There haven’t been many political earthquakes in our nation’s history, but last Tuesday was a political earthquake and it was high on the political Richter scale.
For the first time since Grover Cleveland at the close of the 19th Century, a candidate won election to nonconsecutive terms. Not only that, but he did so in a very convincing fashion.
Donald Trump won all of the “Battleground States, 312 electoral votes, and won the popular vote by roughly 4 million.
That’s “mandate” territory. It was a political comeback of epic proportions that was either the cause or the result of a political realignment. I have been asked to answer how and why it happened. My opinion and post mortem follow.
The Democrats lost in two ways: They lost the vote, but they also lost their voters. Many registered Democrats either voted Republican or simply went fishin’. Every demographic group moved toward Trump in 2024 compared to 2020, some quite substantially.
The genesis of the Democrat loss can be traced back to the Obama campaign of 2008. Who can forget Obama’s promise at the close of his campaign that, “we are …days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”
“Fundamental transformation” let the cat out of the bag and was a precursor of things to come. “Fundamental transformation” became the goal of progressive Democrats going forward.
The Obama acolytes, many of whom would later work in the Biden campaigns and administration, believed in the desirability of fundamental change. The Biden-Harris administration (or the wizards behind the curtain), continued to deliver on Obama’s promise. Here’s how:
Invitations and incentives for millions to enter the country illegally; ignoring the economic effect of opening the borders on the American working class; ignoring the rule of law- in choosing not to enforce the law regarding illegal entry into the United States, and ignoring court decisions regarding cancellation of debt for student loans; spending wildly without any regard to the effect on inflation; a war on fossil fuels in pursuit of a “green new deal”, including force feeding EVs and prohibiting gas stoves, despite a skeptical and resistant American public; DEI and ESG requirements imposed on businesses, institutions and government agencies including the military, at the expense of meritocracy and common sense; promoting transgenderism while subordinating women rights under Title IX, all constituted “fundament transformation “ as promised by Obama.
These and other woke initiatives were designed and promoted by a cadre of the most progressive of the progressives
There was one problem: The majority of Americans wanted no part of any such radical agenda.
To many Americans this litany of government overreach dictated by the far-left apparatchiks of the Biden-Harris administration was repulsive. Resistance to the “fundamental transformation” led to the further alienation of coastal elites from the rest of the country.
The working class has come to recognize that they are no longer represented by a Democratic party, populated by wealthy elites, that does not empathize with their plight.
One former Democrat fundraiser of working-class background wrote of attending a fund raiser in San Francisco and being told by one of the big-wigs (as reported in The Free Press recently): We no longer want to win the working class. We don’t need those people anymore. They’re gone forever. The future will be young Latinos and people of color.
Is it a surprise that working class voters may have detected the snobbery and disinterest exemplified by that remark, and decided to, “move on”?
Following the precepts of narcissism, the acolytes pulling the progressive decision strings in the Obama and Biden administrations, adopted the philosophy, “we know what’s best for you, shut up and be quiet”.
On Tuesday last, the American public rebelled and responded: “you may think you know best, but if there are enough of us, we, not you, are in charge”. The result? A substantial Trump victory amid a red wave.
Contributing to Trump’s decisive victory, was the decision by Democrats to misuse the legal system in a coordinated attack on their political opposition. What became known as “lawfare”, made Trump a victim and a sympathetic figure.
And, lawfare was a recognizable continuation of what had been seen earlier, during the first Trump term, when the Democrats promoted the Russia hoax, two sham impeachments and other improvident and mendacious investigations and litigation designed to disrupt Trump’s term of office and deter qualified people from joining the Trump administration.
Topping it all off, were the ill-timed and tone-deaf insults aimed at roughly half the country who supported Trump.
Insulting the opposition was a feature of the Biden administration, reaching a crescendo at Biden’s Philadelphia “unity” speech in September of 2022.
Setting the tone for the 2024 Presidential campaign, speaking in front of a red backdrop and flanked by two United States Marines, Biden claimed Trump supporters, “represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”
The Biden and Harris campaigns would repeat that charge and add various epitaphs and slurs like “Hitler”, garbage” “racist” and “Nazis”, among others, resulting in voter resentment.
I do not mean to imply that the election outcome was solely the result of poor judgment and mistakes made by the Democrats.
There was plenty of that, but Trump, with JD riding shotgun, had a lot to do with the outcome.
Never in my many years of watching Republican presidential campaigns have I seen a better strategy nor better tactical execution. And, never have I witnessed a candidate that worked harder than Trump. He was, in a word, indefatigable.
The Harris campaign was built on two platforms – dislike of Trump and abortion. Those were not enough. They didn’t resonate with a majority of the Americans. Trump on the other hand, addressed the issues people cared about: the economy, inflation and the border.
Still, I’m of the opinion that Biden and Harris-Walz set an extraordinary table for their political competition to enjoy. Is it any wonder that Trump-Vance sat down and feasted on the offering?
Ray Hunkins, a distinguished alumnus of the University of Wyoming and its College of Law, is retired from the practice of law and from his ranching, farming and livestock businesses. He has been active in Republican politics and was the Republican nominee for Governor of Wyoming in 2006
