It’s Pretty Straightforward: Once again, they Voted for “Anything but NeoLiberalism.”
“It’s the Political Economy — Again — Stupid.”
Here’s the short version of my take on what so many voters did in this disastrous election:
They voted, once more, against the elite bipartisan Neoliberal consensus — and for unleashing Trump’s ‘raging bull.’
It’s pretty much as simple as that.
Here’s a slightly more fleshed-out version:
The “bipartisan” economic policy consensus, built around the dawn of Reaganomics in 1980, has been gutting the middle and working class for going-on 45 years now.
Trump crashed the Republican ‘Party’ in 2016. His “Make America Great Again” meme (aka:“a plague on both their houses”) swung millions of middle- and working-class democratic voters to his campaign. He won against a democrat who could not have more perfectly represented the elite bi-partisan consensus. Not insignificantly, his democratic opponent was a woman and a Clinton.
In 2020, Trump barely lost to Biden — who was probably the mainstream, moderate democrat who best presented himself as “getting” the middle/working class. In the midst of the chaos of COVID, he brought together (for likely the last time) the current coalition of voters inclined to trust the democratic establishment to address ‘health and welfare.’
Trump continued to unleash his raging bull against ‘the powers that be’ in everything from law to order. Biden, meanwhile, managed to engineer at least nominal bipartisan support for an effective COVID response as well as economic relief and stimulus. He ‘righted the ship’ as Democrats feel they/we are supposed to do.
But, in his immense efforts to stablize and move us forward against the raging bull, Biden lost much of his strength.
Kamala Harris took hold of the Democratic mantle and unexpectedly rejuvenated the Democratic base to reign-in the bull and chart new ways forward for all Americans.
But, what Harris did not do, was address the target of Trump’s bull. She did nothing to disavow or repudiate the ongoing Neoliberal policy of prioritizing elite enrichment (based in Trickledown Economics). She said and promised nothing that would break the bipartisan Neoliberal mold that has been a plague on middle America’s houses for decades.
In short, for all of her wonderful strengths, and for all of the exuberance she elicited, Kamala Harris never even alluded to policies that would stray beyond the bounds of the current elite consensus.
In a startling ‘red shift,’ tens of millions of voters voted for “Anything but the status quo.”
And so, as of today, days after the presidential election of 2024, Trump has succeeded, first, in crushing and rebuilding the Republican Party in his own image; and now, in roundly defeating and utterly humiliating the Democratic Party.
SO, now what?
We have entered a new era.
Trump and the oligarchs, Christian Nationalists, dictators, crooks, and fanatics in league with him, are going to have wide latitude to just “do whatever.’ There will likely be much chaos and stupidity — and not a little cruelty.
In the face of this new reality, the Democratic Party cannot proceed any further down the road that we have been following in our economic policy and polity for the last 44+ years.
The Democratic Party must pivot forcefully away from the Neoliberal policy of prioritizing elite enrichment. The Party must make a bold, ‘all-in’ commitment to redirecting public policy towards, effectively, “The Common Good.”
What does that mean? What’s the substance behind this? That is what we democrats must get our heads and hands around ASAP. This will take some time, of course, but there is already a cadre of terrific analysts and thought-leaders who have been working on many different aspects of such a public policy focus. 1
The longer we fail to pivot decisively away from Neoliberalism, the longer Trump’s “Anything but . . .” will prevail. And his “Anything but . . .” will be anything but good.
One such leading analyst is Michael Alexander, who deserves a much wider audience for his insights:
Trump ran on racism, misogyny, and white supremacy. He won. That suggests he won because of racism, misogyny, and white supremacy.