Trump Didn't Deserve to Win, But We Deserved to Lose
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By electing Donald Trump again, the American electorate has made a bad decision, one that will expose our country to unreasonable risks in areas from foreign policy to public health. Fiscal policy will get worse — budget deficits will become even larger, keeping interest rates high, and programs that provide health care to the poor and elderly are likely to be trimmed back to finance tax cuts for rich people. Abortion rights are likely to be further restricted, with a hostile administration using the powers of the FDA and the DOJ to make abortion harder to provide. And we’ll have another four years under Trump’s exhausting, mercurial and divisive leadership, making our politics nastier and stupider.
I wish the election had gone the other way. I am annoyed.
That said, when Trump won eight years ago, I was much more than annoyed. I was really upset and shocked. This time is different, because we’ve been through this before and I expect we’ll get through it again. But it’s also different because there’s a big part of me that feels we deserved to lose this election, even if Trump did not deserve to win it.
I write this to you from New York City, where we are governed by Democrats and we pay the highest taxes in the country, but that doesn’t mean we receive the best government services. Our transportation agencies are black holes for money, unable to deliver on their capital plans despite repeated increases in the dedicated taxes that fund them, because it costs four times as much per mile to build a subway line here as it does in France, and because union rules force the agency to overstaff itself, inflating operating costs. Half of bus riders don’t pay the fare , and MTA employees don’t try to make them. Emotionally-disturbed homeless people camp out on the transit system — the other day, I was on an M34 bus where one shouted repeatedly at another passenger that he was a “faggot” — and even though police are all over the place (at great taxpayer expense) they don’t do much about it, and I can’t entirely blame them since our government lacks the legal authority to keep these people either in jail or in treatment. The city cannot stop people from shoplifting, so most of the merchandise at Duane Reade is in locked cabinets. A judge recently said the city can’t even padlock the illegal cannabis stores that have popped up all over the place — that’s apparently unconstitutional , and so years into what was supposed to be the wokest legal cannabis regime in the country , our government still can’t figure out how to make sure people who sell weed have a license to do so, even though they’ve done that with regard to alcohol forever. Ever since the COVID shutdowns, Democrats here have stopped talking very much about the importance of investing in public education, but the schools remain really expensive for taxpayers even as families move away, enrollment declines, and chronic absenteeism remains elevated . Currently, we are under state court order to spend billions of our dollars to house migrants in Midtown hotels that once housed tourists and business travelers. Housing costs are insane because the city makes it very hard to build anything — and it’s really expensive to travel here, partly because so many hotels are now full of migrants, and partly because the city council literally made it illegal to build new hotels . And as a result of all of this, we are shedding population — we’re probably going to lose three more congressional districts in the next reapportionment . And where are people moving to ? To Sun Belt states, mostly run by Republicans, where it is possible to build housing and grow the economy.
Meanwhile, the voters of New York have just adopted an equal rights amendment to the state constitution, which was put on the ballot by the Democrat-controlled state legislature. One effect of this amendment is to create a state constitutional right to abortion. Of course, abortion was already legal in New York, and a state constitutional provision will not override any new federal laws or regulations that Republicans might impose with their new control in Washington. This is exactly the sort of braindead symbolism that exemplifies the Democrats who rule our state: they pat themselves on the back for a formalistic, legal declaration of the rights of the people who live here, and meanwhile, people of all races and identities flee New York for other, officially less “inclusive” places where they can actually afford a decent quality of life.
I am unfortunately a Democrat, but as someone who lives in a place that is governed very badly by Democrats, I can easily understand why “can you imagine what incompetent, lunatic shit those people will do if they get control of the government?” would fall flat as an argument against Republicans. It doesn’t surprise me that the very largest swings away from Democrats in this post-COVID, post-George Floyd, post-inflation election occurred in blue states . The gap between Democrats’ promise of better living through better government and their failure to actually deliver better government has been a national political problem. So when Republicans made a pitch for change from all this (or even burn-it-all-down), it didn’t fall flat.
Right before Election Day, Ross Douthat wrote a column for The New York Times that left me quite uneasy. It’s about campaign signs he was seeing all over New Haven that read “Harris-Walz 2024: Obviously.” Douthat started with a point that’s almost tautological: Since the election is close, by definition neither candidate is the obvious choice. And he looked at why it would not be obvious to so many voters, writing:
[L]et’s take one last survey of why some waverers might not yet be sold on Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, by returning to where this all began: The world of 2016, when Americans normally disinclined to vote for liberals were first informed that there was no other reasonable choice… the promise was that even if you disagreed with liberalism’s elites on policy, you could trust them in three crucial ways: They would avoid insanity, they would maintain stability, and they would display far greater intelligence and competence than Trump and his hangers-on.
