After the clean sweep of the presidency, Senate and House by Republicans, Democratic politicians are trying to figure out why they lost. Mainstream Democrats like Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) thinks that the party needs to pivot to economic issues and away from social issues, emphasizing the need to “take power” from the powerful and hand it to the working class. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) thinks that there’s an “oligarchy” in the United States who steal everyone’s money and buy elections, so Democrats should focus on seizing and redistributing that wealth.

If those are the lessons learned, the Democrats will continue to lose, as they should.

1. Money in elections. The Democrats spent about one-third more than Republicans and lost big. The dollar spent per vote was about 50% more. The numbers show that it’s not about money in politics or the Democrats would have sailed away with victory.
2. America’s “oligarchy.” The richest people in the United States BUILT amazing companies and created millions of jobs and products that people love. The oligarchs in Russia just STOLE state assets. Sanders & Co. have a basic lack of understanding of economics which feeds a deep contempt for wealthy people. The distortion leads people like Sanders to the horrific conclusions and proposed policies that deny Americans property rights.
3. Americans feel “impotent”. Murphy’s claim that Americans feel that only a handful of people hold power is true about the omnipotent Democratic political machine: They decided to throw President Biden out of the running. They unilaterally decided that VP Kamala Harris was going to run as the party’s nominee without allowing everyday Americans the opportunity to vote for their nominee. Democratic politicians are the imperialist power players and people are waking up to that grotesque fact. Most do not want to pivot to the far-left like Justice Democrats who accuse the Democrats of imperialism, so they pivot right.

The Democrats should now appreciate that they should have never picked Harris for vice president four years ago. You don’t pick one of the most left-wing senators from the most radical left-wing state and assume that such person could win most of America. Knowing her baggage and role in the unpopular Biden administration, Harris’s attempt to pivot towards the middle came off as completely inauthentic, a non-starter for many voters.

Considering the above, the election takeaways for the public and the Democratic Party and possible plans for the future include:

1. The Democratic machine was tactically smart to lie to Americans about Biden’s health. Harris was never going to beat any Republican – as the November election showed – so the best chance of her becoming president was to prop up Biden until the middle of 2025 and then let him resign to hand the presidency to Harris. The question isn’t why the Democrats waited so long to admit to Biden’s health issues; there was no other option, as even $1.5 billion dollars highlighted. [Note that Pelosi and gang are very astute – it will be important to trace the monies spent on the Harris campaign to see if/how much was siphoned off to favorite causes and other Democratic politicians for future races.]
2. Pick presidential candidates from swing states. Democrats should stay away from California, Massachusetts and New York and run candidates from Pennsylvania, Georgia or Michigan. The electoral college is not just a game of arithmetic; the candidates should be broadly attractive for everyone, not niche extremists.
3. The far-left wing “Squad” of the Democratic party is a toxic anchor that shut be cut off. The Democratic Socialists of America held a vote in August 2023 to remain inside the Democratic party to pull the party leftward rather than break into its own party, stating “It is not advisable for us to form an independent political party with its own ballot line at this moment.” The stink of their socialist policies has washed over Democrats. The party should expel the toxic DSA politicians and candidates, including Rep.Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).
4. Stop the wealth transfer platform. No American will feel safe if the idea that their property can be seized by the government and handed over to someone the government prefers. Immigrants know the corrupt communism and socialism of property theft. They came to this country for a fair shot at capitalism to become wealthy. Don’t vilify billionaires as immoral, the way AOC says.
5. Decentralize and narrowly focus. Don’t push an issue like fracking or gender identity in sports onto the national stage. What may fly in Oregon may not in Texas, and making politicians delve into matters that are best handled locally will inevitably rub many people the wrong way. National campaigns should always lead with safety and the economy. Always, in every election.

Mainstream and extreme Democrats are so trapped in their political philosophies that they believe that the election loss was an issue of messaging. It was not. Americans have eyes and ears and did not appreciate the pig under the lipstick.

The critical issues of security and the economy were alight with global wars, rampant antisemitism, inflation, grab-and-go theft and the National Guard in the subways over the past four years. Keeping the socialist-jihadi fringe inside the party whose policies include destroying the economy and embracing genocidal terrorists will forever sink anyone in their orbit on a national level.

Most importantly, Democrats need to stop pitting groups against each other – the powerful versus working class and Whites versus people of color – and then vilifying their foes as ‘Nazis’ and ‘deplorables.’ The only segment to move leftward towards those positions were those they targeted who dutifully ate their humble pie – educated White men – while the non-woke uneducated and minority groups watched the pandering as inherently racist, anti-religion and anti-Democratic.

Americans are abandoning the politics and universities of wokeism. It’s a good thing. Democrats will now decide whether to jettison it or continue to cleave to their intersectional and DEI ideology.

Related articles:

“I Think We Need To Have A Real Conversation About Woke Antisemitism” (July 2024)

‘Imagine’ No Wokeness (February 2022)

Bernie Sanders’ Antisemitic and Anti-Zionist Friends (March 2020)

Bernie Sanders is Less Sophisticated Than Forrest Gump (April 2019)