America’s inevitable return to Trump
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Theodore Smith
06/11/24
After years of division and political turbulence, Kamala Harris believed America was ready to expel MAGA and breathe fresh air into its institutions. The left held its collective breath, waiting for a definitive rejection of Trump’s legacy. But if Harris’s campaign had a soundtrack, it might have been Hall & Oates’ You’re Out of Touch.
The song’s message of disconnection captured the paradox at the heart of her campaign: a movement calling for change yet tethered to establishment norms, a quest to exorcise Trumpism but hesitant to leave behind the familiar cadence of centrist compromise. Much like the Israelites in the Book of Samuel, desperate for a strong leader, the nation seemed to crave stability over principle—even at the risk of undermining its own democratic spirit. And in its pursuit of a comforting political rhythm, genuine reform was risked away for a familiar tune.
Today, Democrats face an unexpected reality: America didn’t repudiate Trump in the way they assumed it would. The wave of anti-Trump sentiment? It never arrived. Back in 2020, Democrats rallied a coalition united in viewing Trump as an aberration to be corrected. But in 2024, that coalition was fatigued. Democrats might blame campaign missteps, Harris’s messaging, or a weary electorate, but the truth runs deeper: America has changed. Concerns about the economy, immigration, and security overshadowed anxieties about Trump’s character and outbursts.
"Democrats struggled to connect with an electorate whose concerns had moved beyond simple opposition to Trump."
The left’s disappointment reflects a deeper cultural and anti-intellectual divide that has long shaped American society. While Democrats have focused on issues like racial justice, inclusivity, and social progress, they may have misjudged the priorities of many Americans. Shifts among racial minorities, influenced by both domestic and foreign policy concerns, reveal a re-evaluation of party loyalty, increasingly based on specific interests rather than identity alone. Despite running a comprehensive hundred-day campaign, Democrats struggled to connect with an electorate whose concerns had moved beyond simple opposition to Trump.
The jarring reality for Democrats is that today's union isn’t the America of 2008, enchanted by Obama’s 'hope and change'. The appetite for progressive social revision, assumed by liberals to be universal, is more limited than they believed. Trump’s economic populism, idealistic in its own way, speaks more directly to the day-to-day anxieties of many Americans than abstract talk of democratic collapse. This election revealed that Americans, by and large, are less alarmed by Trump than the left anticipated; they long for a vision of stability over social idealism, embracing political simplicity. A divided nation, united by an average of 6th-grade literacy.
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