It is easy to see why voters would believe these promises were broken.
Of course, the most politically significant aspect of the instability has been post-COVID inflation — a global problem that has taken out incumbent governments of the right and left all over the world. The inflation is mostly not Democrats’ fault, though they did exacerbate it by overstimulating the economy with the American Rescue Plan, and then they failed to focus early enough on inflation as the key economic problem of this administration. 1
The other big instability is the migrant crisis, which was born out of this administration’s fecklessness — Biden rapidly reversing Trump’s immigration executive orders upon entering office without any plan for controlling the border and apparently without realizing that migrants are smart, and will be more likely to come if you make clear that coming very likely means they will get to stay. (A failure to consider incentives is a running theme when Democrats fail.) Democrats did not pivot to enforcement until far too late — and not until after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott made the crisis a blue state issue by bussing migrants here en masse to fill our hotels and consume our budget.
On the “insanity” front, Douthat cites responses to COVID, the political movement in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, and trans youth medicine — all areas where liberals’ moral fervor has caused them to lose sight of whether the ideologically-driven courses they had taken were actually producing the intended positive effects. 2 Democrats know they paid a price for “defund the police” and I think they have mostly learned their lesson, or at least they definitely should now that several high-profile “progressive” prosecutors lost their blue-city posts this week. On the COVID restrictions, I think there’s been less of a reckoning with how off-putting a lot of the busybody moralizing was, but I also think this issue will simply fade with time. As for trans issues, I have been skeptical about their political salience — while I don’t believe Lia Thomas belonged on the Penn women’s swim team, I also can’t imagine casting a vote based on my views about that issue — but our nominee’s 2019 declaration to the ACLU that she would have the government pay for transgender surgeries for prisoners and people held in immigration detention became a major attack line against her in this campaign , I think because it highlights several problems with the Democratic Party’s image all at once: here is the Democratic nominee, bowing to pressure from The Groups to look for ways to spend your tax dollars on the most bespoke concern of a criminal, or of a non-citizen who isn’t even supposed to be here, before thinking about you and your interests. 3
And all of this is why I think Democrats’ approach to the cost-of-living issues that have dominated this campaign has fallen so flat. The Democratic argument is, more or less, “look at all my programs” — all the things I’m going to have the government do to make life easier for you . In some cases, there is a clear track record to run on: the Affordable Care Act has gotten more popular over time, and the expanded subsidies that reduce the premiums most Americans pay to buy individual plans on the exchanges have increased enrollment. But mostly, I think Americans look around at how it goes when the government actually tries to help, and they have a healthy skepticism about how helpful the government is really going to be, and about whether the benefits are really going to flow to them. Democrats are making too many promises; they instead need to pick a few things for the government to do really well, with a focus on benefits to the broad public rather than to the people being paid to provide the services, instead of trying to do a zillion different things and doing them badly at great expense, as was the approach with the moribund Build Back Better Act.
As you know, I think Kamala Harris should have picked Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro as her running mate. Having seen Tuesday’s results, I don’t think choosing him would have changed the outcome — he wouldn’t have gotten her two percentage points more in Michigan. But Shapiro is a popular swing-state governor — 57% approve / 23% disapprove, in a September New York Times /Siena poll — who will be a frontrunner for the 2028 nomination. And Shapiro’s signature policy achievement is rebuilding a highway underpass . There is a lesson here — when government focuses on its core responsibilities and delivers on them quickly, efficiently, and with a laser focus on making sure people can go about their lives as normal, the voters reward that. You don’t need a grand vision; you need to execute.
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I write this to you from New York City, where we are governed by Democrats and we pay the highest taxes in the country, but that doesn’t mean we receive the best government services. Our transportation agencies are black holes for money, unable to deliver on their capital plans despite repeated increases in the dedicated taxes that fund them, because it costs four times as much per mile to build a subway line here as it does in France, and because union rules force the agency to overstaff itself, inflating operating costs. Half of bus riders don’t pay the fare , and MTA employees don’t try to make them. Emotionally-disturbed homeless people camp out on the transit system — the other day, I was on an M34 bus where one shouted repeatedly at another passenger that he was a “faggot” — and even though police are all over the place (at great taxpayer expense) they don’t do much about it, and I can’t entirely blame them since our government lacks the legal authority to keep these people either in jail or in treatment. The city cannot stop people from shoplifting, so most of the merchandise at Duane Reade is in locked cabinets. A judge recently said the city can’t even padlock the illegal cannabis stores that have popped up all over the place — that’s apparently unconstitutional , and so years into what was supposed to be the wokest legal cannabis regime in the country , our government still can’t figure out how to make sure people who sell weed have a license to do so, even though they’ve done that with regard to alcohol forever.
