Out of My Mind: Finger Pointing without Reflection

By Jon Dobrer on November 26, 2024

My brokenhearted fellow Liberals are in a hurry to find someone to blame, some explanation to deny our own responsibility. We point everywhere but at ourselves.

Our belief that the American people couldn’t possibly elect a convicted felon, a vulgar, vicious, villain proved to be wrong. While we worried about toxic masculinity, we should have worried about toxic magical thinking.

Now we must find targets that let us off the hook. Consider:

1. It was Biden. He was selfish and delusional, thinking “only he” could beat Trump. He didn’t give the Democrats time for a process that would have chosen a stronger candidate or made Kamala a stronger candidate.

2. It was Kamala. She was a weak candidate and never went through a primary. She was unvetted and under-prepared for the 110-day Blitzkrieg against Trump. She had no positive iconic moments. Trump had the iconic moment when after getting shot, he stood up, raised his fist, and shouted, “Fight Fight Fight.” Kamala, the “candidate of change” who wanted “to turn the page,” when asked what she would do differently from Biden, responded, “Nothing I can think of.” When given the chance to expand her response, she weakly amended her remark by promising a Republican in her cabinet. This was the Johnny Cochran moment in the OJ Trial. “If the glove doesn’t fit you must acquit.” It didn’t and the jury did acquit. Our national jury, the voters, found her guilty of lacking the courage to separate herself from Biden and to take specific or courageous positions. The jury condemned her sweet vague- ness and went with Trump’s politically incorrect, unwoke, and hostile threats, mistaking big bold lies for courage and candor.

3. It was the Progressives. They pushed her too far to the left and trapped her into renouncing past policy positions with un-constitutionally vague responses e.g. “My values haven’t changed.” She was saddled with supporting gender-affirming care and surgery for inmates and undocumented people. An iconic picture of a trans-women towering over birthright women dressed for basketball was the most powerful political ad of the season. Kamala never engaged it.

4. It was the Conservatives. She embraced Liz Cheney and accepted the endorsement of the much-vilified Dick Cheney. Progressives were incensed. Who was Kamala? What did she believe other than Trump was unfit?

5. It was the celebrities. Oprah, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, and the Boss. What did they deliver? Entertaining, but with ticket prices unaffordable to the masses, they only cemented her status as an out-of-touch elite.

6. It was her gender. America, unlike Israel, Argentina, India, and England is just not ready to elect a woman. I’m sure gender played a major part, but the public was clearly ready to reject Biden. Kamala got a lower percentage of women than Biden: White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian.

7. It was her race –or races. Quite a glass ceiling to break – a half-black, half-Indian woman. Racism is clearly alive in America. She got a lower percentage of Black, White, and Hispanic men than Biden.

8. It was her own damn fault. She picked “Coach” Walz. The Democratic pundits, with perfect hindsight, say that if only she had picked Josh Shapiro, he could have delivered Pennsylvania. Even, if true, she didn’t carry any of the “swing states.” These same pundits are likely the same geniuses who said “You’re a woman and half Black and to this already heavy lift you want to add a Jew!? Bist Meshuggah? (Yiddish for “You crazy?”)

9. It’s those voters! Blame the electorate. They’re stupid, easily manipulated, and don’t vote in their own interests. The theory of democracy is wrong. It’s magical thinking and posits that individuals may be ignorant and prejudiced but if you pile them up high enough, the pile transmutes into the gold of wisdom.

10. It’s the economy stupid. Can’t beat inflation and prices remaining high by telling people it’s just transient. They pay more for gas, food, and housing. That’s a lived experience. Facts don’t trump feelings, but Trump trumps facts. Working people couldn’t afford to repair old cars, and we gave them new pronouns.

All these explanations, cum excuses, have elements of truth and, when combined, reveal the many reasons that so many of us got it so wrong. This was a massive misreading of the public. How could the voters reject a decent woman and choose an indecent man? They picked him because, as the Quakers say, “He spoke to their condition.”

He spoke to their fears both economic (inflation) and social (Immigration). While Democrats denied their pain and fear and were blind and deaf to their rage and despair, Trump channeled their grievances. The voters forgot Trump’s promise that “Covid would magically disappear” but remembered Biden telling them that the economy was good, and the border was under control.

It’s not time to find blame but for a full and frank inventory of our failure to see, hear, and feel the pain across all our society. The voters sent their message. We would be wise not to blame the messenger but to open our ears and hearts to the anguish of all those who feel left behind.