Democrats, Routed by Trump, Face the Wilderness

 President Trump’s victory Tuesday was driven by voters once seen as permanently tied to the Democrats. Now, the party will be forced to build something new.

Democrats could face a long path back to power at Washington, D.C. as President Trump’s 2024 victory suggests the greatest realignment since President Reagan’s revolution more than 40 years ago. Men of all races and ages moved sharply to the right this year, and Democrats will have to rebuild a working majority in the wake of that earthquake. 

The party was already throwing blame at each other by Wednesday afternoon, as it became clear that Republicans would take control of the Senate and are now slightly favored to maintain — or possibly even expand — their House majority. 

Senator Sanders put out a blistering statement to the press about the Democratic Party’s abandonment of “the working class,” regardless of the voters’ races. Black and Hispanic men swung decisively toward Trump this year, along with men under 30 years old. 

“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them. First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and Black workers as well,” Mr. Sanders, who himself is a registered independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats, wrote on Wednesday. “While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right.”

The Vermonter lambasted the consultants and “big money interests” in the nation’s capital for what he sees as the Democrats’ blindness to these problems. 

“In the coming weeks and months those of us concerned about grassroots democracy and economic justice need to have some very serious political discussions,” Mr. Sanders says. 

The rapid shift of young men voting for President Biden in 2020 to voting for Trump this year had some observers highlighting the network of podcasts and online video game streamers who are now feeding vast quantities of information and news to their young, male followers. The media ecosystem — dubbed “the manosphere” by some — included a number of high-profile celebrities who are well-respected by young men. 

Trump spent hours and hours with some of these figures, including comedians Joe Rogan, Theo Von, and Andrew Schulz. He appeared on the podcast of Mark Calaway,  “the Undertaker” of WWE fame. Trump also appeared on a livestream with online influencer Adin Ross. 

“It’s on these podcasts and streams that Trump spent a disproportionate amount of time in the final weeks of his campaign, and for good reason,” the news editor of WIRED magazine, Brian Barrett, writes in a piece on Wednesday. “Trump sat with all of them, often for hours, reaching millions of conservative or apolitical people, cementing his status as one of them, a sigma, a guy with clout, and the apex of a model of masculinity that prioritizes fame as a virtue unto itself.”

Some still stuck to the analysis that it was price increases in recent years that drove voters’ revulsion against Democrats this year. 

President Obama weighed in on the discussion through a statement released Wednesday after Ms. Harris delivered her concession speech. He and former first lady Michelle Obama noted that price increases over the past four years have resulted in real hardship for Americans who may be disaffected by politics. 

“America has been through a lot over the last few years — from a historic pandemic and price hikes resulting from the pandemic, to rapid change and the feeling a lot of folks have that, no matter how hard they work, treading water is the best they can do. Those conditions have created headwinds for democratic incumbents around the world, and last night showed that America is not immune,” the Obamas wrote in their statement. 

While those conversations will take place in the following months and years, it is obvious that the largest national popular vote loss in a generation may require a greater reworking of the party than had happened after 2016. 

Just eight years ago, Senator Clinton lost the race to Trump by fewer than 100,000 votes across three states. Now, Vice President Harris is on track to lose her race by hundreds of thousands of votes, while taking none of the seven battleground states this year, handing her the worst Electoral College performance for a Democrat since Governor Dukakis. 

MATTHEW RICE

Mr. Rice, based in the nation's capital, covers current events in politics.

https://www.nysun.com/article/democrats-routed-by-trump-face-the-wilderness