We can go further, can't we?
I watched the news yesterday as the infamous "chokehold trial" began. There were 4 overgrown degenerates outside the courthouse, screaming that Penny was a subway murderer. Meanwhile a witness in the trial feared that her life was in danger when Penny stepped forward to save everyone. Why is he even on trial?
The city of New York has it all backwards.
From what I've heard, he's cooked. One defense attorney who sat in said she's never seen a more biased judge.
Penny is being called "the white man" while the crazy decedent is accorded the honorific of Mr. whatever it is when he's discussed. That tells you everything.
I don't agree with everything Barro wrote but his statement that incompetent democratic government aided Trump is no doubt true. New York, Chicago etc all saw big gains in Trump votes, especially in working class and lower income areas because they are the ones who pay the price for the incompetence. Democratic Government primary goal is to make Democratic elites rich and feel good with virture signaling. Bureaucracy and NGOs just suck up taxpayer dollars and serve mainly to reward loyalists with cushy jobs in exchange for votes.
Barro makes a good point. NYC has so many issues its leaders should focus on. And what do Democrats do, pass an abortion provision in a state that already has incredibly liberal abortion laws. " And as a result of all of this, we are shedding population — we’re probably going to lose three more congressional districts in the next reapportionment . And where are people moving to ? To Sun Belt states, mostly run by Republicans, where it is possible to build housing and grow the economy."
The more traditionally blue a state has been, the more you see this play out. New York, California, Illinois all losing voters, struggling to pay bills and struggling to provide simple competent government. Fund the schools, pick up poop, stop shoplifting...
People can blame whoever they want for Trump's win.
I have never heard a single conservative , here on Newstalkers or anywhere else, blame the true source of Trump's eventual win - the Republican Party and Republicans writ large.
There are members here who say Trump is not a good guy but he is the only choice. He was not the only choice , at all, at the end of January 2021. There was very strong evidence that Trump tried to steal the 2020 election and then overthrow our government, yet the vast majority of Republicans in the Senate voted against conviction in his second impeachment trial. They knew he was guilty, and incredibly unworthy of continuing in politics, yet their fear of MAGA made them cowards.
Trump did do something very smart, he almost immediately hinted that he would run again in 2024, forcing any Republican that didnt want to get on the bad side of the mob to pay at least some deference to him. There were no voices on the right saying "we cant let this happen". None. Eventually ambition propelled DeSantis and Haley to half heartedly run against him , but neither of them did anything to disqualify Trump and always hedged their bets.
On Jan 7th 2021 the Republican Party should have made its main mission running Trump out of national politics. They did not even try. That failure is the cause of a traitor, corrupt, moron , buffoon , cult leader being voted back in office, not the price of housing in New York.
If the Republicans had a fit for office candidate on the ballot Tuesday , and won, it might have been the democrats fault they lost. But that is not the case. We have voted in the most unfit person in US history back into the presidency. History of this period is not going to be kind to us.
What could they do? Shoot him?
The partisan indictment in New York effectively ended the primary. After that, no one had a chance. Another win for progressives.
Oh please, WTF. Trump was never going to lose in the GOP primaries no matter what. He's a fucking cult leader for christs sake, and the cult is large. Did you see his campaign? The most buffoonish presidential campaign ever, by far. The fact is we live in a degraded country. There is some blame to go around , but the vast majority of it goes to those who filled in the circle next to his name on their ballot.
Donald Trump is a traitor, and I couldnt care less what idiots say about the supposed equivalency between "traitor" and "treason" (and therefore its all good because he couldnt have committed treason because we were not at war). He violated his oath of office, repeatedly, and not only on Jan 6th. Nothing can make that ok. People dont call him an authoritarian in waiting because they like it, it is because they have seen evidence of it. What the fuck is up with him repeatedly praising Orban? Orban is an authoritarian who has corrupted the government of his country. And Trump has repeatedly praised him. Same with Putin and Xi and Kim Jong Un. People are not just going to accept this shit. You people are hallucinating.
Apparently, it is getting larger.
Wiles ran a very effective campaign but she can't control Trump's worst impulses.
Don't know who is more despicable.........
There is no blame to be placed. Well, maybe for the why the Democrats lost. And that itemized list is pretty long.
The problem with this statement is that you think they are a mirror image of the lemmings in the Democrat side. They ran him through the primaries and, unlike the Democrat candidate, the PEOPLE selected him. Just the same way the PEOPLE selected him on Tuesday.
