Well stated. The reasons for the Harris defeat, I believe, is extremely complicated. Many issues and influencers merging together. I believe the foremost, though, is the increasing barrage of misinformation and disinformation augmented by modern media and recent decisions by a right wing court. Couple that with inherent human inability of as portion of our population to sift through information, or, as I believe more the case today, some individual’s refusal to monitor anything but the right wing “information” source that most moves and excites them, we have a catastrophic inability to parse reality from fiction.
Please DON'T blame Harris for Trump's election. She ran a decent and honorable campaign. Blame the clueless white women who really don't understand the ramifications of a Vance presidency (and he WILL be president), and all the wimpy males of many colors who feel they need a bully behind them so they feel worthy and protected. Embarrassed for America.
I do think Harris made a lot of strategic and tactical errors. Instead of drifting to the Bernie and Biden populist camp she tried too hard to please everybody in vague middle of the road talks; e.g. taking along Cheney on some of her campaign trips. I do believe Biden was irresponsible for first running for reelection, all ego, second botching the Isreal/Palestine deal, third dumping the load on Harris without a convention, fourth her inviting the often insulting neo Libs who had just missed the populist arguments (Wall street uprising being just one example), and five for inviting the big money into her campaign. I loved that Bernie refused to take any big money. Lots of lessons to learn after this gut punch. We need to ditch the two-party system and the electoral college and somehow end the free lunch for the right by having two senators from every state. It makes a mockery of our struggling quasi-democracy.
And I think part of the problem is what Rachel Bitecofer states in her book "Hit 'Em Where It Hurts". The Republicans have become very good at blaming the Democrats for what is wrong and that Democrats are the bad guys. With nary a counterpunch thrown.....(When the real bad guys are the Republicans who continue to hurt and fleece their constituents over and over and over.......) Plus, the right has been very strategic at gaining control of RURAL America radio stations and newspapers so they can send their non-ending propaganda 24/7/365 with no rebuttal or response. (Newt Gingrich taught them that lesson when he and others went on the floor of the House to respond and speak and no one countered them - lesson learned.....)
The trump campaign did a good job of capturing Harris worst clips in ads. With 8 years of trump being a deranged lunatic on tv. He should have been the best argument against his own election. I don't know how much Republicans paid the Harris ad campaign to suck but they got their money's worth
Thanks for the pep talk! It worked on me. We either turn the D-party into one for the poor and middle class, or support a third one. And we definitely need to learn how to communicate to the other half of our country.
I feel that Kamala Harris has done an outstanding job of communicating. That should have been clear to most anyone, however the completely uneven treatment she suffered at the hands of the vast bulk of the corporate news media sealed the fate of her campaign, and very sadly of our hopes for more rapid repairs on democratic processes. The media normalized and legitimized trump's campaign and never made much note of the extremely weak efforts to prosecute the insurrectionists, including minuscule jail or prison sentences, endless delays, and the far beyond questionable case dismissal by Judge Aileen Cannon in the Florida classified documents case. To me, the problems that ended up becoming clear in looking over the results are in very large measure reflective, more than anything else, of the intensified racism and mysoginist attitudes that Trump and his cronies exacerbated every time that they opened their mouths. Trump should never have bene out in public to conduct this campaign; he should have been held in prison on pre-trial detention like any other American should have been. His repeated successes in flouting court orders without being held accountable stood for all to see as glaring examples that it is the judicial system itself that is failing. So much of that is due to the failings of journalists to much more courageously pursue the truth and hold Trump to the same standards as anyone else would have been. That was a truly shameful disgrace of the highest order!
Nice piece, Jim! I am a big fan of Chris Heges who recently boiled the problem with our current political malaise to the Democratic Party being controlled by the corporate elite and Trump's current "Cult like" Republican Party being controlled by "Oligarchs". Interestingly, he believes that the only salvation going forward is to re-create a strong and militant labor movement because the "Strike" is the only thing we really have. The Boeing workers just made a big impression on their keepers. The right to organize and unionize has to be exercised.
Thanks for a small bit of levity, at this edge of gloom. The 6 Bs, beautiful! As we all know, there is far more bullshit than the available number of bulls could have produced! Deep breath, and consider the next step.
Thank you so much Mr. Hightower! Thank you very much. I needed to see you and hear your voice tonight. I've been canvassing in Wisconsin for six weeks. Back staying in my childhood home in my hometown. And I have been saying those two things so clearly: the campaign needs to stop being so negative (let Kamala's joy shine), stop focusing on what's wrong with Trump all the time, and trumpet specific plans, like Medicare covering home health aides!!!
I think Biden should stop being polite. SCOTUS says the president can do anything, so he should. Disband the electoral college. Revoke Trump's bail. Dismiss all of Trump's judicial appointments. Hell, if any of us made the threats he has, we'd be in handcuffs. High time he faces real consequences.
I've also been thinking about the Pretorian Guard.
