They Did It Again: Why Kamala Lost

Kamala Harris made a lot of mistakes. And it screamed of the same mistakes Hillary Clinton made in her failed 2016 run. This time, however, the Democrats don’t have the third party to blame. Jill Stein didn’t even come close to making a difference. The Democrats lost this one on their own.

Here are some key things that Kamala did that really did her injustice:

Kamal Good Cause TRUMP BAD

Bill Maher said it well. She had to come up with something when someone asks her why she’s good. She’s good because “TRUMP BAD.” This isn’t a winning argument. Hillary tried it in 2016 and it failed. I don’t understand why they think this is going to ever win. No matter how much you tell people how bad something is they’re not going to listen. It even looks like this backfired.

Give People Something To Vote FOR, Not Something To Vote AGAINST

Going off of the previous paragraph, every interview I heard with Kamala, she always said something nasty about Trump. Almost every question she answered with a “TRUMP BAD.” People don’t respond to that. They need something more than “vote for me because the other guy is going to do X, Y, and Z.”

Where Was Tim Walz?

I got really excited about Tim Walz. It seemed like he was a progressive (at least a shit ton more progressive than Biden and Harris). But the past few months I haven’t heard anything from him. No sound bites, no interviews, nothing. Granted I am in Portugal but that doesn’t stop me from getting US news on TikTok, YouTube, FB, etc. He was really popular and gave Kamala a boost initially but nothing the past few months. Even in that Kamala Harris interview with CNN, Walz was just there… like he barely spoke. What was the point of him even being there? He basically just listened the whole time.

Touting Republican Endorsements

This was one fast way to lose some of her base… Brag about Dick Cheney. I don’t know about you but I’m disgusted and very put off by Dick and Liz Cheney. Whatever they’re for, I’m usually against and vice versa. There was nothing stopping Kamala from touting their endorsement every chance she got. I believe this was a huge mistake as it further alienated her base (and people like me). You have to be taken aback when one of the people you’re 100% against turns out to endorse your candidate. If that doesn’t make you question them then I don’t know what will. I know the Blue MAGA is strong but you gotta think some progressives and some others would be really hesitant to pull the lever for you knowing you align with the slime that’s Dick Cheney. (And yes maybe she doesn’t “align” with him but he endorsed her… it’s kinda like getting the devil’s endorsement.) I believe she lost more voters bragging about the Cheney endorsement than she gained.

Becoming Too Pro-Business & Going Too Far To The Right

The last few weeks of the campaign it seems she shifted and became more pro-business. (See paragraph above.) I feel she probably alienated more people this way. A majority of her base doesn’t think this way. Why alienate them on the hope of picking up a few republican voters? She got too cozy with Republican ideas (much like Hillary did) and I feel like a lot of people were like, well, if I had my choice between a Republican and a Republican-lite, I’ll go for the authentic (not saying Trump is authentic). It’s like having your choice in name-brand ice cream and an off brand. People would go for the name brand stuff. Either way, I sincerely hope the Democrats have learned their lesson in running to the right after two failed elections.

The Economy ISN’T GOOD

Stop saying the economy is good. I read this on FB a bit today. The indicators are there that the economy is good but to the average person, I don’t think they believe that. I know I don’t. I don’t see prices going down even though inflation is going down. Is my income going up? Nope. Are groceries and gas still expensive? Yup. Can people get by? They’re having a lot of trouble. And if you can’t see that, I don’t know what to tell you. If the economy really were good people wouldn’t want change. And they’re going to get change with Trump. Biden did a lot of good but he also didn’t brag about it and Americans didn’t feel it enough. “IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID.”

Tackling Inflation The Wrong Way

Going off of the previous, I don’t think Biden handled inflation the right way. Inflation was off the hinges because of corporate greed. This was sparked by covid. Businesses had to charge more because of “supply chain issues” and what not. They never lowered prices once the supply chain was fixed. Why would they? They know they can get away with it. Look at basic indicators like the price of a Big Mac. It soared and is continuing to soar. Sure, after years of hiking up the interest rate (the Fed, not Biden) it eventually got it under control. At least the numbers. But to the average consumer, the prices never went down. In fact tackling inflation with the interest rate just made housing prices soar! And they don’t seem to be letting up anytime soon. They never addressed what was really behind the high prices which is (and probably always be) corporate greed.

It Was Very “House Of Cards”

If you’ve watched NetFlix’s “House Of Cards” you might get a sense of what I’m saying. Not a single vote (well, maybe a write-in) was cast for Kamala Harris in the Democratic primary. This is because Joe Biden was the incumbent and instead of actually having a primary, they just decided to make him the nominee without any debates or challenges. If Kamala Harris won, I would hate this for it. It is not Democracy how she was elected. She was chosen. I don’t know if this point counts for why she lost but it definitely didn’t help especially when she went down in flames in the 2020 primaries.

The Media

It’s always the media. They LOVE LOVE LOVE everything that Trump says. He sneezes and it makes the news. It’s very hard to gain attention when your opponent gets so much free airtime. The same thing happened in 2016 as well. When you’re constantly bombarded with things Trump said, Trump sticks out in your mind… Go into the voting booth… There’s a saying like, “there’s no such thing as bad press.” It’s correct.

