Peter Hamby sounds as angry as anyone about Kamala Harris’ election loss. Certainly, he’s annoyed by her campaign strategists’ passing the buck, blaming anything at all besides the substance of her campaign—Harris’ refusal to break from Joe Biden, the failure to acknowledge economic concerns, the failure even to allow a Palestinian speaker on stage at the Democratic National Convention.[1]
For my part, I have felt alone in my travails on the underbelly of capitalism, with the nearly nonexistent pay, the ongoing abuse and exploitation. And so I, too, underestimated the impact of the economy in this election. But I know now that I have been far from alone, even among those who have been doing considerably better than I.
The real problem here is that it remains far from clear that the Democrats understand why they lost. They remain enamored with the economic statistics that said the economy was doing well—even as those aggregates entirely missed the miserable experiences of so many. They refuse to take seriously that a number of voters, particularly in Michigan, have friends and relatives who are being massacred by the Israelis and that many more sympathized with them. They shied away from taking on white supremacist gangsters (the “police”) or voting rights reform that particularly afflict people of color. Even on migration, they joined in demonizing people who are running for their lives. They could never separate themselves from the “donor class.” They are, quite simply, the party of the status quo in a country desperate for change, where any change at all is better than none.
There is an accusation that the execrable incoming Donald Trump administration[2] is about entrenching a “broligarchy” in which the rich are sovereign, free from any legal or moral constraints whatsoever, where the rest of us, who struggle even to pay rent and put groceries on the table, are viewed as oppressors of the poor beleaguered rich in their mega-mansions and their mega-yachts as they fly around the world in their private jets.[3] What the Democrats fail to understand is that in their adherence to neoconservatism, with neoliberalism as a moral imperative, they have contributed to this state of affairs as much as any Republican administration. For all the sound and fury, the two parties are not so different after all. And that might leave the Democrats in the wilderness for the foreseeable future.
[1] Peter Hamby, “Harris Melancholy & The Infinite Sadness,” Puck, December 2, 2024, https://puck.news/about-that-pod-save-america-kamala-harris-campaign-buck-passing/
[2] Jacqueline Alemany and Liz Goodwin, “Documents with damaging Gaetz testimony accessed in apparent breach,” Washington Post, November 19, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/19/gaetz-investigation-hack-evidence-senators/; Jacqueline Alemany, Liz Goodwin, and Perry Stein, “Two women testified that Matt Gaetz paid them for sex, lawyer says,” Washington Post, November 18, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/18/matt-gaetz-ethics-report-allegations/
Isaac Arnsdorf, Marianne LeVine, and Ashley Parker, “Trump pushes past sting of Gaetz’s exit with flurry of new picks,” Washington Post, November 22, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/23/trump-gaetz-withdrawal-loss-senate/; Mark Berman, “Trump says he will replace FBI Director Wray with loyalist Kash Patel,” Washington Post, November 30, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/30/trump-kash-patel-fbi-director/; Mark Berman and David Nakamura, “Pam Bondi, Trump’s AG pick, said ‘prosecutors will be prosecuted,’” Washington Post, November 23, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/11/23/pam-bondi-doj-attorney-general-trump-pick/; Abha Bhattarai, Jeff Stein, and Scott Dance, “Trump selects Howard Lutnick, Wall Street CEO, as commerce secretary,” Washington Post, November 19, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/11/19/howard-lutnick-trump-commerce-secretary/; Michelle Boorstein, “Huckabee pick as Israeli ambassador reflects long evangelical alliance,” Washington Post, December 2, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/12/02/evangelicals-israel-trump-huckabee/; Walter Bragman, “Everything You Need to Know About Donald Trump’s (Likely) FDA Pick,” Important Context, November 20, 2024, https://www.importantcontext.news/p/everything-you-need-to-know-about-cce; Desmond Butler, Lauren Weber, and Caitlin Gilbert, “Potential conflicts of interest may haunt Dr. Oz’s confirmation to run