America's "F**k You" Response to Washington
Kamala Harris's loss wasn't about what she did or didn’t do politically, despite the views of TV's talking heads. It was almost entirely about where America stands as a nation right now, and why.
Over and over again, I read the same six words written by my fellow Kamala Harris supporters leading up to the election: How could it be this close? Well, obviously it wasn’t that close. Donald Trump won in a walk.
So how could a bright, tough woman with a built-in issue in Roe Vs. Wade, a solid reputation as a prosecutor and time spent as the vice president of the US lose so badly to a foul-mouthed serial liar, lawbreaker and narcissist with clear fascist tendencies that slow-walked the pandemic while in office the last time, likely causing added deaths, and talked a mob into attacking the US Capitol?
Most of the explanations I’ve been reading and seeing the last two days are purely political. Harris didn’t do this, she didn’t do that, she should have had different advisers, she should have picked someone else as vice president, she should have backed away from Biden more sharply and earlier. Shoulda, shoulda, shoulda.
Frankly, I don’t think the loss had anything to do with what Kamala Harris did or didn’t do. She ran a fine campaign in the three months she had. In my view, her loss was almost entirely about where America stands as a nation, and why.
First of all, there was a big-time “F**k You” factor involved. Many Americans, particularly in the middle states, feel betrayed by their government and belittled by the so-called coastal “elites.” The industries they’ve worked in for years have disappeared, along with their pensions, as daily costs for everything from bread to gasoline to rent has risen. Meanwhile, college-educated “elites” who are increasingly living in or around big cities seem to be doing just fine.
Putting Trump back in office allows this group to officially give the finger to Washington and the folks that rule there. The feeling is that Trump can’t be any worse, and maybe Washington will finally get the point.
Now let’s look at the other side of the coin. The college-educated make up about 37% of our country, according to the latest census figures, and about 55% of this group is female. That should give Kamala Harris a solid base, right? But even if every college-educated female voted for her, that’s only about 9% of the country, and you have to wonder how many of the college-educated bros saw Trump’s campaign as a Toga Party they wanted in on.
Secondly, racism and misogyny still runs pretty deeply through our country, and Kamala Harris, who hails from liberal California, is a black woman with a foreign-sounding first name that Trump emphasized by mispronouncing.
Most folks won’t admit to being either racist or misogynistic, of course, but it’s there and Trump took advantage of it in two ways, along with the name thing. He found a group of black and brown folks he could easily attack in illegal immigrants, and he courted far-right Christian Nationalists whose politics are fueled by white supremacy, who embrace the dominance of men over women, who see abortion as a mortal sin and who largely vote as a bloc.
At the same time, many white men — whether or not they’re Christian Nationalists — believe their roles are being trivialized in a multicultural America they see as challenging their long-time prominence, along with the rise of college-educated women increasingly moving into management positions over them. You think it doesn’t bug them watching TV ads in which the families are now largely Black or mixed race, and wives are constantly shown to be brilliant while husbands are the family idiot?
Okay, now let’s look at the siloing of America’s news media, which I’ve covered in depth in past commentaries. The problem for Harris supporters is that the positive economic news about the Biden/Harris team — sketched out in badly worded government releases full of jargon — was likely seen by only half of America, and fully understood by a much lower percentage.
Even the mainline news media failed to adequately explain these successes, since it often wasn’t easy to do in a 30-second segment and honestly, didn’t fit within the old-line news philosophy that says “if it bleeds, it leads.” For the uninitiated, this is the feeling that bad news is much more interesting to readers than good news, and is a boost to circulation.
This siloing is, perhaps, the greatest problem facing democracy in America right now, and there’s no indication it will end soon. According to an October Gallup poll, less than a third of Americans have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of faith in the media’s ability to report “fully, accurately and fairly.”
Democrats have no faith in Fox News and the New York Post, who tend to megaphone Trump’s lies, and they certainly aren’t reading or watching the far-right bloggers on social media who know no ethical bounds. The MAGA crowd, in contrast, believes everything written in the mainstream media — or online by folks like Robert Reich, Heather Cox Richardson and me, your beloved Cranky Yankee — is filled with misinformation.
So what does this mean for the future of the Democratic Party? Our next presidential candidate could be a gay man with a military background and strong communication skills, a Black man from a big metro area and political skills honed in the House, a Midwest female governor with a great nickname and a rep for toughness, or a smart, good-looking Jewish governor of a major swing state.
In today’s America, any of these folks could have a tough time divorcing themselves from the college-educated “elitist” label so hated by America’s “F**k You” voters, or from the racist, misogynistic and sexual inhibitions Americans hold on to, whether they realize it or not.
But there is, potentially, some light at the end of the tunnel. Historically, America has tended tended to swing back and forth between political philosophies over the years as each side, once in office, tends to overplay their hands. I can’t imagine Trump won’t do the same. How about you?
That may be the only way Democrats can win against J.D. Vance in four years, unless they soon find a candidate with few negatives in their personal profile who is willing to begin burrowing into “F**k You” America, starting… well, today.