From TPM Reader LL …
Like everyone else in the TPM community, I’m still reeling from the recognition that a majority of voters (not just electors) chose Trump, knowing what he is and what he’s promising to bring to a second term. Like you, I think Harris ran the best campaign she possibly could, or at least didn’t make any obvious mistakes. I don’t know if I quite accept that she was dragged down by Biden’s unpopularity, though I also admit I still don’t really understand why Biden was so unpopular. Was it his policies (which I for one thought were mostly really good for the country)? Was it his inability to “message” his policies? (a trope that’s haunted Democrats for as long as I can remember, I now see it as a bit of a canard or at least a truism.) Was it Gaza?
In any case, as in 2016, I see a perfect storm of factors, rather than one in particular, that led to Trump’s victory. Some of them overlapped with those of 2016 (media complicity, information/disinformation silos, sexism), some of them were new (the pandemic; Gaza), and some of the 2016 factors weren’t present this time (mainly the long shadow of the right’s pathological obsession with Hillary Clinton). But then, as now, the one big factor I think we on the left continue to underestimate because it’s anathema to us, is Trump’s very real, very potent reptilian appeal.
I remember hearing repeatedly in and after 2016 that anyone but Hillary could have beaten Trump. I didn’t believe it then, and I still don’t; to me, it was as much his grotesque charisma as her flaws that got him elected, and ultimately it was the pandemic, more than anything else, that brought him down in 2020. Since then, his appeal has rebounded and, if anything, only strengthened. Democrats, including myself, find this incredibly hard to accept because we can’t fully absorb that what we find repulsive about him is precisely what his supporters love. He is basically the personification of the American id – the guy who says and does whatever he wants and gets away with it. Obviously, for us who believe in integrity, accountability, and decency, in playing by the rules, this is a huge turnoff. Sadly, we seem to be slipping into the minority. And that, more than anything else, terrifies me.
