Why Kamala Harris lost. (Relax. Tomorrow, I describe why Trump lost)

In the weeks ahead, we will hear all about why Harris lost. 

In hindsight, it will be obvious.

Election night, 2016

Election night, 2016

On the last day of 2016, I published a post listing nine reasons why Hillary Clinton lost. Eventually I came up with over 80 separate reasons. Here is a start on the list for 2024. 

Harris lost because:

1. Biden was pig-headed. He waited too long to admit that he had aged conspicuously, and to drop out of the race. Kamala Harris needed more time to get better known and to define herself.

2. Harris is revealed to have surely known about Biden's diminished condition, so she was part of a coverup. It was the Democrats' own "big lie." That cost her a clear contrast with Trump as the person who would be straight with the American people.

3. Harris did not separate herself from Biden clearly enough. She said she agreed with administration policies, making herself the status quo candidate in Biden's "second term." Voters want change.

4. The Afghanistan withdrawal made Biden -- and Harris by association -- look incompetent. Biden foolishly failed to fire any generals for the screw-up, so the administration got the full political blame.

5. Obama did not disavow the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which accelerated the decline of U.S. manufacturing. This positioned Democrats as status quo on eroding manufacturing, which left a giant political opportunity for Trump, thus the red shift. The problem lingers. It cost Democrats the Upper Midwest "blue wall."

6. Biden and Harris waited too long to stop the crush of immigrants at the southern border. They were trapped by their reflexive contempt for Trump's racism and therefore saw immigration as a problem of prejudice instead of a legitimate problem of disorder.

7. Harris doesn't answer policy questions clearly and directly, so she comes across as evasive and "political," especially compared to Trump. "I grew up in a middle class family" is not a direct answer to what you will do to reduce inflation or immigration fraud.

8. Hero or anti-hero, even when outrageous and disgusting in his approach, Trump is the center of attention. That has made him the prime mover in our politics for over nine years. That doomed Harris to be the second banana, a position of relative inconsequence. Americans reject as weak and incompetent a candidate who can be made inconsequential.

9. People consider Trump's blunt statements, including his open misogyny and racism, to be signals of courage and honesty. He says what he believes.

10. Trump voices contempt for the same people most Republicans, and a great many other voters, voters dislike. A great many Americans share Trump's views and are happy someone is saying aloud what they think.

11. Harris could not break Trump's hold on evangelical Christian voters, even though he betrayed them on abortion. Trump is their Cyrus the Great, the bad man who is the agent of God to get good things done. That immunizes Trump from criticism for his bad behavior.

12. Harris did not signal limits on her support for trans rights, which allowed Trump to promulgate an image of Harris as dangerously out of touch.

13. Harris had an impossible job: Support Israel enough to please Jewish voters without losing Muslim votes in Michigan. Americans are split. No Democrat could bridge the divide.

13. Jill Stein.

14. As Hispanic voters become citizens and assimilate into the American mainstream they vote their religion and socio-economic status, not their ethnicity. Democrats were slow to realize this.

15. Men are men, even when they know they are being crude. A great many men agree with Trump's masculine signaling, and are envious of Trump's sexual adventures. 

That is 15. I could go on. In hindsight, it will be obvious that Harris was doomed by circumstances and mistakes.

Tomorrow I describe why it will be obvious that Trump would lose.

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