NOV 21, 2024 | OPINION | By Posy Vogt
Disclaimer: I did my best to fact-check everything in this piece using both conservative and leftist/liberal outlets. I only used content that did not have discrepancies between the two. The dogmatic opinions are just my opinions.
The recent presidential election left many at Colorado College wondering: How could this have happened? How could already marginalized people vote against their self-interest? How could an overtly misogynist, racist, convicted felon be elected to the highest office in the free world?
However, these are not the most important answers to find, and we can begin by examining our own perspective; in general, wealthy college students, who are part of the “elite” that Trump targeted. No matter who won, our futures are not as threatened as those of working-class people in this country regarding employment, security and inflation. Having the time to mull over political theory proves this. The question we really should be asking is, “What do we do when neither party proclaims a distinct opposition to the values we claim to hate in the MAGA campaign?”
Where working-class America voted on bread-and-butter issues, our (generally) privileged status allowed us to evaluate candidates in terms of their representation (or lack thereof) of historic facts: an ethnic cleansing took place, we are a country of immigrants, racial exploitation and suppression is real and undergirds most establishment in the United States as a nation founded on racialized slavery, women’s healthcare rights are at risk, as are the very concepts of freedom and democracy. Add in the slew of identity politics that turned independent voters away from the idea of “progress” Democrats typically offer (that did not materialize in the last four years) and toward MAGA, and you can begin to understand the mood of the country and the results of the election. This is not another piece about how ‘we failed when democracy was on the ballot!’ I think it’s wrong to threaten that. But, some facts are important to establish.
As the election’s significance takes root, we need a sober assessment of Democrats’ blind spots. That said, we should also affirm that we were not wrong to ask that the leader of the free world, our president, be held to the high moral and ethical standards that we aspire to as a country. We must embrace and act on that aspiration, not just talk about it. We must embody the same virtues we demand of our leadership, especially when our leadership has not prioritized them.
Vice President Kamala Harris could not distance herself from one of the most unpopular incumbent presidents in history, Joe Biden. When asked on The View what she would have done differently from Biden, she said, “There is not a thing that comes to mind.” It was a disappointing and ideally dishonest answer. Her views on the Palestinian genocide were similarly riddled with the American textbook addiction to ‘diplomacy’ at the expense of human lives. She ‘supported student protest.’ Yet, on the record, and as a matter of policy during her campaign, she was unable to articulate any daylight between her position and Biden’s, which in reality is one of unwavering support for Israel. Her economic policy was touted as superior by Bloomberg, Forbes and 23 Nobel Economic Laureates. Still, she said “there is not a thing” she would do differently than Biden. With high interest rates, extreme corporate price-gouging and rampant inflation, it’s no wonder people were shopping for different leadership.
In fairness to Harris, she ran a disciplined and upbeat campaign that likely began too late in the game. She had 117 days. Trump’s campaign lasted two years. It makes a difference.
I am also not sure that bypassing a Democratic primary was in our best interest (I mean, she lost the primary in California, y’all). If there were messaging failures, not all of it could be blamed on the Harris team. In exit polling, only nineteen percent of Republicans believed inflation had abated over the last year. In fact, inflation fell from 9% in 2022 to 3.2% in 2024. 9% of Republicans believed the stock market was at or near an all-time high in 2024. The stock reached an all-time high in 2021. Only 17% believed that unauthorized border crossings were at the lowest level in the last few years. Border crossings are as low or lower now than during much of Trump’s administration. These statistics represent the degree of poisoning and misinformation fomented by right-wing news feeds, podcasts and online trolls. We are experiencing a genuine epidemic of media illiteracy, and I do not think consumers are necessarily to blame.
Coastal elite democrats may harbor schadenfreude for the majority of Latino men, white low-income women and young, non-college-educated men who ‘just want cheaper gas,’ but all the while, there is a glaring failure to acknowledge this fact: Trump could access these voter bases while the ‘centrist’ Democrats could not. Bernie Sanders’ scathing rebuke of the Democratic Party is poignant: “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.”