Exactly Morgana. Biden has consistently underestimated both the extreme dangers and the magnitude of Trump new-fascism and the corruption that accompanies it everywhere it goes. Everything that you mention were vitally necessary remedies that Biden felt would be "too radical." What about Trump's whole game being much too radical. if biden were truly cognizant of what was and is taking place he would have responded so much more forcefully and effectively.
Well said. But, Carville nailed it. E-C-O-N-O-M-Y stupid. Estimates range to early 150 million Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck. That makes for a pissed-off electorate. They are giving Chump a chance to "fix it". He will fail...like all of his efforts. But, people won't see that for at least a year.
Agreed, Algo. But LOTS of people are already seeing that, or Kamala would not have gotten as many votes as she did against all the odds she faced. All together now: Trump will fail. America will survive and thrive.
There is more to the ways Harris screwed up. Trump's Covid policies, or lack there of, accounted for the deaths of at least 150,000 Americans; 50 times as many Americans as were killed by Osama Bin Laden.
He wants to get rid of the ACA, which benefits the Working Class.
He added $8B to the debt by giving tax breaks to the rich so that real folks' taxes go to pay off the debt caused by the rich, instead of to programs that help them.
He is against abortion WHILE raping and molesting women.
And most of all: At every speech should have explained what caused inflation and how, thanks to the Biden Administration, the U.S. had the LOWEST inflation rate of any modern democracy in the world.
Good analysis. I don’t think enough attention has been given to the lower number of votes cast this time. Why? And there hasn’t been a discussion of how trump was given to us this time by only about 30% of eligible voters. The result is a tyranny of the minority? Regardless, I hope it bothers trump that he got several million fewer votes than Biden did in 2020.
do you read what you write. do you listen to your candidate and her handlers - vote for her because she is a woman, she is black, telling blacks, Hispanics, and women they have to vote for her. Yes and she did not tell them how she was going to make a difference. and yes we need to be vigilant. we need farm reform, we need medical reform - if you trust the pharmaceutical companies, vaccines are not our hope for health - good food, clean water - not fluoridated, like it just goes to your teeth!!!!
we need to push for these changes - these companies will not go quietly! Lets focus on change - positive change - We all are in this together.
Well stated. The reasons for the Harris defeat, I believe, is extremely complicated. Many issues and influencers merging together. I believe the foremost, though, is the increasing barrage of misinformation and disinformation augmented by modern media and recent decisions by a right wing court. Couple that with inherent human inability of as portion of our population to sift through information, or, as I believe more the case today, some individual’s refusal to monitor anything but the right wing “information” source that most moves and excites them, we have a catastrophic inability to parse reality from fiction.
So well said!
Please DON'T blame Harris for Trump's election. She ran a decent and honorable campaign. Blame the clueless white women who really don't understand the ramifications of a Vance presidency (and he WILL be president), and all the wimpy males of many colors who feel they need a bully behind them so they feel worthy and protected. Embarrassed for America.
I do think Harris made a lot of strategic and tactical errors. Instead of drifting to the Bernie and Biden populist camp she tried too hard to please everybody in vague middle of the road talks; e.g. taking along Cheney on some of her campaign trips. I do believe Biden was irresponsible for first running for reelection, all ego, second botching the Isreal/Palestine deal, third dumping the load on Harris without a convention, fourth her inviting the often insulting neo Libs who had just missed the populist arguments (Wall street uprising being just one example), and five for inviting the big money into her campaign. I loved that Bernie refused to take any big money. Lots of lessons to learn after this gut punch. We need to ditch the two-party system and the electoral college and somehow end the free lunch for the right by having two senators from every state. It makes a mockery of our struggling quasi-democracy.
And I think part of the problem is what Rachel Bitecofer states in her book "Hit 'Em Where It Hurts". The Republicans have become very good at blaming the Democrats for what is wrong and that Democrats are the bad guys. With nary a counterpunch thrown.....(When the real bad guys are the Republicans who continue to hurt and fleece their constituents over and over and over.......) Plus, the right has been very strategic at gaining control of RURAL America radio stations and newspapers so they can send their non-ending propaganda 24/7/365 with no rebuttal or response. (Newt Gingrich taught them that lesson when he and others went on the floor of the House to respond and speak and no one countered them - lesson learned.....)
The trump campaign did a good job of capturing Harris worst clips in ads. With 8 years of trump being a deranged lunatic on tv. He should have been the best argument against his own election. I don't know how much Republicans paid the Harris ad campaign to suck but they got their money's worth
Thanks for the pep talk! It worked on me. We either turn the D-party into one for the poor and middle class, or support a third one. And we definitely need to learn how to communicate to the other half of our country.
