HOW TO BE A POLITICAL PLAYA: NOTES ON POLITICS, ORGANIZING, & LOBBYING

NOVEMBER 2024 EDITION: ?PARACHUTES, DORITOS, & THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RESULTS!

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It has been two weeks, and the results of the 2024 Presidential Election, as well as the impact, are beginning to sink in for many people. Former President Donald Trump won overwhelmingly in the electoral college 312-226, and there have been tons of articles highlighting the reason the Democratic party fared so poorly in the 2024 election cycle. Many question how a twice impeached, convicted felon, won the Presidency over sitting Vice President Kamala Harris. It turns out just saying I’m not Donald Trump is not enough. Nor is it enough to simply say that people voted against their own interests if the Democrats want to learn lessons from this defeat. Moreover, Vice President Harris was put in a very difficult position, and though there are things she might have done differently, she ran as good a campaign as could be expected considering her late entry.

Trump’s victory was based on several of factors:? racism, misogyny, arrogance of Democratic party elites, and lack of compelling messaging by the Democratic party on the economy, to name a few. However, the focus of this month’s edition of the newsletter will be on the arrogance of Democratic party elites in parachuting a candidate into the election at the 11th hour, as well as the inability to message around the inflation that has a hold on the American economy. ?

In hindsight, it is clearly arrogance on the part of party elites to think that parachuting a candidate into a presidential election 107 days out would work. It can take a candidate up to six months to develop a cogent message, so swapping out one candidate in favor of another, without a full primary, was the epitome of Democratic party arrogance. Instead of forcing President Joe Biden out of the race in July 2024, it should have been made clear to him after the 2022 mid-term elections that the party would be in favor of a robust presidential primary during the 2024 cycle, and if the sitting President was intent on running for re-election, he would need to go through that process. This would have allowed voters to learn more about potential replacements for Biden over the course of a year or more. The problems around party messaging are a bit more nuanced.

Despite advocating for an opportunity economy, the Democratic Party was unable to satisfactorily address the inflation problem, and more importantly, failed to effectively message on this issue.? For example, in many stores in the Metro NYC area, Doritos are close to $7 per bag, and nowadays you’re lucky to get 2 bags for $10. If you are a parent looking for after school snacks for your children, or enjoy a snack watching a sporting event, this increase in Doritos impacted you personally. Even though the U.S. economy is the strongest in the world, everyday people do not feel that when they go grocery shopping each week. Eggs are almost $5 a dozen in some of the supermarkets my family frequents. Failure to address this issue, in a manner that resonates with everyday people, was a fatal flaw of the Harris campaign. Had Vice President Harris gone through a rigorous primary season, she would have had plenty of time to home in on a message addressing inflation.

The reason the Harris campaign was unable to satisfactorily address kitchen table issues is something that the Democratic party must examine, instead of playing the blame game.? The voters clearly feel that the so-called party of the working man and working woman no longer speaks to its base but instead speaks to coastal elites. In fact, this sentiment goes back decades.

It is time for the Democratic Party to undergo its own internal process to re-think its approach to presidential elections. After the 2024 election cycle, it turns out there is a party that has some work to do to be viable moving forward: the Democratic party.

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Hashim Shomari, Government/Political Affairs Consultant

(Hashim Shomari is the Author/Publisher of From the Underground: Hip-Hop Culture as an Agent of Social Change.? He provides government affairs/political strategy consulting services in New Jersey and New York on behalf of his clients in the cannabis, affordable housing, healthcare, financial service, and economic development sectors.)

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