The day after

A few scattered post-election thoughts cobbled together.

1. Firstly, breathe and rejoice. Not only has a president who was arguably the biggest anomaly in modern American history been democratically ousted, but his defeat signals an invaluable data point indicating that the system works as the Founding Fathers designed it, keeping the most extreme abnormalities out. We all deserve to feel relieved, we all deserve to raise a glass (or two) and we all deserve to feel a bit better about being Americans than what we did during the last four years. Simply not seeing his face on the news networks and being exposed to his all-capital-letter tweets that showcase a never-ending dumpster fire with no bottom in sight will be a national deliverance.

2. With that out of the way, the joy cannot extinguish the deep anguish. In many ways, this election was a disaster for the Democratic Party. People voted for Donald Trump in record numbers even after four years of his odious rule as wannabe dictator, the Senate hasn’t flipped yet (and one can only hope that Georgia saves the day in January) and the House actually lost seats for Democrats and gained seats for Republicans. In many ways therefore, although Biden will stop the daily slide into hell, he will only stabilize the slide where it is. Nothing has fundamentally changed among Americans’ views, and there’s a long, long way for us to dig ourselves out of the pit. The dismal election outcome for the Democrats also reinforces the truism that Trump was only the symptom, not the cause. As Andrew Sullivan said, Trump might be gone (hopefully) by January, but Trumpism is very much alive and kicking.

3. Understanding why Trumpism is alive and kicking will largely determine the fate of the Republic in the next few years or decades. There are two valuable data points in my view. The first is the fact that minorities which Democrats counted on voted in very significant numbers for Trump — roughly 30% of Hispanics and Asians and more than 50% of Native Americans. If this does not demolish the Democrats’ comfortable narrative about a changing demographic ensuring win after win for them over Republicans, nothing will. Secondly, not only did minorities vote for Republicans but minorities won on the Republican platform, including three Native Americans who were firsts. While white supremacists support the Republican Party, the Republican Party is not about white supremacism.

4. The overarching point here is that Democrats’ obsession with racial and gender politics would have logically blinded them to this scenario, lulling them into complacent assumptions that “their” people will always vote for them. This made them lose sight of the forest for the trees. For many on the left, “Native Americans” is one category; “Hispanic” is another. But this election resoundingly confirms — as if this wasn’t obvious before — that these categories are not sheeplike monolithic blocks. They are composed of intelligent, free-thinking individuals who can make up their own minds. You can disagree with their choices, but taking away agency from these individuals and imparting it to their collective groups is an insult. And not only is it an insult to individuals but it’s an insult to the very diversity that Democrats claim to support. For me, the ultimate sign of diversity among minorities is that their thinking, social and political choices are as diverse as their skin color and national origins. Democrats’ denial of this fact made them complacent at best. If Biden’s win blinds them to the need to actually listen to these diverse voices within their favorite racial and gender groups, they will be toast in the next election.

5. My dream scenario is that both Republicans and Democrats will use the results of this election to swing toward the center, although I am not holding my breath. If Democrats realize that they can’t take minorities for granted, perhaps they will change their messaging to make sure they respect individual voices among these groups and their conservative views. If Republicans realize that they too can’t take minorities for granted, that minorities in fact can lean Republican, perhaps they will do their best to expand their tent and welcome more of these in. In either case, both parties will swing left. One can hope.

6. We will be dissecting the causes of the large Democratic losses for a while, but one thing is clear, as much from this election as from earlier ones — Democrats fail miserably at messaging even when their messages have the right content. As commentators like Noam Chomsky have pointed out for decades, Democratic messages about universal health care, increased immigration, higher wages and minority rights resonate with a lot of people. In spite of this they don’t get the votes. Perhaps the reason has become painfully clear in this election — whatever content the Democrats might have was obscured by the far left and woke factions’ inane messages like “Defund the police” and “Abolish ICE” along with twitter mobs and cancel culture. Poll after poll showed for instance that even black communities wanted more, not less policing in their neighborhoods. They wanted reform of these agencies, not abolition or defunding. But the message from the far left obscured any centrist message Biden might have wanted to convey, although he tried. The same goes for violence and looting by Antifa and other factions in cities like Portland and Seattle. There was no dearth of excuses to condone the destruction, whereas an unambiguous message that violence is bad on all sides would have been the right one. Early results are already showing that this far left message put off a lot of people (it certainly put me off). If Biden cannot reign this messaging in after he becomes president, the problem will get much worse, and Democrats will be even more unpalatable than they are now.

