Summary
Gender bias played a significant role in Kamala Harrisās defeat, with many votersāoften womenāexpressing doubts about whether āAmerica is ready for a female president.ā
Some said they ācouldnāt see her in the chair,ā or questioned if a woman could lead, with one even remarking, āyou donāt see women building skyscrapers.ā Though some voters were open to persuasion, this often became a red line.
Oliver Hall, a Harris campaign volunteer, found that economic concerns, particularly inflation, also drove voters to Donald Trump, despite low unemployment and wage growth touted by Democrats.
Harris was viewed in conflicting ways, seen as both too tough and too lenient on crime, as well as ineffective yet overly tied to Bidenās administration.
Ultimately, Hall believes that Trumpās unique appeal and influence overshadowed Harrisās campaign efforts.
They absolutely donāt have a coherent constituency, thatās for sure, but they certainly could have a large enough constituency to put Trump and his entire army of ignorance and sleeze to bed once and for all, but they only cater to a very small segment of what could be their constituency, and for many of the people who could be their constituency it often feels like theyāre actually catering to the enemy rather than to them.
Thatās exactly my point. To appease one section of their potential voters they have to piss off others. We can second guess them on which decisions wouldāve led to a victory, but the fact remains that they come across as incoherent and inauthentic because they have to walk a tightrope to keep together an imaginary coalition between things like American Jews who support Israel and Palestinian immigrants. They fail because they arenāt representing a coherent set of people. Theyāre representing sometimes conflicting ideas. American atheists and Catholics. Muslims, some of whom believe that women should be subservient, and āchildless cat ladiesā. People in this country are overall much more regressive socially than online progressives want to admit.
When it comes to the conflicting ideas they need to pick a side. And the other side has to decide whether to show up or not, we know which side always shows up, maybe they should take a backseat for a bit, theyāll show up anyway.
Like if you think women should be subservient, youāre not on our side. If you are okay with arming a terrorist nation to carry out genocide youāre not on our side. Easy peasy ones.
I think weāre actually finally at a truly 50/50ish ratio of regressive to progressive in the USā¦ Thatās why things are so tense between the progressive actual left and the regressive āleftā DNC. Yeah thereās still misogynistic bigoted people here, but definitely way fewer than 100 years ago. And they should ALL be on the other team.