She Never Hit It Off With Her Demographics

I don’t know what their campaign strategy was besides “we’re not Trump” but I didn’t see much in the way of trying to appeal to her core. And the Dick Cheney endorsement probably didn’t help there. I didn’t see many plans or ideas in terms of trying to help certain communities.

“Nothing Comes To Mind”

I think that comment of her on The View will haunt her. When she was asked if she would have done anything different than Biden she said, “nothing comes to mind.” There are lots of things Biden could have done differently that might have had some positive effects on the populace (let’s face it), but he didn’t. A big issue for a lot of the American people (for some reason) is illegal immigration. If he had done more for the boarders maybe that would have helped; but I don’t know. Kamala just I guess wasn’t ready for that (I think) softball question. She had more to say afterwards when she experienced the backlash. This was a change election and the “nothing comes to mind” doesn’t signify change.

Lack Of Debates & Shying From The Media

The lack of debates isn’t her fault. I’m sure she wanted to have more debates but Trump didn’t. (It’s why we will never get a serious challenger to Nancy Pelosi; she won’t sit down for a debate. How does it feel, Democrats?) If there were more debates it could have helped her because she could have made a stronger case to the American people (and hopefully not just say, “TRUMP BAD”). If she went with the “TRUMP BAD” strategy though, that would not have helped. Also there was a month in there where she made no interviews or tried to do any press. Not a strong look when people are wanting to know you.

Conclusion

I don’t think any of these things by itself caused her to fail but so many years of neoliberal politics, the Democratic party really needs to do some soul searching (which they should have done in 2016 when they lost to Trump the first time). The Democratic party keeps abandoning its base to try to go more towards the center and it’s proven time and time again that this strategy doesn’t work. The right got more extreme and the left stayed where they were. The middle is now further to the right. We needed to combat this by more progressive candidates and people who actually want to get things done. Not these status quo politicians (yes, Kamala is status quo; so is Biden). The Democratic party has decided to silence the voices of the progressive movement instead; not realizing (or maybe being paid not to realize) that the country needs and wants progressives and progressive policies. Not once during this campaign did I even hear free college or Medicare for all. At least with Bernie Sanders in the race in 2016 and 2020 it was at least talked about.

The Democrats have a lot to learn. Will they?

Janny November 7, 2024

Farewell, Trump

I hope it goes without saying that Trump was a pretty awful president. He was so bad for the country. It will probably take generations to undo the stuff he has put forth. There isn’t much good to write about him, honestly.

The Good

The Bad

  • The tax cuts that he and the Republicans rammed through Congress. We’re in so much debt because the rich got richer.
  • Didn’t keep campaign promises on outsourcing jobs.
  • Transgender in the military ban.
  • Renewed Keystone XL pipeline.
  • Did NOTHING for income inequality (made it worse), racial justice, etc.
  • Muslim ban.
  • Not handling Covid properly.
  • Wasting billions of dollars on a border wall.

Janny January 20, 2021

Don’t Blame Me For Trump

I remember protesting in Philadelphia during the Democratic National Convention. I protested at the wall(s) they set up to keep us out. I remember yelling and screaming at the top of my lungs to Hillary delegates, “YOU JUST ELECTED TRUMP!”

I didn’t want to be right. I thought for the longest time Hillary was going to win. I’m still in disbelief.

Me in Philadelphia holding a sign that says don't blame me for Trump

Janny November 14, 2016

We Can Finally Unite Now 2016

I know most people are feeling horrible, angry, sad, terrified, etc about the United States just electing Donald Trump. I’m trying to find a silver lining.

After the primary the democrats “tried” to unite us behind Hillary Clinton. However a lot of us progressives refused to unite behind the corrupt democratic party and its chosen candidate due to all the shit they did in the primaries against Bernie Sanders. And I’ve blogged before how the DNC treated Berners at the convention and all the road blocks they threw up to choose Hillary instead of Bernie. Myself and a lot of other progressives I know could no longer stand being a democrat.

But now we have something that draws us together; stopping everything Donald Trump wants to do. Democrats can finally own up and change their positions on the failed right-wing policies the Clinton’s and their donors got them into supporting. They can now stand up against the TPP, against war, against DAPL, against deregulation, against mass surveillance etc. These are all things the democratic AND republican parties were for (hence why progressives had to fight democrats).

Now that Donald Trump is elected, the neoliberal stances that the democrats adopted can now be discarded. Democrats no longer have to support (or pretend to support) something so God awful like the TPP just because Obama was for it. Hopefully this election woke people up.

I have my allies back! We can join together to protest everything bad Trump tries to do. We can protest if he tries to get us into war. (Something told me that if Hillary wanted to start a war, not many of my liberal friends would be by my side in trying to stop it.) We will be against everything bad that Trump wants to do.

And who knows? We may even be surprised what power we can hold now we have a common enemy. Richard Nixon ended the war in Vietnam, started the EPA, introduced health care, etc… all liberal ideas.

It needed to reach a boiling point. With Trump we might have that boiling point.

But now is the time to organize and plan and protest and get involved. Now is the time to rebuild the democratic party to what it was originally for: the working class. Let’s do this!

Janny November 10, 2016