Newsletter Week 5 - Where did 10 million democrats disappear to?

Donkey's are a stubborn bunch, aren't they?

Nov 11, 2024

Mulish: of or like a mule, as being very stubborn, obstinate, or intractable.

The Democrats’ election catastrophe was shocking for a number of reasons. A swing state sweep, an implosion in the Senate and House, a Latino realignment, and the dems’ poor performance with women were all remarkable developments in their own right. However, the glaring, astonishing twist is that of the 10 Million missing democrats.

Biden received 81 Million votes in 2020, Harris only managed 71 Million in 2024.

Meanwhile, Trump added a few hundred thousand to his tally this time around but hoovered at 74 Million in both contests.

So how on Earth did the dems manage to lose 10 million voters?

The Out of Time Man and the Unmarketable Woman

Mick Harvey’s rendition of Out of Time Man first caught my attention upon one of my many watch-throughs of the greatest show of all time, Breaking Bad. The catchy, melancholic tune - a perfect overlay for Walter White’s inevitable demise - left such an impression on me that I ended up dedicating many hours upon the guitar learning the chords and lyrics of the deserty ballad in the throes of the pandemic.

One line, “it’s a timing tragedy”, has stuck with me for a while and seems to represent so many of our errant efforts in life.

I can’t help but feel that Biden’s entire Presidency was one of these, one big ‘timing tragedy’.

Joe Biden devoted the entirety of his adult life to the craft of politics. Never particularly captivating as a political figure or speaker, Biden’s ordinary-joe persona and intelligent maneuvering kept him afloat. His center of the party, straight talker role served as an ideal foil for the young, enigmatic firebrand, Obama. And overall as VP – aside for the occasionally racially insensitive comment here and there – he did very well. Decisive and sharp debate performances boosted Obama’s two campaigns and a burgeoning public friendship led the American people to embrace the pair’s “bromance”.

Skip forward to the aforementioned ‘throes of the pandemic’. Despite Bernie’s momentum in the primaries, Biden ultimately prevailed after a rocky start. He was just convincing enough - a moderate who benefitted from the public’s Obama-association who could capture America’s center to deliver the nation from the ravings of an unstable radical.

However, the 77-year-old Biden was not the same man who verbally crushed Paul Ryan just 8 years prior, and the signs of his age were already pretty apparent. Nonetheless, the chaos of four years of Trump’s antics, a deadly pandemic, and the fiery reaction to police brutality coalesced to deliver a stunning rebuke of the incumbent. January 6 further entrenched wide public support for Biden, as the opinion at the time was one generally of disbelief and disgust for the right.

Now here is the tragedy of it all. Biden enters the Oval Office, something he has been pining for his entire life. Not only does he have the seat of all seats, he has the Senate and the House on his side. In addition, his rival is now more unpopular than ever, despised, and likely to never return. He’s won.

BUT, here’s the thing, he’s the man of the hour but he’s all out of time. He can’t speak well, he misses things, he can barely sit an interview, he falls from his bike and hasn’t encountered a well-meaning set of stairs in years. His mind, body and soul are all fading.

The public notices. He quickly becomes a laughing stock for the vast majority of those who see with their eyes and not behind the rose-colored lens of establishment publications like the New York Times. Stinging inflation, a terribly-executed pullout from Afghanistan, and disruptive Republicans hardly help his case either. Any victories are overshadowed. Although it was a geopolitcally-savvy bill, the CHIPS Act reshoring microchip processing does little to placate the restless American consciousness in the midst of $5 gallons of gas.

Then came Gaza. While failures to enact a $15 minimum wage and eliminate student debt had Biden in a precarious position with the youth, nothing compared to the outrage Biden managed to generate through his unrelenting support for Netanyahu. Biden came off as dismissive at best and hostile at worst towards Palestinian-Americans, progressives, humanists, and to the hundreds of thousands of students who valiantly took to their college quads to demand that “enough is enough”. He offered no movement in policy, no sliver of remorse as the death toll climbed thousands higher with each month. Just trite, meaningless calls for deescalation as he held his hand above the very lever.

We now know that 70% of the fatalities in Gaza have been women and children according to the UN and that over 3000 toddlers have been killed. (Imagine 9/11 but every single casualty is a diaper-donning child).

All the while, Biden embarked on a reelection campaign that no one asked for. The prospect of running for the most important job on earth at 82 years old, twenty years past typical private sector retirement, was pure insanity. However, the rigid hierarchy of the party dictated no dissent, and primaries were canceled, challengers were quashed, and a completely performative process ensued. Not a very democratic exercise for the so-called defenders of democracy.

Finally, on June 27 the walls came crashing down. Biden’s incredible mental decline was made apparent to all in the disastrous debate. The consensus was reached. He needed to go - immediately.

And there Joe Biden was, languishing in the fallout of the worst performance in history. His party was motivated to axe him from the ticket at all costs, the country despised him, and even his closest allies – the Obamas and George Clooney – turned against him. He had failed. He worked his entire life for something so illusory, so impossible to achieve and he had gotten there. But the timing was tragedy.

The democrat underlings were hardly dreamers either, and Kamala Harris was ushered into the role without contestation, true discussion, or an open convention. Although she fired up voters for a moment, her inescapable lack of charisma, extremely vague platform, and an unadventurous media journey doomed her 100-day bid.

Harris also failed to detach herself from the black-hole of Biden’s Presidency. When pressed on air as to what she would do differently from Biden, the self-described ‘change-candidate’ actually said “nothing comes to mind”. Although she walked it back, the damage had been done. Harris also failed the progressives, unwilling to entertain an arms embargo, or even a semi-arms embargo on Israel to force a ceasefire in Gaza. In an absolutely incomprehensible move, she even aligned herself with the Cheneys. Few names in American politics elicit such universal feelings of distrust and disdain.

10,000,000 is a big number. To lose that number of supporters in one election cycle is astounding, extraordinary, remarkable - however you want to describe it. It’s fucking crazy. It can’t be ascribed to one failure alone: Gaza, inflation, Afghanistan, student debt. Each of these individually probably cost hundreds of thousands, if not millions.

But ultimately the race was lost by a man and a woman.

A man ensnared by the cruel grip of time itself. Who, instead of nobly stepping aside, pushed his luck to its inevitable conclusion. A mulish moron surrounded yes-men and ladder-climbers.

A woman so determined to rise to the top of her field she forgot how to communicate like a human. Her campaign ultimately mirrored her personality: elusive, awkward, hollow and deeply unimaginative.

10,044,967 to be exact.

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