Can Democrats Redeem Their Mistakes from the 2024 Election?

On January 20th this year, Donald Trump was sworn in as President of the United States of America. Four years before that, he had been banned from practically the entire internet, his approval numbers had tanked, and most people expected his political career to be over. I won’t be talking about what Trump did right, but what the Democrats did wrong.

The Biden Problem

When Biden was elected as President in 2020, there were already concerns about his age and how it might affect his ability to lead the country. Luckily, he still seemed competent, and no one expected him to try to run for a second term. Biden inherited a pandemic economy, and for the most part, he did a good job of rebuilding it. But repairing an economy takes time, and the American people weren’t very patient, so everyone was expecting the Democrats to lose a decent chunk of Congressional seats in the midterm elections. But when the midterms came around, the Dems did shockingly well. 

Suddenly, Biden was feeling pretty good about himself, good enough to run for a second term. This was a monumental mistake. The economy was continuing to improve in some respects, but it was still abysmal in others. Simple necessities were simply too expensive. 

On top of that, Biden’s cognitive decline was becoming increasingly apparent. He was slurring words, having trouble walking, and seemed like he wasn’t quite aware of what was going on. Now, all of this could’ve been salvaged; Biden could have dropped out, and the rest of the Democrats could have distanced themselves from him. But that’s not what happened. Biden kept going, and the Dems kept propping him up, which was a bad look for the party as a whole. Then came the debate. Biden looked terrible, like he belonged in a retirement home. 

Finally, Democratic leadership realized how truly grim the situation was. No one knows exactly what happened, but Biden was convinced to step down, and Kamala Harris became the new Democratic nominee. But by this point, it was already too late. There were only around 100 days to election day, and voters simply didn’t trust the Dems anymore. They especially didn’t trust Biden, so nominating his Vice President didn’t help.

Bread and Butter

The second major mistake was the policies Kamala Harris ran on. I’m borrowing heavily from Bernie Sanders here, but they were far too focused on identity politics and not enough on simple economic and substantive issues. Even throughout her campaign, it seemed Kamala Harris became more and more focused on just two issues: abortion and protecting democracy. The logic behind this is decently sound; most people assumed these were the issues that helped in the midterms, but that doesn’t mean they should be the only thing a candidate should focus on. At the end of the day, if people don’t know if they’re going to have food on the table, the state of democracy might not be their top priority. This isn’t just Kamala’s problem, though; the Democratic Party seems scared to talk about economics. A good democratic economic plan at its core is very appealing to the average voter. Workers’ rights, better minimum wage, more affordable healthcare, lower taxes on them, and higher taxes on the rich. Though, of course, some on the Left protect the interests of the rich more than the working class, which brings me to my last issue.

Stagnation

The Democratic Party has too many old and corrupt career politicians in it, plain and simple. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, who have been in politics for decades, seemingly only for the perks, and have accomplished essentially nothing besides amassing political clout in the past few years. It’s gotten to the point where the Democratic Party is being viewed as the system or the machine, which is a terrible thing in politics. Voters may disagree with what the Republican Party has become, but what they’re saying is new and, for some, very exciting. The Democratic Party, on the other hand, has been offering up the same talking points since essentially the turn of the millennium. The only real break in this pattern was President Obama, quite possibly the most successful and popular Democratic president since FDR. 

The Answer

From everything I’ve seen, the path to success for Democrats is clear: usher in a new generation of uncompromising, exciting politicians, down-to-earth people who haven’t been politicians so long they’ve forgotten what normal people are like. They should be people with real, substantial solutions to problems all Americans face and care about, not just some. Democrats have an opportunity over these next four years for serious self-reflection and re-evaluation, and I truly hope they take it.