Commentary:
So, what happened?
Yes, we are a stubbornly sexist nation founded on racism. Even macho Mexico has elected a woman president before we have, and Mr. Trump was a bad joke.
But Democrats are barking up the wrong mesquite if they think racism motivated all Trump voters, or even a majority.
Many voters are angry. In 2016, I wrote that people were angry and Trump was yelling angrily, so they kind of liked him. Our inequitable corporation-dominated system provides good reason for anger.
Unfortunately, a huge swath of voters get their information not from our “papers of record” or from fact-based journals that attempt neutrality but from partisan on-line material created, often carelessly, by partisans or Putinists. One Trump voter solemnly told me that Harris had been a high-class prostitute during college and Trump, when younger gave poor Black entrepreneurs low-interest loans and often forgave them. Hunnh?
The Democrats haven’t “abandoned workers,” despite globalism. Most of this century, Democrats supported workers against capital, battled the profit-driven corporate excesses of our huge corporations, and protecting poor folks, various minorities, and [legal] immigrants. Support of LBGTQ folks continues that commitment to protecting the weak and minorities in a closed-minded population. However, it offends some, just as, Democrats’ support of civil rights once alienated some white workers. Republicans used this issue well.
As Blacks need protection from racism, and workers from low pay and unsafe working conditions, and women from abusive partners (and strangers who grope or rape), and the environment from pollution, LBGTQ folks need protection from prejudice and abuse. Allowing LGBTQ folks to live their lives needn’t cost workers anything; letting women flourish (and make choices) needn’t harm men. We are all citizens.
Our capitalist masters have always played us against each other, as southern aristocrats maintained power by playing Blacks and poor Whites against each other. It’s not us poisoning you and ripping you off, it’s the welfare cheats. The pregnant females getting abortions. The immigrants. The socialists.
It was and wasn’t the economy, which has been doing well. There had indeed been inflation initially, and folks recalled the pain of it. They feared high prices, so they rushed to vote for a fellow promising to raise everyone’s prices with tariffs – as if Chinese would kindly decline to raise prices to cover tariff amounts.
There’s also an international trend toward authoritarian governments. We face an axis of dictatorships, and recent right-wing gains in European countries. Democracy is in decline. Is it our human tendency to duck out on freedom and seek a Leader in times of crisis or uncertainty? Marx thought Labor would eventually rebel against capital. Much of our working class has “rebelled” by jumping into Capital’s lap.
In 2016, many voters felt that since the government wasn’t serving them properly, they’d toss Trump into the works. Instead of focusing on understanding folks’ anger, too many political leaders either enabled (or deified) Trump or grew too obsessed with his narcissism. Meanwhile, Democrats compounded their electoral challenges through Biden’s long delay in withdrawing from the race.
Trump’s defects seem obvious: but if you want to weaken the country, who cares? To weaken the country, a guy appointing wholly unqualified people to high positions is fine. Imagine President Kamala Harris naming Hunter Biden Attorney-General and Travis Kelce Defense Secretary.
Voters wanted fairer and more efficient government. Instead, they’ll watch it get dismantled. Vladimir Putin is laughing.
Peter Goodman's opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of KRWG Public Media or NMSU.