From a hot mess of a campaign to a stone-cold defeat, the Democratic Party reels from the sheer embarrassment of this last election. With a billion-dollar campaign and a strong 2020 performance in swing states, Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz started out projecting confidence. They launched their hodgepodge campaign from the wreckage of a party coup; which saw sitting President Joe Biden forced out of his bid for reelection by a coalition of influential Democratic National Committee (DNC) members after his lackluster debate. With barely three months to establish herself as a candidate, Harris bumbled around rallies and interviews trying to create a distinct election platform, one that would separate herself from the negatives of President Biden’s term. However, her Biden-esque rhetoric and text-to-speech-teleprompter approach left many Democrats dissatisfied, and undecided voters unconvinced. Even with this visibly rocky start to a campaign, a majority of reputable polls had the race as a tossup. So what do we think were the biggest reasons for this historic flub?
Harris was the suboptimal candidate for the Democratic Party. Without a legitimate primary, Democratic voters had no say in the selection of a candidate. Based on how she dropped out first in the Democratic primary of 2020, Harris made for an uninspiring VP. Without popular policy positions in 2020 and 2024, she became trapped in Biden’s shadow, her policy outlines simply matching his. Political guru Eugene Lee ’25 declared to the Register Forum that Harris “had no passion, aggression or innovation behind the overused pandering points.”
Democratic rhetoric has abandoned its roots and pandered to the loudest minorities. By over emphasizing political correctness, the Democrats failed to articulate legitimate policy plans to their traditional base. In the prioritization of promoting liberal virtues, they cut out the sense of patriotism and focus on the common citizen. Abandoning the union worker and the minimum wage earner, these people were pushed towards a candidate who spoke for them. The Democrats have neglected to take pride in being an American, and this has cost them the ability to tap into the passion of voters’ patriotism.
The cost of living decided this election. The inflated prices of daily food essentials being at a forty-year high during the Biden-Harris administration, did not help the Democrats’ case. Social issues seemed to be at the forefront of their campaigning, but when people begin to wonder whether or not they would be able to afford to live, these issues become an “afterthought.” Biden signed a 2020 stimulus that many economists warned against for its potential harmful effects, and today we see they were right. Among lower-middle class groups, the current price of eggs and milk left them reminiscing about Trump’s presidency. For reference, a CRLS pundit confessed that his grandmother, “an elderly first generation immigrant living in the bluest part of New York, voted for Trump, simply because she was certain he would lower the cost of sour cream.”
While some people are laughing hysterically at the downfall of the Democratic Party, the ridicule is warranted. The Democrats must take a long and hard look at what policies they are selling, and to whom they are selling them too.
This article also appears in our November 2024 print edition.
