The first step in recovering from the political disaster that descended upon Democrats in 2024 is to collect data on why voters rejected them – barely, it’s true, this was no landslide, but it remains clear that they lost.
So this informal, anecdote-ridden survey of Fall River, MA, by E. J. Dionne Jr in WaPo collects some of that data:
Fall River is socially conservative, and both [Mayor Ed] Lambert and [local journalist Marc] Dion cited Trump’s much-played advertisement against Harris on transgender issues. “Pronouns have honked off traditional males to an unbelievable degree,” said Dion.
Yet both also stressed that the role of gender identity in the campaign was less about attitudes toward transgender people than a symbol to many voters of which groups the Democrats prioritized. “The greater the focus on identity politics,” Lambert said, “the more rationale there is for someone to say you’re not paying attention to what I care about.” [WaPo]
Two complaints are cited here: the pronouns issue, or transgenderism, and an inclination to pursue social issues rather than economic issues. With regard to the first issue, I rather suspect those within the Party who consider themselves to be advocates of transgenderism will complain of a lack of proper messaging, or that the electorate is made up of bigots.
Such is the nature of Cover Your Ass; I’ll bet most are not even aware they’ve abrogated one of the most important tenets of liberal democracies. They’re convinced nothing is truly their fault. But it’s my guess that excluding nearly everyone from that conversation, and then running around calling everyone looking for a discussion a bigot, will be cited frequently over the next year or so.
The second issue is probably met with more warmth by the Democrats, although the electorate may be resistant to their message, even if it’s true. The Republicans have a definite history of mismanaging the economy and the Federal deficit, and they continued that tradition in Mr Trump’s first term.
This WaPo article is something of an echo for Democrats:
Voters in Waterbury [, CT] saw a different reality than the one portrayed in the Democratic messages that filtered into their communities, according to interviews with more than a dozen voters, party strategists and politicians. Grocery prices crept up, even as the White House said inflation was easing. Some saw a party that catered to the whims of leftist groups, even as Democrats touted their blue-collar bona fides. And some residents took issue with Harris herself, wondering why Biden’s handpicked heir apparent should be commander in chief without winning a primary. …
Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski, a Democrat, said he was not particularly surprised by the election results. National Democrats did not fully address the needs of the people in his community, he said, nor did they land an effective counterpunch on a Republican standard-bearer who has long tapped into the sense of grievance and dispossession of America’s White working-class voters.
I’ll be interested to see what else comes up for the Democrats.
