Why We Unfortunatley Do Not Have Harris, IMO

I tend to not like writing or discussing politics much.  I tend to do so in a rather limited way.  Today will be an (unfortunate?) exception:

So..... I have hemmed and hawed a bit about sitting down to write this.  Part of me thought it really did not matter any longer what my opinion was about why Harris/Walz lost the election..... unfortunately DJT is the upcoming President regardless of my opinion.  But, part of me feels it is valuable for me to get these ideas out of my head, so I am going to do so via bullet points:

• First..... Harris/Walz was a GREAT team and I very much like both Harris and Walz.  They would have been very good leaders of the nation.
• I also very firmly believe that Harris and Harris/Walz BOTH did a great job in getting their important messages out.  In other words.... I think the Harris/Walz campaign was VERY GOOD. 
• I truthfully DO NOT think the Harris/Walz campaign did anything wrong.

 

• I believe the Democratic Party prevented Harris/Walz from attaining victory BECAUSE the Democratic Party has alienated a portion of the population who HAD BEEN steadfast Democrats for decades.   These alienated folks are of a sizable enough percentage of the voters that this unfortunately shifted the vote (especially in the former "Blue Wall" states) to DJT and away from the Harris/Walz team.
  
• The Democratic Party has alienated an important percentage of folks that we often call the Blue Collar Workforce. 

 

•  Here is what the Democratic Party does not do well..... it DOES NOT ADEQUATELY PROMOTE MESSAGES OF INCLUSION to Blue Collar folks in the right way.  
• Being a Blue Collar worker is damn hard much of the time.  Blue Collar folks do not tend to have a huge amount of time nor inclination for a lot of introspection.  Hell, in the modern world, not having a lot of time for introspection is something EVERYONE lacks.... but it affects the Blue Collar folks even more as many do not have a strong INCLINATION towards introspection in their day-to-day life
• What little INCLUSIVE messages the Democratic Party has given to Blue Collar folks has typically been in the form of long-winded essays (perhaps like this post itself), where it takes a long time to get to the heart of the matter.
• Most Blue Collar folks focus on SOUND BITES.  And most of the SOUND BITE messages from the Democratic Party over the last 20 years has been focused on the smaller groups of folks who also very legitimately want, need, and find a home in the Democratic Party..... the extreme poor, the abused groups of all sorts, etc.  These smaller groups are what the Democratic Party has rallied around (justly) to assure they are included.   And that is GREAT.
• But, having the LION'S SHARE of the Democratic Party's focus and the Democratic Party's SOUNDBITES be about only those smaller groups.... it opened the window of opportunity for DJT to exploit the feelings the Blue Collar folks felt about being left behind or ignored in favor of other groups..... and with DJT's proclivity for ONLY speaking in a word salad of SOUND BITES, he was able to attract a large enough percentage of Blue Collar folks to his camp..... even though as we can recognize, the SOUND BITES DJT throws out, are typically the polar opposite of what becomes the Republican Party's real effort.     

 

• Yet, there is, IMO, still more. The Democratic Party's emphasis on VERY LEGITIMATE AND VERY REALISTIC foci on the rights of the various groups in the last 20 years that have needed extra help in support of their causes..... the "Me Too" movement for highlighting sexual abuse, the various "LGBTQ+" causes for acquiring very legitimate rights, and the "Defund the Police" movement to force accountability of our nation's law enforcement and legal systems...... while EACH is critically valuable and important..... each of those also inadvertently had aspects of their efforts that without meaning to, became thought of as being ANTI-the core Blue Collar base of the Democratic Party because of the way the SOUND BITES came to be heard.
• Blue Collar men, for instance, would regularly hear SOUND BITES that were suggesting "all men" were bad, or that all "police" were bad.  
• Blue Collar folks male and female would often hear that because they had or wanted to have a relatively traditional family unit, and they may ascribe to a traditional faith.... that they were bad.
• Again, these are the SOUND BITES that have been heard.... often in times of anger or protest.... and they are very INCOMPLETE representations (and in fact, typically distortions) of the more elaborate/complete messages meant by the smaller groups.  The deeper, more elaborate messages of the groups I mention above (Me Too, LGBTQ+, Defund the Police, and others as well) are ALL very legitimate, are ALL very important, and are ALL important parts of the Democratic Party.  DO NOT GET ME WRONG in my support of them.
• BUT.... the deeper, more elaborate messages ARE NOT what a sizable percentage of Blue Collar folks had the time nor inclination to wade through.  Instead, they took in and heard the SOUND BITES... and the SOUND BITES could be easily perceived as suggesting.... "YOU DO NOT MATTER TO THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY".  That is the sound bite message many of the Blue Collar folks heard.... and it is IMO a major factor in why they went and voted RED instead of BLUE.  The RED messages (their SOUND BITES only) felt inclusive to the Blue Collar folks.... and even though the RED deeper, more elaborate impacts would be horrible, that was not the focus the Blue Collar folks had... the SOUND BITE messages sounded great.... and sounded like the RED party WANTED THEM

•  So, I think the BLUE WALL STATE'S gave the election to DJT because enough of the Blue Collar folks in those states felt alienated by the Democratic Party.  These folks migrated to the Republicans because their SOUND BITES felt inclusive to them.  
• I think this ignoring and taking for granted the Blue Collar folks has been an ongoing issue since at least 2000.  
• I think this resulted in Al Gore losing in 2000.  
• I think this resulted in Hillary Clinton losing in 2016.
• I think this resulted in Kamala Harris losing in 2024.
• I believe Barack Obama was able to avoid losing for this Blue Collar reason because his campaign was televised far more widely and his SOUND BITES rang always of universal inclusivity for everyone.
  
• I believe Biden was able to win (barely) because a) he had some positive effect of "coat-tails" from being Obama's VP, and b) I think Biden also was old enough, that a percentage of many Blue Collar folks recognized his long-term historic support of Blue Collar folks since the early 1970s, and c) I feel Biden was also helped by how the craziness of the DJT years were still being FELT by the Blue Collar Folks.... and this swayed a few back temporarily to the Democratic Party.   

•  So.... to conclude.... I am a Democrat.  I believe in their goals and objectives.  I think Harris/Walz was a great team.  They tried damn hard, but in their limited few months…. they could not convince Blue Collar folks who have had a lot of negative soind bites thrown at them the last 20 years by their Democratic Party…. there was not enough time to overcome those 20 years of messages.  The  Democratic Party does, IMO, a piss-poor job of being as inclusive in their COMMUNICATION to ALL likely members of the Democratic Party as they should be.  They should be spouting just as many SOUND BITES about the important needs of and their goals to help the Blue Collar folks as they have been successfully doing for other groups.  If they had kept the Blue Collar folks feeling a part of the Democratic Party... the election win would have been easy.

Very interestingly.... much of what I had been thinking and trying to write out in the above..... was pretty damn similar to what Bernie Sanders actually published yesterday.  I have always admired Bernie Sanders.  I would have really liked to have our society have a term or two where Bernie Sanders would have been President.

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