My thoughts on the US election
Where to start? Well, the Democrats and Kamala Harris clearly cannot read the room that is the US electorate. It started well after President Joe Biden finally removed himself as the Democratic candidate. Harris started out with a somewhat economic populist message and announced Tim Walz as her running mate. The polls showed a significant rise in her popularity, only to stop talking about that populist message, locking Tim Walz in the basement with Joe Biden, and switching back to the typical pro-corporate talking points and Trump fear-mongering, which anyone with eyes could see is the wrong path.
Harris started by saying she would clamp down on price gouging on food and groceries, giving the FTC new powers to come down hard on companies who use such tactics to increase their profits. She claimed she would create a $25,000 subsidy for first-time home buyers and a tax break to incentivize home builders to develop affordable housing. Harris also claimed that she would increase the child tax credit, including a $6,000 credit in the first year of a child’s life, and increase the number of drugs that Medicare could negotiate pricing on. All these things are popular and would help the average American.
But, she soon switched back to her corporatist roots, having corporate surrogates all over TV, dismissing Harris’ claim that she would do the things she promised, reassuring the top 10%’ers that they would still be able to profit at the cost of the average American. And moving back to the Trump will end democracy rhetoric, which is clearly the wrong message when people are struggling to pay their rent or mortgage, wondering where their next meal is coming from, or whether they can afford to put gas in their car. The Harris’ campaign dismissal of anti-war, Palestinian rights protestors didn’t help their situation either.
I cannot stand Trump, but his faux-populist message resonated with people, and it cost Harris big time; Democrats will say that Americans still have racial and misogynistic bias’ and that’s true to an extent, but the reality is that the Harris campaign relied on fear-mongering too much, that she lost all the base and independents. The Harris campaign’s message failed to resonate so severely that she lost all the battleground states, including all the blue wall states, and the popular vote. She is the first Democratic candidate to lose the popular vote since 2004. It’s evident that significant changes need to happen in the Democratic party; the question is, will any lessons be learned from this election? I severely doubt it!
Because Democrats have been deaf to what Americans want, Trump has the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives, which means more tax breaks for the wealthy, increasing the deficit. Bad news for undocumented immigrants with Trump promising mass deportations, and if he follows through with 25—35% tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada, that’ll likely tank the economy. Trump has appointed Elon Musk as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which has promised to eliminate $2 trillion from the government budget. We could start with the defense budget, but it will be programs that regulate businesses and social programs that help middle and working-class Americans.
From reading social media, there seems to be a big misunderstanding of how tariffs work; ultimately, it’s not China, Mexico, and Canada that pay for it; it will be Americans; you can expect your retail prices to increase 25—35%. There will likely be retaliatory tariffs on American products, and America does not make anything you cannot get elsewhere, so it will likely hit exports. The US does not have the infrastructure to replace everything from Mexico, Canada, and most notably China. The US has been happy to allow cheap imports from China for decades, and more and more manufacturing jobs have disappeared from the US. It’s not even a tactical decision to increase American-made products as little is made here anymore, including all the Trump merch that his rabid base buys up; it’s all made in China.
My hope is that there will be a few adults in the room who will stop Trump from doing things that will destroy the United States. This may not be the case this time, as the US Supreme Court has ruled that a president is above the law while in office, and Trump has nominated many loyalists to his cabinet. I guess it’s a case of suck it and see, and hope that the sucker is not laced with poison.