I feel that Kamala Harris has done an outstanding job of communicating. That should have been clear to most anyone, however the completely uneven treatment she suffered at the hands of the vast bulk of the corporate news media sealed the fate of her campaign, and very sadly of our hopes for more rapid repairs on democratic processes. The media normalized and legitimized trump's campaign and never made much note of the extremely weak efforts to prosecute the insurrectionists, including minuscule jail or prison sentences, endless delays, and the far beyond questionable case dismissal by Judge Aileen Cannon in the Florida classified documents case. To me, the problems that ended up becoming clear in looking over the results are in very large measure reflective, more than anything else, of the intensified racism and mysoginist attitudes that Trump and his cronies exacerbated every time that they opened their mouths. Trump should never have bene out in public to conduct this campaign; he should have been held in prison on pre-trial detention like any other American should have been. His repeated successes in flouting court orders without being held accountable stood for all to see as glaring examples that it is the judicial system itself that is failing. So much of that is due to the failings of journalists to much more courageously pursue the truth and hold Trump to the same standards as anyone else would have been. That was a truly shameful disgrace of the highest order!
I think Bernie would have won over T in 2016, but he was smothered by the powers that be.
He was smothered by the power of Dark Money.
Nice piece, Jim! I am a big fan of Chris Heges who recently boiled the problem with our current political malaise to the Democratic Party being controlled by the corporate elite and Trump's current "Cult like" Republican Party being controlled by "Oligarchs". Interestingly, he believes that the only salvation going forward is to re-create a strong and militant labor movement because the "Strike" is the only thing we really have. The Boeing workers just made a big impression on their keepers. The right to organize and unionize has to be exercised.
Thanks for a small bit of levity, at this edge of gloom. The 6 Bs, beautiful! As we all know, there is far more bullshit than the available number of bulls could have produced! Deep breath, and consider the next step.
Thank you so much Mr. Hightower! Thank you very much. I needed to see you and hear your voice tonight. I've been canvassing in Wisconsin for six weeks. Back staying in my childhood home in my hometown. And I have been saying those two things so clearly: the campaign needs to stop being so negative (let Kamala's joy shine), stop focusing on what's wrong with Trump all the time, and trumpet specific plans, like Medicare covering home health aides!!!
I haven't heard ANYONE asking the question that you focus on, Jim. Addressed to John/Jane Q Pundit: "To what degree did the voter suppression, voter roll purges, contraction of voting times after the drastically lower turn out in 2024 compared to 2020?" https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/ensure-every-american-can-vote/voter-suppression
Thank you! As always, you say it best. Let’s get ready for 2026!
I think Biden should stop being polite. SCOTUS says the president can do anything, so he should. Disband the electoral college. Revoke Trump's bail. Dismiss all of Trump's judicial appointments. Hell, if any of us made the threats he has, we'd be in handcuffs. High time he faces real consequences.
I've also been thinking about the Pretorian Guard.
Exactly Morgana. Biden has consistently underestimated both the extreme dangers and the magnitude of Trump new-fascism and the corruption that accompanies it everywhere it goes. Everything that you mention were vitally necessary remedies that Biden felt would be "too radical." What about Trump's whole game being much too radical. if biden were truly cognizant of what was and is taking place he would have responded so much more forcefully and effectively.
Thinking the same thing today!
Well said. But, Carville nailed it. E-C-O-N-O-M-Y stupid. Estimates range to early 150 million Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck. That makes for a pissed-off electorate. They are giving Chump a chance to "fix it". He will fail...like all of his efforts. But, people won't see that for at least a year.
Agreed, Algo. But LOTS of people are already seeing that, or Kamala would not have gotten as many votes as she did against all the odds she faced. All together now: Trump will fail. America will survive and thrive.
There is more to the ways Harris screwed up. Trump's Covid policies, or lack there of, accounted for the deaths of at least 150,000 Americans; 50 times as many Americans as were killed by Osama Bin Laden.
He wants to get rid of the ACA, which benefits the Working Class.
He added $8B to the debt by giving tax breaks to the rich so that real folks' taxes go to pay off the debt caused by the rich, instead of to programs that help them.
He is against abortion WHILE raping and molesting women.
And most of all: At every speech should have explained what caused inflation and how, thanks to the Biden Administration, the U.S. had the LOWEST inflation rate of any modern democracy in the world.
She blew it.
Good analysis. I don’t think enough attention has been given to the lower number of votes cast this time. Why? And there hasn’t been a discussion of how trump was given to us this time by only about 30% of eligible voters. The result is a tyranny of the minority? Regardless, I hope it bothers trump that he got several million fewer votes than Biden did in 2020.
do you read what you write. do you listen to your candidate and her handlers - vote for her because she is a woman, she is black, telling blacks, Hispanics, and women they have to vote for her. Yes and she did not tell them how she was going to make a difference. and yes we need to be vigilant. we need farm reform, we need medical reform - if you trust the pharmaceutical companies, vaccines are not our hope for health - good food, clean water - not fluoridated, like it just goes to your teeth!!!!
we need to push for these changes - these companies will not go quietly! Lets focus on change - positive change - We all are in this together.