Lessons from Kamalageddon

A decisive win by Trump leaves the Democrats with a lot of soul searching to do and the rest of the world feeling nervous

Arrow map from The NY Times showing changes between 2020 and 2024 in US counties

Despite expecting a Trump victory for months now, I was somehow still caught off guard on the day of the election. Blame Ann Selzer. My months of carefully-managed equanimity was upset by false hope.

So why is it that behind the dread and disappointment, there was a faint but undeniable undertone of relief? Maybe it’s because I wouldn’t have to put up with President Harris for four years. Kamala is an empty suit. The emptiest of suits. I supported her to avoid Trump, not because I think she would be a good leader. “It was ironically the conservative option,” said Spectator columnist Lionel Shriver, expressing similar sentiments about the idea of a Harris administration.

“It would be a dumpy and annoying administration, but it wouldn’t be that unpredictable, it wouldn’t go off the rails,” said Shriver, “when I heard that Trump won, I felt quietly happy, with an undercurrent of anxiety.”

I wouldn’t go that far but I detest Kamala Harris. She IS Selina Meyer from Veep but somehow less charming and more vapid. The bitter cup of four years of Trump is softened by the relief of not having to listen to her word salad for the next four years.

So…what now? I don’t have any conclusions, but here are few rambling postmortem thoughts from the election I’ll always think of as “Kamalageddon.”

Lesson #1 — dump DEI

It’s ironic that it was Donald Trump — the candidate we endlessly condemned for being the racist white guy — who managed to substantially racially depolarize the American electorate. He won Latino men outright, while other minorities swung his way between Biden and Harris. Harris actually gained a little with whites, showing some surprising strength in rural districts while bleeding support in cities compared to Biden. How is that possible when the Democrats are have appointed themselves to be the respecter and protector of all minorities, as enshrined in the concept of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion?

Because she’s simply a terrible candidate. I’m not saying she was nominated simply because she’s a woman, and a black woman at that. But she was definitely picked as Veep for those qualities and that put her in a position to be anointed when Biden’s decrepitude became undeniable.

I would go as far as to say that — maybe for just a few cycles — Dems need to default to white male candidates unless we have an undeniably more talented and charismatic minority candidate. Absolutely no more “we need an X to balance out the Y” or “well it’s their turn.”

By the way isn’t it funny that the last time we had a primary where a more talented challenger upset the establishment pick we won big? Obama was also a minority candidate. It didn’t hurt him because he was that good. After that, every single candidate we’ve had felt like a negotiated pick rather than somebody who came through a true primary contest: Hillary in 2016, Biden in 2020 and finally Harris in 2024.

Bring back the bruising primary. Make them fight to show they can win!

Lesson #2 — Stop fumbling allies

As Ezra Klein reminds us, “it wasn’t that many years ago that Rogan had Bernie Sanders on for a friendly interview and then Rogan kinda sorta endorsed him. And you know what happened after that? Many liberals were furious at Bernie Sanders for going on Rogan in the first place. I was still on Twitter back then and I wrote about how of course Bernie Sanders was right to be there. That the fact that Sanders could attract people like Rogan was one of the very best arguments for his campaign. One of the reasons he might be able to beat someone like Donald Trump. This was 2020. If you wanted to beat Trump, of course you'd try to win over Rogan and his voters. But online liberals got so pissed at me for that it was briefly a trending topic on Twitter. Rogan was a transphobe, an Islamophobe, a sexist, the kind of person you wanted to marginalize, not the kind of person you wanted to talk to, but if these last years have proven anything, it's that you don't get to choose who is marginalized."

Not only was Rogan a Bernie fan just a cycle ago, even Elon Musk voted for Biden in 2020. He was also a Hillary and Obama voter. Now they support Trump and their endorsements broadened Trump’s appeal.

I can’t emphasize what a big fumble this is: policy purism leads to circular firing squad, alienation of potential powerful allies and ideology that becomes increasingly inbred and unrelatable.

At one point all people like Rogan and Elon needed to remain in the Blue camp was some inclusion and positive encouragement. But the Dems have all but driven them from our door and I don’t know WHAT it would take to get them back.

Democrats can’t make it on Taylor Swift and Beyoncé endorsements alone!

Lesson #3 — Field can only take you so far

I think I read somewhere that the Harris campaign raised a billion dollars and overspent by 20 million more. They had more cash and a far tighter ground game. And all of it made a difference on the margin I’m sure. But contrast with Trump, who basically outsourced his ground game to *check notes* Elon Musk last minute?

But in this new social-media saturated environment, it seems traditional media and get out the vote efforts are mattering less. I heard on Pod Saves the World (forgot who said this) that in the speakers opinion there are less than 5 Democratic politicians they’d trust to go on Rogan. That is totally unacceptable!

Just as when talking pictures were introduced a whole bunch of huge stars in the silent movie era couldn’t make the transition, we are in a new media environment that demands something completely different from our media figures than before. They need to be compelled, spontaneous and authentic in front of the camera. Ideally, the Democrats need their own alternative media personalities. Right now the alternative media scene is either right-wing, or the kind of left-wing that hates Democrats more than Republicans somehow.

I don’t know if I’m right or wrong, but at least I’m trying to figure things out. That may be helpful or not. But do you know what’s definitely not helpful? Being sour, bitter or salty as a response to loss. Been seeing that a lot on twitter lately. Here is a pot-pourri:

Guess what? If you take people’s votes for granted because of the color of their skin, you’re the racist. It is objectively good for America that we have become less racially polarized. Let’s win by doing better.

Rant over…back to Taiwan content. Next post I guess we better figure out what the next four years might bring to the Taiwan Straits.