Let me be clear at the outset. I want Vice President Kamala Harris to win. I’ve spent most of the past two to three months on the ground in one battleground state after another, encouraging independents and Republicans to vote for her. I’m part of the “Republicans for Harris” effort. And the main reason I want Harris to win is because former President Donald Trump is utterly unfit to hold office. The man who refused to concede the 2020 election, who has indicated he’ll refuse to concede this election if he loses, is a danger to this country and must never sit in the Oval Office again.
Harris, by moving much more to the center on policy, has made my job of getting Republicans to vote for her much easier. But when it comes to the health and viability of these two political parties, I do worry about how each party would be negatively affected if it’s victorious. Sound confusing? Let me explain.
A Harris victory would be all the excuse party leaders need to continue ignoring these lingering issues.
The Democratic Party has real problems that have gone unaddressed for quite some time, and a Harris victory would be all the excuse party leaders need to continue ignoring these lingering issues. As the GOP devolved into an anti-democracy, authoritarian-embracing cult, Democrats have been able to simply point at the other guys and say, “Look, they’re burning our house down, they’re attacking our democracy, vote for us. We’re normal.” And it’s generally worked. The perceived threat posed by MAGA Republicans has carried Democrats to better-than-expected results in 2018, 2020 and 2022 — and may carry them to victory again on Tuesday.
But that victory might not be a great thing for the long-term prospects of the Democratic Party. Democrats have lost touch with working-class Americans — regardless of race. They’ve become the party of wealthy, educated elites. This is anecdotal, obviously, but if I had a dollar for every conversation I’ve had over the past five or six years with a regular, working-class man or woman who told me a variation of — “Joe, I know Trump is an asshole, I know MAGA can be kind of crazy, but Democrats are elitists who don’t understand me and look down on me” — I’d be a wealthy dude.
The Democratic Party has lurched left, become increasingly driven by “woke” social issues that put a primacy on identity, while being dismissive of issues that working-class voters of all races and ethnicities care about — like crime, inflation and the border. This condescension to so many voters who can’t relate with coastal elites in academia and the media provided the opening Trump needed eight years ago. He spoke directly to these people. Sure, Trump is a demagogue and he lies to these folks and tries to scare them, but the perception they have is that, unlike Democrats, at least Trump is listening to them.








