Blaming the Base: The Democrats won’t take responsibility for a loss
By Maxime Leonard
11/06/24 – This article was written before the announcement of the results of the 2024 election and was modified afterward.
When it comes to elections, it’s increasingly clear that each major election year feels more important than the last. Key issues, such as protecting transgender Americans, the state of the U.S. economy, or perhaps the war in Gaza, seem to only mount in scale. Coming at it from the perspective of the left, every election feels more and more critical to win.
However, there is something to be said regarding the Democrat’s current strategy, as they seem to be aiming for the middle of the road. An example of this is the lack of any mention of abolishing the death penalty, which remains a popular idea, at the Democratic National Convention. To court more moderate voters and perhaps try and cast as wide of a net as possible, Kamala Harris seemed to be aiming more for the middle than for the left.
While this strategy might seem sensible to some, it’s one we’ve seen before, specifically in 2016, 2020, and most importantly in 1989, when Ronald Reagan left office. With the era of Reagan, we saw a slow push of the entire political spectrum in the U.S. towards the right, and as the Democrats play more and more towards the middle, they abandon the policies that made them popular in the first place and concede more ground to move everything further right.
When Reagan came to office, he was a media personality who used his previous prestige to amass a voter base. Then, with help from prominent right-wing think tank, The Heritage Foundation, Reagan and his cohorts learned the art of the “dog whistle,” to say something defamatory towards a group without saying what they actually meant. Sounds familiar?
However, in this election, Harris’ refusal to shift her position on U.S. policies regarding Israel, along with her statement that protections for transgender Americans should “follow the law,” has left many younger voters feeling discouraged and ignored. For many of them, the issues that the Democrats have abandoned are important to them, so is it any wonder they felt unenthusiastic or even unwilling to vote for her?
I know I am not alone when I say that I have found myself in conversations where the very idea of attempting to criticize Harris in the lead-up to the election led the other person to shout something along the lines of: “Well, do you want Trump to win?” This dynamic has made many people uneasy about discussing the shortcomings and blind spots in Harris’ campaign, despite issues like the war in Gaza being a high priority for voters in swing states.
With the current “playing it safe” strategy, I know I am not alone when I say that a win felt uncertain. But now that we’ve experienced a red sweep, who will shoulder the blame? Given the current public sentiment surrounding the attempts to criticize Harris, it’s not unreasonable to fear or notice that those on the “far left” might be forced to take the blame.
Among cries of “Why didn’t you vote?!” or “I can’t believe you let Trump win,” we may see a pattern emerge – not just from centrists, but from the Democrats themselves. We have seen the middle strategy play out before, specifically in 2016, and every time it ends up feeling like a band-aid over a bullet wound. Despite all the pandering to the middle and borderline mythological “average voter”, the writing was on the wall for the consequence of ignoring the opinions and griefs of many real voters.
With everything said and done, most leftists, much like myself, likely gritted their teeth and went to vote for Harris. Despite this, will they get blamed for “not willing to budge” on critical issues or for wanting the president to reflect the interests of the American people? Perhaps it would be wise to take a page from the book of the other side just this once. Acknowledge that a loss was not the fault of the people, but rather the fault of an outdated system as well as those in power refusing to listen to the wants and needs of the people, who are meant to vote for them.
After all, it is often easier to blame someone else than to really introspect on your own faults and missteps.