(Bloomberg: Illustration: Carolina Moscoso)
The 2024 election wasn’t quite the shellacking we all assumed. As the votes are still being counted, Harris might lose by less than 2 points and Trump will gain a little less than 50% of voters. Democrats’ policies are quite popular with the majority with abortion rights winning in 7 states, including conservative states, and school vouchers also being rejected.
That being said, Democrats still suffer from a messaging problem in light of a giant right-wing media ecosystem that launders its disinformation and hate through both sides of corporate media that sanewashes Trump. Harris thought it’d be wise to campaign with Liz Cheney and billionaire Mark Cuban instead of union leaders and Palestinian Americans. Most people who switched over to Trump fell for his lies and grandiose claims of making them great again by reducing the price of eggs…with tariffs.
Meanwhile, some Trump voters also voted for AOC. That’s the same phenomenon we witnessed in 2016 and 2020 when Bernie Sanders, with his economic populist message, won over a slice of the voters who voted for Trump.
Is there a path to winning the majority again by helping middle-class and low-income workers who are trying and failing to stay afloat?
Author, professor, and investigative journalist Jeff Sharlet believes so but only if Democrats are willing to abandon the wealthy, privileged establishment and court the middle that is striving to achieve some economic dignity and well-being. Sharlet has done the work. He traveled across America and talked to Americans. He documented his work and predicted this current, schizophrenic reality in his book, The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War, in which people vote against their interests, fall victim to disinformation, and are prey to the 1% who are willing to exploit their fears, anxieties, and economic poverty.
In this Chai Talk, we chart a path forward.
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