background to this election which gave Trump a strong advantage.
- Kamala Harris was a lousy candidate– She was unable to think on her feet and was completely inarticulate as to how her administration would differ from the current one. She blew through a billion and a half dollars in just over three months and received overwhelmingly positive coverage from the media, and these great advantages still weren’t enough to overcome the fact that she simply wasn’t good at the job of running for president.
- Trump was a very good candidate-Trump came late in life to politics, but in three runs for office he has mastered the trade. His performance was not flawless but it was very good.
- Assassination attempt-Trump getting to his feet immediately after being shot in the ear, coming within less than an inch of ending his life, and raising his fist and yelling Fight, Fight Fight! cemented his larger than life status. This was utterly revelatory of the inner man, and most Americans liked what they saw.
- Illegal aliens-The attempt by the Biden administration to import twelve million new foreign voters is perhaps the most suicidal move of any administration in US history. Ironically it came at the same time as the Hispanic population of the country was beginning to trend Republican.
- Lawfare-The attempt by the current administration to jail Trump fell flat on its face, and helped greatly to increase the popularity of Trump.
- The Republicans worked harder-The GOP has spent the last four years increasing the numbers of their supporters registered to vote in swing states, and developing a very good ground game in those states. In politics, as in many areas of life, those who work harder are often rewarded with success.
- The MAGA Movement-In my small village I can think of twenty houses that have had Trump flags and signs up from 2020 to 2024. I have never seen anything like that in my six decades of observing the American political scene. They provided a hard core of Trump loyalists across the country who were the base of a winning coalition.
- Biden-From the debacle of the Afghanistan bug out, Puppet Biden has been intensely unpopular. Almost all the media engaged in an utterly mendacious conspiracy throughout his term to pretend that Biden was not clearly senile. His debate with Trump revealed the truth of his being a barely animated corpse for all to see. Biden was going to lose in an electoral landslide. The manner in which he was dumped and replaced with Harris, made all his and her pretensions of safeguarding Democracy ring utterly hollow. I do think that Biden probably helped sabotage her campaign in revenge, most notably by calling the Trump supporters garbage. The behind the scenes memoirs of this White House should be fascinating about this campaign, albeit not edifying.
- Trump as Hitler-Few campaigns have embraced more of a sure loser strategy than the attempt of the Harris campaign in the closing weeks of portraying Trump as a Fascist, overlooking the fact that Trump had already been President and gave no evidence then of this alleged Fascism. I assume it was meant to be a base mobilization strategy, but if you have to worry about mobilizing your base late in an election, that is usually a sure sign of impending defeat.
- GOP rebranding-Trump has succeeded, at least for the moment, in making the Republican party into a populist party, that can appeal to blue collar workers across racial, party and class lines. Reagan did something similar during his time in office. I hope Trump’s transformation will prove more long lasting.
Give us your thoughts on this topic in the comboxes.
My wife has mentioned to me that normal people she encounters seem to be in a much better mood, and even those who might otherwise be liberal or intensely dislike Trump or who even voted for Harris are relieved Trump won. For while I think woke is far from dead, I think in a lot of ways its has jumped the shark and become a net loser politically. Even if people didn’t vote for Trump positively, I think many are just tired of the constant woke hectoring factionalism, even if they won’t publicly admit to it.
For Gen Xers (who I think Trump outright won) there might be some memory and nostalgia of the late 80s and 90s which, while certainly not perfect, represent in their minds a time of prosperity and life before PC and woke where it seemed like many societal issues (especially those related to race) were at least headed in the right direction.
I also think that the legacy media’s ability to drag candidates across the finish line has been shown to no longer exist, or at least to have been seriously weakened. The long form interviews that Trump and Vance did showed actual human beings, and even if you don’t like them you saw at least an actual person, which for younger generations who have no interaction with sound bite legacy media will be important going forward. I wouldn’t be surprised if much of the increased younger vote for Trump was really a vote for Vance.
Lastly, I think Trump as representative of anti-establishment sentiment was a factor, for I still don’t think many people suddenly liked him, but his bullet to the face was a microcosm of how much more they dislike the status quo. More and more people recognize how broken things are, and are willing to support those who promise to blow it up and are seen by it as a threat.
Perhaps another reason: the growing suspicion on the part of various minority groups that the Left doesn’t care about them unless convenient. From the kerfuffle of Muslims being called white supremacists, to a white liberal telling a black conservative to shut up on national television, to women concerned about transgender interactions with them being shouted down as transphobic (w)itches, some may have concluded their most special status is a little too unreliable when it comes to modern liberalism.
Add a paragraph on hurricanes and disasters like Palestine OH where FEMA and Biden were no where at the scene early. But Trump was. Aiding victims in various ways. Musk provided satellite internet; DeSantis, even though his state was hit, he provided teams to NC as did Younkin from VA and numerous individuals from the lower South. Unlike that creep Gavin Newsome who recently trumpeted that he cares for all Americans on all sides of aisle. Baloney.
Though I would add that nobody had to be convinced the economy was bad. A bad economy speaks for itself.
#6. Backfired on them, thank God.
The years of MSM bias played a role in this victory. When the network hosting the debate couldn’t keep to the rules themselves, and then had the unmitigated gall to team up with Kamala to pounce on Trump for all to see, well…it just might of turned some hearts. Also, the out of context clips used agianst Trump. The J6 speech was not whole when presented in the Congressional hearing and the lie in Kamala’s use of Trump talking about a “bloodbath” if he didn’t win. Omitting the fact that he was talking about the car industry.
Just two examples of the many lies and omissions from the party of death.
Don, Great list, I can think of two more reasons he won resoundingly.
Trump had the best final two weeks I’ve ever seen in a campaign cycle. Harris could barely get in the news, and when she did she talked about Trump. There were a lot of other things that happened before, and Jason was right to bring up the woke angle, but Harris and the mainstream press had actually managed to put her neck-and-neck with Trump. But by the end of the campaign, she could have shot someone on 5th Avenue and it wouldn’t have made the headlines.
Trump was definitely a better candidate in 2024 than he was in 2020.
You and all the commenters have given good analytical reasons about the campaign. There are millions of us who voted for Trump three times now because we know, despite crude rhetoric, that he has the best policies for our country, that he loves “we the people,” and HE IS A GOOD, DECENT PERSON. To anyone paying attention, it is quite clear that democrats are bad people. An honest look at their history, starting with (Republican) Abraham Lincoln and the 14th amendment fight, democrats have been self-serving slime. Abortion and all of its claws sum up that evil party today. Joe Biden runs a family crime syndicate. Kamal Harris slept her way into power. And she’s plain stupid. Democrats weaponized the government. They tried to turn us into a third world country.
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