1 week Ago By Geoff Russ
The footage of Kamala Harris’s canceled victory speech at Howard University in Washington was unforgettable. Harris’s supporters, including the mythical “ White Dudes for Harris ,” milled about, forlorn as the swing state results rolled in and Beyoncé’s 2011 hit “Run the World” blared from the speakers. The Obama era’s affluent Democratic coalition is truly unique, and we may never see its likeness again.
Cardi B , crafter of the debauched hit “WAP,” rubbed shoulders with neoconservatives like Dick Cheney, who had abandoned the GOP to endorse Harris . Democratic activists declared that even the 83-year-old architect of the Iraq War was “ Brat ” like Megan Thee Stallion, who tried to bum donations for Harris by twerking at campaign rallies. This presidential campaign was the swan song of the era begun by Barack Obama, a man who has singularly defined the Democratic Party for 16 years.
“Yes we can.” Everyone who is old enough to remember 2008 knows the famous phrase that carried Obama into the White House. Obama’s campaign truly was hopeful, coming at the time of the Great Recession.
Millions of Americans had lost their homes, and terrifying uncertainty loomed for much of the middle and working classes. Portrayed as a John F. Kennedy for the 21st century, Obama promised to spearhead an economic recovery , pass universal health care , and tackle the endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Young people, workers, and celebrities were united in their support of America’s first Black president. Even white-collar Americans, once the backbone of the Republican Party, were curious, and millions permanently bought into the hype. True to his word, Obama signed a stimulus package in 2009, then the Affordable Care Act in 2010, and pulled American troops out of Iraq in 2011.
Once he did that and won re-election in 2012, his presidency became defined by enforcing liberal social attitudes and locking them into government and society, delighting wealthy liberals like Bill Gates and Harvey Weinstein . Twelve years later, media stations called the 2024 presidential election for Donald Trump, and Kamala Harris’s supporters would never get to hear her speak. Instead, they got to listen to “Alright” by Kendrick Lamar on the speakers, another hit from the Obama era that voters had just guillotined.
It was not what one Financial Times commentator expected when he confidently wrote before the election that Harris would win because of the old adage, “It’s still the economy, stupid.” Much happened during the presidency of Joe Biden that made economists very happy. GDP grew 8.
4 per cent , and employment levels rose , both made easier coming out of a damaging pandemic. That did not save the Democrats on election day. Ronald Reagan’s presidency from 1980 to 1988 was among the most successful of the 20th century because of its economic success, reflected in GDP growth and economic recovery.
It did not work for Biden or Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden after his re-election bid was forcefully aborted by his own party in July following that disastrous debate performance with Trump. If economists were pleased with the state of things under Biden, people in grocery store lines were not. The price of eggs in America jumped by 28 per cent in the past year, while at rental offices, young Americans now pay US$1,712 (C$2,385) compared to $1,435 in 2019.
Reagan’s presidency was accompanied by GDP growth, but also a stabilization in food prices. The annual rise in the price of food fell from 8.5 per cent to 3.
7 per cent between 1980 and 1984. Throughout the Reagan presidency, the cost of owning a home rose at the same stable, predictable rate it had since 1970. Under Biden, the cost of property spiked by a historic 27 per cent .
Americans could not feel the economy improving in their everyday life, unlike during the presidencies of Reagan or Bill Clinton. The decision of over almost 75 million Americans to return Donald Trump to the White House was perfectly understandable. On a good day, watching The View is akin to the vilest methods of torture devised by humankind, and their post-election coverage was worse.
When confronted with the fact that some of Texas’s most heavily Hispanic districts voted for Trump in landslides, co-host Sunny Hostin blamed it on misogyny. The consequences of mass illegal immigration through the backyards of people in Texas, regardless of their background, were deemed unworthy of consideration. For Hostin and others like her, Trump voters are bigoted zoo animals who could not possibly possess a rational reason for how they voted.
This perfectly encapsulates the terminal stage of the Obama era. Rich people and celebrities, the kind Obama can move among with ease, whose houses are paid for and who can afford to dine out for every meal, are seemingly incapable of grasping why most voters were not convinced that Harris was presidential material. Beyond the Biden-Harris administration’s inability to bring down the cost of living and the apparent unwillingness to take the border crisis seriously, Harris was simply a terrible candidate.
She was plastic-like and transparently stage-managed. There was none of Obama’s smoothness or scholarly depth. When the teleprompters malfunctioned , Harris was incapable of finishing a speech, in whatever regional accent she chose to put on that day.
On the eve of the election, Harris apparently called a voter while being filmed for primetime, only to flash her screen and reveal the camera app was on, leading to accusations she had staged it. Phones can obviously run multiple apps at once, but whether Harris called someone or not, it only reinforced her reputation. Yet, anti-Trump pundits insisted it was 2008 all over again and Kamala was Obama 2.
0. will.i.
am even produced a sequel to his Obama anthem “Yes We Can” for the Harris campaign. As American voters weighed their wallets while deciding whom to vote for, the Harris campaign brought out pop artists whose songs consist of bragging about sex, status, and expensive cars. Trump brought out the aging Lee Greenwood to serenade his Republican National Convention.
With titles and covers like “God Bless the USA,” “God Bless America,” and “America the Beautiful,” Greenwood’s catalog defines corny patriotism, but it exudes a hopeful love of country that reminded people of happier times. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are attached to the Obama legacy, and they did not hesitate to use that connection on the campaign trail. Whatever one thinks of Trump’s protectionism, populism, and nationalism, he is the exact opposite of the Obama Democrats, and the starkest alternative imaginable.
Maybe there is a desire to return to the Obama years, which most people will agree felt far better despite the financial crisis, a time in which hope abounded and people were proud to be American. If that is the case, the Obama era ended because voters decided Trump was the man to deliver that feeling again. National Post.
