Reflecting on the Past, Democrats Turn their Gaze to the Future

November 6, 2024 TruthUSA

Just under twenty-four hours after the election results were made public, supporters of Harris mourned, consoled each other, and pledged to continue resisting the Trump agenda.

In Washington, Democrats reacted to the 2024 presidential election outcome with a mix of sorrow over the loss and anxiety about what a second Trump administration would bring.

Vice President Kamala Harris, defeated by former President Donald Trump, acknowledged the emotions swirling around in her remarks to supporters on November 6.

“I understand that people are feeling a range of emotions right now. I get it, but we must acknowledge the outcome of this election,” Harris stated.

Some attendees at the event expressed shock at the defeat.

“I don’t even know how to feel,” shared Sheila Harris, 73. “It’s just terrifying to me.”

Others, while disappointed, resolved to keep up the fight against Trump’s policies.

“Losing is unfathomably painful,” wrote Harris Campaign Manager Jen O’Malley Dillon via a message to staff on November 6. “It is hard. This will take a long time to process. But the work of protecting America from the impacts of a Trump presidency starts now.”

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who had supported Harris during the campaign, echoed a similar sentiment without mentioning Trump by name.

“Americans are bound, whether we like the outcome or not, to accept the results of our elections,” she stated. “We now have a special responsibility, as citizens of the greatest nation on earth, to do everything we can to support and defend our Constitution, preserve the rule of law, and ensure that our institutions hold over these coming four years.”

Former President Barack Obama acknowledged the disappointment of the loss in a message posted on social media platform X, and he called for Americans to work together to confront the challenges the country faces.

“The good news is that these problems are solvable—but only if we listen to each other, and only if we abide by the core constitutional principles and democratic norms that made this country great,” Obama noted.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) displayed a more optimistic tone, recognizing the implications of Harris’s historic candidacy.

“I am proud of @KamalaHarris. As a young kid growing up in Bucks County, I would never have imagined an African & Indian American woman would become the nominee & get 48 [percent] in PA,” Khanna wrote on X. “Progress is hard. But one day Americans will recognize her blazing a trail.”

Abandoned Roots to Blame: Sanders

Other Democrats and fellow travelers had already begun to deconstruct the loss, analyzing the factors that contributed to it.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who twice sought the Democratic presidential nomination, placed blame for the loss on the Democratic party.

“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them,” Sanders wrote in a statement posted on X.

David Schultz, a professor of political science at Hamline University, said Harris’s failure to distinguish herself from President Joe Biden doomed her with frustrated voters looking for change.

“There’s all kinds of reasons for people to be upset at this point,” Schultz said. “The most basic one is the fact that bread and eggs cost a heck of a lot more now.”

Trump did a better job connecting with how ordinary people feel about the economy and everyday life, he said.

At the most basic level, Harris simply underperformed expectations, winning fewer votes than President Joe Biden did in key Democratic strongholds, according to Ken Kollman, a political science professor at the University of Michigan.

“We knew all along this was going to be a turnout election, and the turnout in places [like] Philadelphia, Detroit, and Milwaukee was low,” Kollman told The Epoch Times.

Harris won about 60,000 fewer votes in Detroit’s Wayne County than Biden did in 2020, Kollman noted, which may have been decisive in Michigan’s close election result.

In the end, Harris may simply have been a victim of the immutable political forces that drive nearly all elections: the state of the economy and the popularity of the sitting president. That’s according to Aaron Dusso, a political science professor at Indiana University–Indianapolis.

“This goes back to research from the very beginnings of political science, after World War II,” Dusso said. “[If] I’m trying to predict vote choice, what I need to know is partisanship, your perception of the state of the economy, and what the approval rating of a sitting president is.”

Biden’s 38 percent approval rating, combined with lingering high prices for food and fuel, created a nearly insurmountable challenge for any Democratic presidential candidate, according to Dusso.

“This election was lost two years ago when inflation started going crazy,” he said.

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