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Sharks, Talking Heads, and the Titanic:
Posted at: Nov/13/2024 : Posted by: Mel
Related Category: Politics & Gov, Watching America,
Have you ever seen sharks in a feeding frenzy, it is a fascinating event to watch. There may be so much food, trash, or blood in the water that the school of sharks gets overwhelmed. In their frenzied behavior, they start to chomp at anything that moves. In their state of confusion and sensory overload, they will even start taking bites out of each other. The 2024 Presidential election took place a week ago and did not unfold how many pundits, political analysts, talking heads, and pollsters had forecasted. Now they are all running around like sharks in that feeding frenzy, trying to bite into anything that might explain what happened. I am not an expert, but I am a fan and enjoy the entertainment of watching politics. If you are into football, you learn about the players, the coaches, and team strategies, along with strengths and weaknesses. When all that is left is empty beer cans and a few dried-out wings, it is time to be a “Monday morning Quarterback.” For the Democrats, the the post game qustion is; “What went wrong?” There is no one single thing or person to put all the blame on, but as a Monday-Morning-Quarterback, I do see a pretty short list. Bypassing voters: Many in the Democratic Party leadership, led by Nancy Pelosi, are blaming Joe Biden for not dropping out sooner. By waiting until after the Primary process, voters were clearly left out of the loop. While Primary elections are not constitutionally mandated, they give voters a chance to get to know a candidate. But hypocrisy shouldn’t be ignored either. Pelosi visited the White House often enough that she and other senior democrats must have seen Biden decline. Waiting until after the primary season and a dismal debate performance implies, that they felt they could slip a fumbling old man past their electoral base. Anointing Kamala without a “mini-primary”, or having an “open convention,” left voters feeling forgotten. TDS and the Media: TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) is a real thing. For most of the last 8 years, most of the “mainstream media” have suffered from this ailment. They can’t tell you why they hate Trump, but they do. During the last 2 years, 73% of all news on Trump was negative, while the news on Biden and Harris was reported almost exactly the opposite. All of us have perpetual complainers in our lives, mostly, we learn to tune them out. MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN were so busy ranting they likely didn’t notice that their audience had left the room. Joe Scarborough during a live conversation in which he tried to discount inflation, said that butter was only $3/pound. His wife corrected him that it was over $7, and he was stunned. News and commentary are all about ratings and it will not be long before we see major changes at these networks and in their late-night talk. There is going to be a lot of resumes being pushed in the media market. Fighting with last year's weapons: This is a common strategic failure of militaries. In the pre-WWII years, the US Navy was very focused on battleship-centric naval power. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, they demonstrated that aircraft carriers could project power over a much greater distance than a 16-inch gun. In previous elections, messaging was primarily done across the major broadcast networks. While the major networks are still important, the audience of 18-30 year-old voters gets a lot of their information via podcasts. One of the most listened-to podcasts is Joe Rogan with an average audience of 11 million. When Trump sat down with Joe Rogan, it was for the full 3 hours and 14 million listened to it live. There are no teleprompters and being unscripted can be very revealing. In a similar vein, Trump also joined “Tyrus: Here and Now”, and “Outkick to name a few.” When Joe Rogan invited Kamala Harris, she responded that it would have to be limited to an hour, a limited question list, and he would have to come to her. In contrast, Kamala did pay for Beyoncé and Oprah to make endorsements. Beyoncé is not near as appealing when she reads from a teleprompter. Additionally, Beyoncé and Oprah are virtual unknowns to the under-30 voter. Underdog Syndrome: If there is one thing Americans love, it is the underdog. It doesn’t matter if it is sports or politics, we love an underdog. This mindset likely grew out of our revolutionary origins, where we beat the world superpower of that day to achieve independence. Despite being a billionaire, the continual barrage of prosecutions set Trump up as the victim of a malicious and biased political system. When the court system appears to be operating at the behest of a core political cadre the image becomes “one individual battling the deep state.” Whether there is a deep state, or just rabid prosecutors is unclear…but, perception matters. One black community leader from New York commented that he could relate to Trump, “no matter what he tried, the Man always tried to stop him.” Elites and Aristocrats: Despite being a billionaire, Trump rode in a garbage truck, worked the drive-up at McDonald’s, and had barbershop conversations. These may have all been campaign stunts, but they came off as genuine because they were unscripted. The American dream is that you can achieve something such as owning a home, starting a business, or sending your kids to college despite how poor you may have started life. Not everyone may achieve their dream, but it is out there. The current Democratic leadership does not believe in the American dream. From their positions of comfort, wealth, and power, they believe it is their compassionate responsibility to care for the poor. This is the modern version of a medieval lord looking after the peasants who tend his fields because peasants must be looked after and cared for. In this aristocratic model, the Ivy League elites of government and power must provide you with basic services because you will never rise above where you are. Hillary Clinton at a recent Oxford Union Society debate said of Americans: “These poor souls who are looking for some answers…we’ve given them answers but they are blocked by their views…” Name-calling: Name-calling and slurs are not new in American politics. Calling your opponent names and slinging mud is part of a political campaign. But this election cycle had a new twist. Pundits and candidates referred to Trump followers as deplorable, fascist, ignorant, Nazis. The idea that you can call 75 million voters “Nazis,” and still expect them to vote for you is lunacy. Of course, from an elitist perspective, it may seem reasonable to call 52% of the voting population “garbage.” Ever clueless, Reverend Al Sharpton is calling those Latinos and black men who voted for Trump “misogynistic.” They didn’t listen: The biggest failing on the Democratic side was their agenda. Poll after poll for 2 years has shown that America’s biggest concerns were inflation, jobs, the border, and crime. Aligning with their elitist mindset, the Democratic leaders and pundits ignored this message and said you should be worrying about abortion access and LGBT+ rights. Even when Biden briefly tried to brag about his “job creation” numbers, it was clear that these were COVID-19 shuttered jobs merely returning. Many of the Democratic voters who supported Trump were clear that his agenda focused on their needs. He was listening to them. When the RMS Titanic sunk in 1912, there were a variety of errors that contributed to the disaster. The high rate of speed, poor quality rivets, limited watch-standers, and poor compartmental design. Mostly, it was the arrogant belief that they were unsinkable, so they didn’t have to worry about the other issues. The Democratic Party leadership will be finger-pointing and analyzing what they did wrong for a long time, but the similarities to the Titanic are striking. In their arrogance, they took their voting base for granted. They did not read their polling, instead, assuming they knew what was best. Trump ran a smart campaign, but much of his success was centered on clear opportunities ignored by his opponents and therefore left to pick up. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently said she is confused by the data showing many in her district voting for her and Trump on the same ballot. She felt unclear how to represent these individuals. It is really about who is taking their constituents for granted, and who is listening. Maybe, by the 2026 midterms, but definitely by 2028 the dust will have settled and likely the Democratic Party will look a lot different than it currently does. It will be interesting to see how well the Republicans can entrench and endear themselves between now and then.
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