Democrats must return to normalcy: How my party lost me and other commentary

Ex-Democrat: How My Party Lost Me

“I’ve raised at least $50 million for the left,” recalls Evan Barker at The Free Press, but “on Tuesday, I voted for Donald Trump.”

“What’s tragic is that there are so few in the Democratic Party able to communicate with the working class and serve their interests effectively.”

And one who does, Sen. John Fetterman, “is now spurned by the elite left” as “an abomination and a traitor to their left ideal — he supports Israel, after all, and goes on Joe Rogan’s podcast.”

But “the final straw was Oprah Winfrey’s tone-deaf speech” at the Dem convention: “A larger than life Hollywood billionaire” who “said nothing that spoke to the Americans who had once constituted the Democratic base.”

Bottom line: “The Democratic Party turned its back on me and my family long before I turned my back on it.”

Liberal: Dems Must Return to Normalcy

This election, laments the Liberal Patriot’s Ruy Teixeira, showed that Democrats are “no longer the party of the common man and woman.”

Kamala Harris did worse against Donald Trump than did Joe Biden in 2020 among women, men and non-whites.

Trump tripled his margin among non-college voters, while “Democrat support among voters under 30 collapsed.”

To recover, Dems’ stances must appeal to “normie voters”: “Equality of opportunity,” not outcome, is “fundamental.” Racism “is not the cause of all disparities.” “Border security is hugely important.” “Spaces limited to biological women” should be “preserved.”

Uniting around such ideas would make the Democratic Party “far more appealing” to the millions now leaving it behind.

Analyst: Trump’s Inclusive GOP Coalition

Donald Trump is often accused of being “a racist, sexist, homophobic bigot,” notes the Washington Examiner’s Byron York, yet “now we’ve had an election, and it turns out Trump assembled a broad and diverse group of supporters.”

“Compare the exit polls from Tuesday’s election” with those from Mitt Romney’s run against then- President Barack Obama: “In 2012, Romney won 59% of white voters. In 2024, Trump won 57% of white voters. In 2012, Romney won 6% of black voters. In 2024, Trump won 13% of them. In 2012, Romney won 27% of Latino voters. In 2024, Trump won 46% of them.”

Exit polls show Trump also made gains with younger voters, and drew greater diversity of income levels.

“Now the question is how much of a lasting change Trump has made in the Republican Party.”

Conservative: Watch Progs Blame the Voters

In reelecting Donald Trump, “Americans have strongly rebuked Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden and their progressive ideas,” argues USA Today’s Nicole Russell.

“Trump’s lopsided victory — and the long list of wins by other Republicans across the country — should send a chilling message to the Democratic Party.”

Gaslighting failed as little of what the Democrats “said reflected Americans’ experiences on the economy, immigration, the border and abortion.”

Now progressives insist, contemptuously, that “Americans who voted for Trump have given up on the democratic process that returned him to the White House.”

No: As CNN analyst Scott Jennings put it, Trump’s victory was “the revenge of just the regular, ole working-class American, who has been crushed, insulted, condescended to.”

From the right: Voters Trusted Don on the Issues

“In 2024’s issues-versus-intangibles election, the issues won out,” as “the electorate was deeply dissatisfied with the status quo,” explains Jeffrey H. Anderson at City Journal.

Some 75% ” of voters said inflation has caused ‘hardship’ for their family,” and 68% “described the economy as ‘not so good’ or ‘poor.’”

Meanwhile, 11% “described immigration as the ‘most important issue,’” and Trump won 90% of them.

“Harris tried to achieve the trick of running as the ‘change’ candidate,” yet the 28% “of voters who said that they mostly wanted someone who could ‘bring needed change’ went to Trump by a three-to-one margin,” and voters who “said that the candidate quality that mattered most was the ‘ability to lead,’” supported Trump “by a two-to-one margin.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board