On the morning of November 6, liberals woke up to a nightmare. A great red sweep took the nation. An election so close experts predicted its results would only be known in following days resulted in the landslide victory for Donald Trump. Republicans pulled off an unprecedented trifecta, as well as winning the popular vote for the first time in the twenty-first century. In this new reality, as David Frum of the Atlantic eloquently put, “millions of our fellow citizens voted for a president who knowingly promotes hatred and division; who lies—blatantly, shamelessly—every time he appears in public; [and] who plotted to overturn an election in 2020.”
But, perhaps, this is the wake up call Democrats needed. Harris’s defeat by a convicted felon, a quasi-fascist, and an imminent threat to democracy, is humiliating for Democrats. Moreover, her loss sheds light on the political complacency that led to many liberals assuming she could not lose to a man as egregious as Donald Trump. The November 6th political reality, however unexpected and disappointing, is a necessary jab in the heart of the liberal elite. The question we should have been asking is this: What has been happening these past four years? The election results demonstrate that Democratic messaging is out of touch—that Democrats failed to ground their rhetoric and strategy in what resonates with the American people. As much as Democrats try to lay blame elsewhere—inflation, Biden, misinformation—their loss was of their own making. This was a devastation created by a lack of foresight or good-faith understanding of Donald Trump’s political appeal.
What do the results of the election reveal about the political divisions among American people? Race is not as decisive as it once was. Trump made considerable gains with Latino voters, and the Black vote demonstrated a widening gap between women and men. Democrats may no longer rely on the youth vote, as polls showed a narrowing 12 point margin between Harris and Trump. White women were not drastically swayed by Democratic efforts to headline the issue of abortion. Geographically, Trump saw gains among suburban, urban, and rural voters alike. The 2024 Republican electorate was the most diverse it has ever been, with Trump making gains in almost every grouping. The exit poll statistics reflect a noticeable shift of the entire country to the right. What divides Americans today goes beyond gender, race, or geography. America is growingly united against the tide of Democratic elitism and modern liberalism.
An anecdote from a history professor of mine illustrates this cultural shift well: For the past 40 years, my professor has frequently traveled by train with his wife, where seating arrangements always lent the opportunity to have conversation with other couples of varying backgrounds. In these conversations, my professor would openly reveal his association with Yale, and often continue to be met with friendly and lively conversation. But over the past decade, revealing his university employer regularly led to silence and standoffishness from other couples, as if a great wall had suddenly sprung up in the dining car. And this wall has extended into the political sphere. Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense, Fox News host Pete Hegseth, has made a name for himself by rebuking his Harvard degree and blasting the Ivy League as “deeply poisoned entities.” Today, Democrats and urban elites are bound to a web of elitism that is often conferred with an Ivy League degree. It is worth examining why it no longer resonates with the public when sixteen Nobel Prize winning economists cast serious doubts on Trump’s economic agenda. The answer lies in the disillusionment of working-class Americans with the perceived Democratic elite, synonymous with the Ivy League and other academic institutions.
What is known as the ‘diploma divide’ has only widened, reflected by the outcome of this election, where the most significant split in the electorate was between college and non-college educated Americans. The everyday American struggling to afford gas and pay rent is put off by elites telling them that things got better under Biden. And, if you don’t agree, you must be dumb or uneducated. While, yes, there are economic models and inaccessible theories that explain the nuance between positive statistical indicators and what voters felt, it is the latter that matters in politics. The soaring cost of living felt by voters these last four years under the Biden-Harris administration was grossly underestimated by the 2024 Democrat campaign. They told Americans to just look at the graphs.
The modern liberal refuses to lend legitimacy to the issues Trump raises. Take, for example, Trump’s claim that “[Harris] has imported an army of illegal alien gang members and migrant criminals from the dungeons of the third world,” and he would be the man to stop her. To Democrats, these are the words of a deranged xenophobe. But the reality is many Americans have genuine concerns about immigration and its implications on their economic security. And when Democrats invoke such language to respond to Trump’s rhetoric, they implicitly call these Americans deranged xenophobes, too. Democrats need to take the justifiable concerns of working-class Americans seriously as symptoms of the economic hardships of the past four years and propose an alternative diagnosis to Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric.
Democratic campaign messaging was patronizing for many Americans. It was rooted in self-righteousness; raising the stakes to ‘saving democracy’ colored the election with the question of moral superiority. Those who disagreed with liberal views were not only wrong but souls who needed saving. Democracy is not a kitchen table issue. Americans don’t want to be told that prioritizing abstractions like democracy over realities like rent and gas prices makes them ignorant.
In the eyes of middle- and working-class Americans, modern liberalism is a greater threat to democracy than an impeached, convicted insurrectionist. Why? Today’s Democratic platform demands a flavor of ideological conformity and agreement that alienates. And Trump, fist raised and ear bloodied, embodies the ideal champion to resist the autocratic imposition of the political elite. Harris was handed the candidacy, after all. What’s so democratic about that?
A criminal, who was described by George Conway as “depraved and brazen,” more deeply resonated with American voters than a sitting vice president. No matter how grim, the 2024 election results do not suggest that the soul of America is lost, rather that Democrats lost touch with it. History reminds us that the political pendulum will swing back blue. Until then, Democrats must swallow this painful lesson, lick their wounds, and listen.