All your unhinged opinion. Always has been.
Since you dont know a single thing about the issues related to his unfitness, you're opinion is worthless.
[✘]
Blather about it all you want. It's still you opinion. Still worth nothing more than anybody else's.
No one knows what you are talking about. Get a grip.
[✘]
And where are all the lawfare cases against Trump?
Where are the bitter well-educated women who were going to save Kamala?
Where John?
[✘]
They voted for Trump. Quick question though, with so many flipping sides, does that mean that Trump got the Democratrs coveted Trans vote?
Glad that you finally know what yours is worth.
completely worthless
If the Dem Party doesn't take a close, inward look now, they will continue facing these challenges.
Weren't we just celebrating the death of the republican party just a week ago?
Of course it is the republicans fault that trump won, the democrats had nothing to do with it.......Sigh
Obama and Plouffe taking credit for making Trump the face of the GOP
Whoops!
Typical of your analysis for you to make excuses for Trump. Obama wasnt the birther, Trump was.
Who do you imagine is calling Obama a birther? I don’t think you get the point.
The reason he won is because like ALWAYS, Republican voters stick together, never say anything bad about their party, vote in a solid block for the "R" on the ticket, and embrace gerrymandering to keep power. Until Democrats can show that same long term level of commitment and party loyalty, no opinion from anyone matters. It certainly doesn't matter if there are more registered Democrats across the country or in any given state, if they splinter on any issue with no long term foresight on how that affects the outcome. Vote "D" down the ballot, vote "D" in every election, every state, every time and you will see the same wins Republicans undeservedly get with far worse candidates. Republican voters don't care if the candidate is right or wrong, they go for the win by simply sticking together as a block. Until you chip their block away by following the map they have clearly shown you, then expect to lose without complaint. Loyalty is an admirable quality, even if Republican voters vote for candidates that are clearly undesirable, they stick the party line as a voting block and win. Like it or not.
none of that is true. You'd think the House mutiny in which Republicans overthrew a speaker just a year ago would be enough to keep anyone from every claiming that. Also, per the exit polls, Democrats stuck together and voted for Harris more than Republicans did Trump.
Democrats gerrymander as much, if not more than Republicans (hello Illinois!) and actually ended up with slightly more house seats than they deserved last time around. Not sure about 2024.
There is a bottom line to be considered here
According to NBC News , Trump leads the popular vote count with 73,517,201 votes to Harris' 69,204,767 votes as of Friday afternoon.
Who won the 2024 popular vote? Here’s where the count stands – NBC Chicago
Now that Trump has won you seem to have a new pep in your step and are making more comments than ever (for you). I would submit that is not a coincidence.
We can see right through you.
John
No one, especially me, gives a shit what you think you see about anyone else
Do you disagree that it took more than Republicans to shift the popular vote in such a dramatic volume from against Trump (2020) to for Trump (2024)
Disenchanted Democrats and independents elected Trump
His numbers improved in too many demographics and too many geographies for the change not to be driven from within the democratic strongholds around the country.
You can advocate for and celebrate anything you want , all I'm saying is that your both sides baloney is fooling no one.
John
What you cannot or more correctly won't accept - is that what you call "both sides ism" is what the educated political world calls "independentism" and wanting better from both sides and a meeting in the middle is what made this country great.
Is that more important to you than the comment itself?
'No one, especially me, gives a shit what you think you see about anyone else'
Such a temper!
Plus, John's correct, as usual.
An addendum to the bottom line
Trump won every swing state - a lot of democrats, independents and undecideds decided that he was the lesser of two evils
I think the country would have been better off with Harris president and a republican congress - but at least a little more 4 million voters disagreed.
No one is buying what you are selling.
Nope
So John
Do I have the popular votes wrong?
And be assured I am not trying to sell you anything -[✘]
I read that Trump gained 11 points in Cook County (Chicago) from his 2020 margin.
A related point. When Vance was nominated Democrats, including ironically Walz, and their media launched a massive campaign to call him "weird," based primarily on a made up internet meme. It was a massive campaign of stigmatization. It worked for a few weeks. And then the VP debate happened and the whole fraudulent nature of the campaign was exposed. While the talking point went away, it led voters see just how dishonest and malicious the Democrats were.
it led voters see just how dishonest and malicious the Democrats were.
And that was the beginning of the spiraling failure of the Harris campaign
it led voters see just how dishonest and malicious the Democrats were.
Projection - pretty much all you have
Being an accomplished author who had numerous reasons for choosing the word “Hitler” to describe Donald Trump, only to then endorse Trump for POTUS and run on his ticket, is as fucking weird as it gets. There’s no Trumpsplaining that one away.