7. The election has also painfully made clear the difference between the economic and the cultural left. I supported Bernie Sanders in the primary because he was not obsessed with cultural and racial issues like others on the left. The tenets of the economic left — high minimum wage, high taxation for high income earners, humane conditions for workers, greater spending on education and infrastructure, reducing the cost of college, universal healthcare — are popular with a lot of people even if others scream “socialism”, but the tenets of the cultural left — denouncing anyone who disagrees as sexist or racist and not tolerating nuanced discussion when it comes to race or gender issues, obsessing over the evils in this country’s history instead of celebrating its achievements, constantly knocking on religion, seeing everything through the lens of discrimination and making every single disagreement about race in the first place — are and should be deeply unpopular. Not only do they create hatred and division but they make for bad strategy since they put off the very people Democrats want to help. Hopefully some of the prominent politicians on the left like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will keep this crucial distinction between the economic and the cultural left in mind and not conflate the two as they tend to do.

8. Lastly, the distinction between the “left” and “liberals” has also become starkly clear at this point. Liberals are all for free speech, arguing in good faith and nuance, not seeing everything through a single issue like race or gender, emphasizing equality of opportunity but not equality of outcome, fighting poverty, believing in treating people as individuals first and members of a group second, not just tolerating but encouraging opposite viewpoints even if we find them unpleasant, “believing” in science across the board and not just when it confirms our preconceived notions, preaching nonviolence etc. Liberal values often overlap with the economic left’s values, but not with their cultural ones whose primary goal is to see most inequalities through the lens of discrimination and oppression and to wallow in pessimism. They also overlap slightly with libertarian and conservative values. Interestingly, the polarization of both parties to the left and right respectively has automatically made liberals like myself centrists. And fanatic centrists we will remain to oppose intolerance on both sides.

9. What next for the Republican Party? I don’t believe that the Republican party as it currently stands can be reformed. It has become the party of Trumpism and is led by a man who is one of the most evil and narrow-minded politicians in American history, who will not compromise and build bridges and who is more than happy to sell out his country for the sake of narrow party principles. At least until he and his cronies are at the helm, nothing will change. There are a few moderates like Romney and Haley, but I doubt the party will wholeheartedly support them. But if the Republican party were to reform, here’s what I would say to them: Reject the hateful and chaotic Trumpism that you have embraced, stop throwing red meat to the worst of your supporters and provoking and condoning them, admit that you are dealing with a younger, more diverse country with diverse views. Most importantly, stick to the time-honored principles of conservatism that made this country successful, the kind of Eisenhower conservatism that is fiscally responsible, welcoming of immigrants and people of color and willing to work together with the other side.

10. What next for the Democratic Party? Go back to your roots as the party of the working class man and woman. Separate economic from cultural liberalism and focus on the former. Reject the politics of race and gender. Be proud of your country and focus on its many unique contributions to the world and not just on its evils. Emphasize the great men and women of American history. Recognize that there were very legitimate reasons for Trumpism to triumph and stratify and understand these issues. Do everything you can to create jobs in depressed regions — everything else will be secondary. Stop pandering to the neoliberals who cater to Wall Street. Focus on poverty and race-blind issues instead of being obsessed with race and gender. Respect religion and don’t forget that this country was built by people, many of whom were deeply religious. Obsess over equality of opportunity but reject equality of outcome. Build alliances with people who think differently and don’t be blindsided into thinking that people who you have conveniently put into your favorite bins will behave exactly the way you want. Get in touch with reality, stop thinking of Hispanics as “Hispanics” and women as “women” and recognize these people as individuals with diverse views. Last but perhaps most important, remember your liberal roots, put a premium on respectful, free, diverse, nuanced speech and dialogue and remember that democracy is strengthened through disagreement. In other words, behave as liberals ought to.