All of the experts, most of the amateurs, and just a few damned fools; will tell you why Kamala Harris lost the election. They say, she was too \u201cwoke\u201d, or she was too \u201clib\u201d, or for some, not \u201clib\u201d enough. Maybe her greatest mistake was she failed to pay obeisance to Joe Rogan, and spend three hours in Texas with him. Or she didn\u2019t move far enough away from Biden on the issue of Israel\u2019s destruction of Palestinians in Gaza and Lebanon. (Of course, Trump\u2019s election gives Netanyahu free rein to do whatever he wants \u2013 so if that was a reason to vote against Harris, it sure backfired).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then there\u2019s those other things she didn\u2019t do. She didn\u2019t take enough credit for the Biden Administration\u2019s successes on infrastructure, on industrial development, on jobs and the economy. And she didn\u2019t give the relatively simple explanations for her change on the \u201cfracking question\u201d, or the more significant questions about inflation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Add all of that together, and maybe it impacts a million voters (if that). Joe Biden got 81 million votes in 2020. Harris has 71 million, with perhaps another 4 million still to be counted (most in California). That still puts her short 6 million votes. And Trump got basically the same as he did in 2020. So it\u2019s clearly not a \u201cflop\u201d of Biden to Trump. It\u2019s simply that 6 million Biden voters stayed home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The \u201cOccam\u2019s Razor\u201d answer to the Harris turnout is simple, and saddening.\u00a0\u00a0If we look at the last five Presidential elections it seems obvious.\u00a0\u00a0In 2008 and 2012, Barack Obama was a Black man who won large victories.\u00a0\u00a0 Hillary Clinton in 2016, was a White woman who won the popular vote, but lost the Electoral College.\u00a0\u00a0In 2020, Joe Biden was a White man who won the most popular votes in history, and the Electoral College.\u00a0\u00a0And in 2024, Kamala Harris, a Black woman, lost both the popular vote and the Electoral College, to a former President who is a convicted felon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is it really that simple? Is nearly half of America so biased against women, White or Black, that they will literally vote for a twice-impeached, convicted felon, ex-President? It seems that the \u201cOccam\u2019s Razor\u201d answer is clear: misogyny wins out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And while I absolutely hate to give the Trump campaign any credit at all; they did recognize how to exacerbate that misogyny. Take the entire disgusting but effective transgender campaign: from manly looking women on the basketball courts to the dreaded \u201cgirls\u2019 restroom stalker\u201d, to the young adolescent boy in hospital gown waiting to be \u201creassigned\u201d: it was all about \u201cprotecting women\u201d. And the candidate said the quiet part out loud: \u201cI will protect women, whether they like it or not\u201d. He took away their agency, their right to make their own decisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And for a significant portion of the Nation, both male and female, the abortion rights argument also \u201cfed\u201d the \u201cmen know better\u201d principle. Trump\u2019s Party was the Party of \u201clife\u201d, even as Trump himself distanced himself with his line of \u201cletting the states decide\u201d. That shrewd ideological move wasn\u2019t really all about the \u201csanctity of life\u201d. It was about restricting the agency of women. And the final point: if women can\u2019t decide about abortion, if women need to be protected from \u201ctransgendered stalkers\u201d, then how could a woman possibly be President, the Nation\u2019s \u201cProtector\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let me be clear:\u00a0\u00a0I hate the conclusion.\u00a0\u00a0I don\u2019t want \u201cOur America\u201d to be this place.\u00a0\u00a0I truly believe that women in general, and Kamala Harris in particular, are eminently qualified to be President of the United States.\u00a0\u00a0The United States has moved quickly:\u00a0\u00a0it was only twenty years ago that \u201cDon\u2019t Ask, Don\u2019t Tell\u201d was a national policy for the military.\u00a0\u00a0It was only a decade ago that the Supreme Court allowed for same-sex marriages nationwide.\u00a0\u00a0And it has only been in the past few years that the public discussion of transgendered rights has \u201ccome out\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many thought that the whole \u201cwoman\u201d issue was settled.\u00a0\u00a0But we need to remember: the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), sent to the states for ratification in 1972, never became part of the Constitution.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That underlying misogyny has never been fully addressed.\u00a0\u00a0Even today, women, on average, make 16% less than men for the same job.\u00a0\u00a0For a significant part of the Nation, women need to \u201cbe protected\u201d, not \u201cfollowed\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It isn\u2019t likely that the second Trump Administration will further women\u2019s rights.\u00a0\u00a0But what it will do is sharpen those women who are willing to fight for their agency.\u00a0\u00a0The battles against backward Trumpism will go on; and women will lead the struggle.\u00a0\u00a0Harris, even in losing, ranks fourth (behind Biden, Trump and Trump) in the number of votes gained by a Presidential candidate.\u00a0\u00a0That beats Obama, and Hillary Clinton, and George W Bush.\u00a0\u00a0The margin is narrowing.\u00a0\u00a0And may that\u2019s a harbinger for the future, a \u201clight at the end of the tunnel\u201d. \u00a0I hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"