One of the early sessions on this The Nation cruise was called “Dissecting Democratic Malaise: WTF happened.” The panelists were Nation publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel, Jeet Heer, Christina Greer, Elie Mystal and John Nichols, moderated by Sam Seder.
These comments are transcribed from my notes and might seem a bit choppy, but brings out the progressive view of how the election was lost.
John Nichols was the first speaker, and described our situation as “whipsaw politics,” where we go back and forth from one dangerous extreme to the other: rather than holding power for any longer period. He blamed the media for not knowing how to cover politics, but instead reduces it to simplistic gossip. He also noted that the GOP does NOT have a mandate: they had a very narrow victory.
Elie Mystal began by explaining that all the issues we discuss are shared except the issue of whiteness. All of the minorities knew that Trump was wrong, but he was essentially elected by white people. On our cruise ship, he assumed that we could easily find people who voted for Trump, but that if you asked them why, they would give you a “socially acceptable answer,” but the real issue was white racism.
Seder noted that we will have to devote significant efforts to reaching these white people.
Christina Greer said that we are watching a kleptocracy forming itself in real time. And while you might expect that poor white women (who voted for Trump) they didn’t, because they had never “experienced the boot.” Instead, voters latched onto some essentially irrelevant issue like transgender teenagers (who are a very small number of people) as an excuse to swing their vote to Trump.
Jeet Heer noted that it was amazing that we elected a con man and criminal toe the presidency. Trump’s appeal seemed to be “I will protect you,” which is unlikely to be true unless you were some of the super-rich. He also noted that Kamala ran as part of the establishment rather than as a refreshing change.
Katrina vanden Heuvel noted that Kamala spending three days with Liz Cheney was 3 days wasted when she could have been reaching the voters she needed. There is a significant need to reorganize the Democratic party, because they are heading to being the party of Rahm Emmanuel.
In general discussion that followed, the point was raised that Harris was never able to take her own position on Gaza, which probably hurt her with younger voters. She was more or less captive to Biden’s unpopular policies.
The DNC (Democratic National Committee) came under significant attack. Speakers felt that it “served no useful purpose,” and gave Harris no useful help. It didn’t have any strategy to reach the working class. Harris didn’t exploit her multi-racial, multi-ethnic characteristics in her campaign, and this, they blamed on the DNC. Their strategy was too cautious.
Christina Greer felt that had there been a primary, Kamala would not have been the nominee. Democrats chase speakers where there are problems, showing that “I can build coalitions with horrendous people.”
California needs to revise how they count votes. Democrats need to maximize their turnout. Only 63% of eligible voters voted this year, and a lot of Democrats stayed home. In California this was a significant problem for Democrats.
The media did not do an adequate job of covering the election: they are more interested in who has the power. As far as encouraging young voters, young people don’t see themselves in politics.
Great politicians may arrive in non-traditional ways. Seder sees possible candidates among Ro Kahana, Chris Murphy, and AOC, and those already active include Gavin Newsom and Christie Whitmer. Sometimes a transformational figure arrives from outside traditional politics: one such candidate might be LeBron James. And don’t count out Jamie Raskin. What we do have to do is move from party-centered politics to candidate-centered politics. And resist Clintons and Obamas getting involved!
In an afternoon session, Joan Walsh joined a discussion with Christina Greer and John Nichols.
Walsh said that Kamala’ reputation was being torpedoed quietly by Biden staffers, and said should cold cite names. Biden was more popular among black women. She said that Kamal’s campaign was inititially a sh*t-show when she took over. She tried to introduce a working class agenda for women, not men.
Kamala did better than Biden among seniors. Lower middle class women should have gotten a lot of help from the Kamala campaign, but “Nancy said no.”
The media doesn’t know how to report on black issues.
John Nichols finished off this session. He noted that her campaign defined her in terms of Trump rather than in terms of her own plans and ambitions. While commentators were saying that they didn’t really know Harris, it was Kamala who moved Biden closer to unions and arranged all of his union appearances. The fact that she was in charge of that labor movement was never communicated.
Her campaign as too much about Trump and Liz Cheney contributed nothing useful. The DNC is not a useful organization: it is solely concerned with raising money, rather than promoting candidates and policies.
Nichols said that he had a chance to interview Kamala early in the campaign, and one on one she was very impressive. She could easily have been a good President and might have been a great President.
The Nation magazine is a 160-year old publication, originally organized to combat slavery, but moved into other progressive causes after the passage of the 15th Amendment.