The election is over, and Donald Trump has been resoundingly reelected by count of the Electoral College (less so in the popular vote; less than 2% separates the candidates). Republican scored a trifecta by also gaining control of the House and Senate.
Pundits far and wide have analyzed the results and come up with varying excuses for Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss. Some are saying the “good economy” President Joe Biden and Harris built didn’t hit people’s wallets. Some point to white women, many of whom voted for now President-elect Donald Trump. But a lot of the blame goes to Democrats’ long-standing allegiance to important rights issues that alienate a lot of America.
Credit: handout
Credit: handout
This election was not about the price of eggs or the price of gas. Nor was it about mortgage rates being too high. Yes, those things mattered to working-class voters to a degree. But the world’s best economists agree that the U.S. economy under Biden is the envy of the world. Biden and Harris made great gains for unions, eliminated student loan debt for millions, stabilized NATO, supported Ukraine and pulled the United States out of the post-coronavirus financial crisis.
None of that resonated.
What seemed to unify Latino men, Black men, white women and white men was changing cultural norms and the definitions of masculinity seemingly being thrown aside for a new more progressive, liberal orthodoxy that has Gen X and older Americans feeling left out.
Exit poll data showed how effective Trump’s anti-transgender ads were during the campaign. They littered airwaves in swing states throughout October — and went unanswered by the Harris campaign. People are tired of being told what they can say and that they must celebrate Pride Month, use preferred pronouns and be subject to cultural inclusivity training. Trump and his acolytes rail against “wokeness” and diversity, equity and inclusion. Trump has even called for white people to receive reparations for having been subjected to DEI training. Young men are reacting to the #MeToo movement, which made some men fear being labeled predators for even talking to women. And many men are feeling left behind after a long focus on women and girls.
And there’s a big irony in that because Trump almost immediately began setting off alarm bells with his Cabinet picks — all of whom could be considered “DEI hires” — picked not for their qualifications but for their allegiance to Trump. It’s probably not a coincidence that they’re mostly white men.
Americans of color and women see through this election and these Cabinet picks as proof that you do not have to be qualified for high office; you are presumed qualified if you are a white man. The only qualification for Trump’s pick to lead Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is that he is a vaccine conspiracy theorist who is against fluoride in water.
Fox News host Pete Hegseth, Trump’s soon-to-be secretary of Defense nominee, is against women in combat and has white Christian nationalist tattoos. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Trump’s pick for attorney general, is alleged to have shown pornographic material to colleagues in the House cloakroom and was investigated by the very department Trump wants him to lead for allegations of sex trafficking, drug use and paying underage women for sex.
This will be America’s new normal for the next four years or more.
This is what America voted for.
Or did it?
If we believe the polls, Americans voted for Trump because of expensive groceries, the border crisis and fears about rising crime (at its lowest in 50 years).
But the 2024 election was truly a referendum on the culture wars: “trans wars,” “men in women’s sports” and preserving the patriarchal order established by the Founders of this country way back in 1776.
So, let’s not fool ourselves. This election was a realignment of American freedom and values through the lens of the rich, white, male ruling class that has always and probably will always make the rules in America.
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