Over the next few years, the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure bill will pump billions of economic development dollars into the red states that hate Joe Biden. Labor unions loved Biden. But it wasn’t enough. Those measures take time. Trump asked again and again, “How do you feel today?” Now, we know the answer.
Has the Democratic Party really become the party of the elite, demanding a college degree for admittance? Interestingly, progressive social policy won in the majority of states that proposed it, showing that Americans who voted for Trump also voted against what he seemingly believes in their more local elections. So, policy doesn’t appear to be the driving factor for his constituency. It seems that Trump has made it okay to come as you are. While we see his party as the antithesis of progressive social policy, we have failed to recognize how Democrats have placed such emphasis on educating oneself that we’ve excluded anyone without cultural or literal access to this litmus test. People may believe in Democratic policy, but most voters have shown they do not believe in Democrats.
When educated, liberal people hurl vitriol at Trump (he is stupid, he is dangerous, he has no decorum), his voter base, who identify with this stupid, dangerous man understand that sentiment extends to them. What a wicked thing for us to believe that now, more than half of our nation is ontologically evil. I am not innocent of this belief; those adjectives accurately reflect what I believe about Trump. It is hard to comprehend that the popular vote went to a candidate who insults the appearance of his opponents, mocks the disabled, was found liable for rape, incited a riot on our nation’s capitol, who, to me, represents a distinct opposition to what it means to be an American. What you hear over and over from Trump voters is, “He says a lot of dumb things, but inflation was lower when he was president.” Does that mean they don’t care about the state of our democracy? I guess we’ll see.
The majority of Americans want the same things, and neither party has been able to deliver them. Trump’s performative “America First” schtick belies the fact that his tax cuts boosted corporate profits and the portfolios of billionaires far more than it alleviated the struggles of working and middle-class people. If anyone hesitates to accept that Trumpism is foundationally oligarchic, they will have to explain that the net worth of the world’s ten wealthiest people skyrocketed by $64,000,000,000 in the days after the election. The rest of his constituency? Maybe they’ll get half-off on MAGA sneakers made in Taiwan, then pay 75% anyway because of tariffs. We need a wealth tax in this country, but wealthy people will probably get yet another tax cut. I don’t have a counterfactual for what the days after a Harris nomination would look like, but I am very confident that wealth increases would take place among a different demographic.
I sit quite left of the Democratic Party. I also want cheaper groceries and our immigration process streamlined, especially for refugees. I’m also tired of the wealthy elite having an outsized role in politics. But I don’t know how to separate the cultural needs of this country from the economic issues so vital to working-class voters.
I don’t know what to do with the above paradox except to accept that Trump has skewed the idea of “political party” to the point that values and policy formerly embodied by political parties are now invested in a single figurehead, one who is willing to put himself above party and country in every instance. I’m sure everyone has learned about the “who would you most like to have a beer with” standard for presidential electability. Unfortunately, being able to enjoy a beer with someone does not qualify them to run the free world.
This is not an apologist piece for Trump supporters. And I am not second-guessing my vote for Kamala Harris either. Honestly, I am still working through the anger and confusion I feel toward family members and peers who, despite class privilege, higher education and extensive travel, still voted for an abhorrent man to be President of the United States. There will be consequences, not only for Americans fighting for their hallowed institutions but for Taiwan, Ukraine, Palestine, the planet and the people who believe in human rights and basic empathy. But I’m not afraid to acknowledge what the party I vote for has done wrong, and I’m hoping people with different party affiliations are willing to do the same. As Andrew Yang said on X, “If you give people two choices, they will choose one of them.”
We need to reevaluate our government’s role, at home and in the broader world. How badly must our fellow humans (yes, even Republicans) be hurting to think that this is the only way out? How much hatred and anger must we have conjured and normalized for people to listen to Trump speak and label it ‘real’? There is no magical thinking that will make any of what Trump stands for go away. We must act on our common cause beyond the anger and the atomizing effects of identity politics.
If you were outraged by the outcome of this election, extend a hand where you can to anyone who needs it. Go out and volunteer for a cause close to your heart. If the issue is a lack of community and compassion, become more community-oriented and compassionate. Think globally, act locally, as they say. The most meaningful difference you can make is always right under your nose.