It’s been an intriguing few days. In the hours since the inevitable and, to many of us, righteous collapse of the Democratic Party in the 2024 US elections, I’ve noticed a collective holding of breath among those around me. Neighbours. Friends. People who must have been watching the political theatre through a lens of denial, or were blinded by ideological loyalty to the Church of Woke, or perhaps still suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), simply couldn’t see it coming.
This is what happens when you immerse yourself too deeply in political tribalism, or surround yourself with others who are equally entrenched. You become blind to the reality of what could happen, and when it finally does, you react as though it's an apocalyptic event—comparable to the return of slavery, the rise of the Third Reich, or the end of women's rights. It’s absurd, but this is precisely what I've been witnessing in conversations, on social media, and in person.
The truth is, Kamala Harris was never a strong candidate for the office. It’s something that should have been apparent much earlier, but was easily overlooked. For me, her dismal failure to secure the Democratic nomination in 2020 was confusing because she appeared so polished on camera. At first, she seemed like a candidate of substance when on script and rehearsed. But when challenged—even slightly—her lack of depth became painfully clear. Harris couldn't hold a coherent political conversation without a script. By any objective measure, that disqualifies someone from competing for the highest office in the land.
It wasn’t a surprise when she dropped out of the race before the primaries even started, with no delegates to her name. But Joe Biden, who didn't need delegates from Harris, still saw value in her as a VP pick. He needed someone who could help energize a particular voter base. On March 15, 2020, he announced that his running mate would be a woman. Unfortunately, much like John McCain’s ill-fated VP choice, Biden selected a candidate who looked good on camera but faltered under any real scrutiny. In doing so, he legitimized Harris as a viable contender when, in reality, she never was.
Fast forward to 2024, and we see the fallout. As the DNC scrambled to find a viable replacement for a fading Joe Biden, it became painfully clear that they could not simply pass over Harris without accusations of sexism and racism. After all, according to Joe Biden, her identity as a ‘woman of colour’ was the very reason she was chosen in the first place. It’s glaringly obvious when you consider that someone like Tulsi Gabbard (another ‘woman of colour‘) would have made a far more competent and capable candidate. But the Democratic power brokers wanted someone they could control—someone lightweight, easily manipulated.
This brings us to the core of the Harris/Waltz campaign: an attempt to stoke anti-Trump sentiment, because there was no substantive message to rally behind. The primary process—where candidates are supposed to demonstrate their strengths, refine their ideas, and win over voters—was completely bypassed. Instead, the party operated within its own echo chamber, feeding its base with tired rhetoric about Nazis, racists, sexists, bigots, and hatred. And, tragically, many people around me bought into it.
I hear daily conversations about how women across the US are now second-class citizens, how minorities are doomed, how violence will spiral out of control, and how fascism is poised to take over. All of this, they claim, because of Trump.
But here’s the thing: we’ve been here before. Trump was president once already. And before the violence in the streets and the burning cities, it came from the Democrats and their surrogates.
And January 6th? Yes. Lots to be said. But let’s stop pretending that the Democrats didn’t do a shit job of winning over the voters. Moving your policies to where the voters are would be a start instead of yelling and shaming voters to vote ‘correctly’.
At some point one has to take a long, hard look in the mirror. People need to ask themselves how their rhetoric and actions may have contributed to this outcome. And maybe, just maybe, we could start by looking across the divide, at those who disagree with us on how to make change, and extend a hand—calling them "neighbor" instead of "Nazi."