Medicare, Medicaid,” Washington Post, December 2, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/12/02/dr-oz-medicare-medicaid-ozempic-conflicts/; Bernd Debusmann, Jr., and Mike Wendling, “How would Trump’s promise of mass deportations of migrants work?” British Broadcasting Corporation, November 18, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce9z0lm48ngo; Dan Diamond, “Trump picks Dr. Oz to oversee Medicare, Medicaid and Affordable Care Act,” Washington Post, November 19, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/11/19/dr-oz-medicare-medicaid-obamacare-trump/; Dan Diamond, Rachel Roubein, and Frances Vinall, “Changes RFK Jr. could make as HHS secretary, from vaccines to raw milk,” Washington Post, November 15, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/11/15/rfk-jr-department-health-human-services-changes/; Ian Duncan, “Trump picks former congressman Sean Duffy to lead Transportation Dept.,” Washington Post, November 18, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/11/18/sean-duffy-transportation-secretary-nominee/; Josh Gerstein and Nahal Toosi, “Could Trump sideline government watchdogs? Some are already quitting,” Politico, November 25, 2024, https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/25/trump-inspectors-general-watchdogs-00191381; Liz Goodwin et al., “Matt Gaetz attorney general confirmation was in doubt ahead of withdrawal,” Washington Post, November 21, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/11/21/gaetz-withdraws-attorney-general-ethics-investigation/; Stephen Groves, “Senators took down one Trump Cabinet pick. But the fight over their authority is just beginning,” Associated Press, November 25, 2024, https://apnews.com/article/trump-cabinet-senate-republicans-cee5cddaa714b8874db05356c6af2a04; Evan Halper et al., “Trump picks fracking firm CEO Chris Wright to be energy secretary,” Washington Post, November 16, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/16/energy-secretary-trump-chris-wright/; Fatima Hussein, “Trump names Massad Boulos, campaign liaison and family relative, as a senior adviser on Middle East,” Associated Press, December 1, 2024, https://apnews.com/article/trump-boulos-mideast-michigan-arab-americans-israel-1c3a1a53c78682daf9011735cb37dbb1; David Klepper, Ellen Knickmeyer, and Edith M. Lederer, “Gabbard’s sympathetic views toward Russia cause alarm as Trump’s pick to lead intelligence services,” Associated Press, November 17, 2024, https://apnews.com/article/gabbard-trump-putin-intelligence-russia-syria-a798adaf9cd531a5d0c9329f7597f0f6; Michael Kranish, Josh Dawsey, and Jonathan O'Connell, “Defense pick Hegseth paid accuser but denies sexual assault, attorney says,” Washington Post, November 16, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/16/pete-hegseth-sexual-assault-accuser-paid/; Marianne LeVine, “Pam Bondi, Trump’s pick for attorney general, is a longtime loyalist,” Washington Post, November 21, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/21/pam-bondi-trump-attorney-general-florida/; Abby Livingston, “DOGE-Ball: Elon vs. The F-35,” Puck, November 30, 2024, https://puck.news/doge-ball-elon-vs-the-f-35/; Laura Meckler, “Trump taps transition co-chair Linda McMahon to be education secretary,” Washington Post, November 19, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/11/19/trump-education-secretary-linda-mcmahon/; Allison Neitzel, “How Dr. Oz Hyped Trump’s COVID Snake Oil,” Important Context, November 21, 2024, https://www.importantcontext.news/p/how-dr-oz-hyped-trumps-covid-snake; Caitlin Owens, “Trump taps Johns Hopkins professor Makary as FDA chief,” Axios, November 22, 2024, https://www.axios.com/2024/11/23/trump-fda-marty-makary; Danielle Paquette and Jonathan O'Connell, “Police records reveal new details about sexual assault allegation against Pete Hegseth,” Washington Post, November 21, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/21/pete-hegseth-monterey-police-report/; Martin Pengelly, “Trump’s Gorka pick met with outrage: he’s ‘as dangerous as he is unqualified,’” Guardian, November 27, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/27/trump-national-security-gorka; Hafiz Rashid, “Trump Team Is Having a Terrifying Debate on How to Invade Mexico,” New Republic, November 27, 2024, https://apple.news/AW86WkTV4QiKoASBybl8w5A; Qasim Rashid, “Trump Nominees Are Not Just A Joke — They Are Dangerous,” Let’s Address This, November 15, 2024, https://www.qasimrashid.com/p/trump-nominees-are-not-just-a-joke; Beth Reinhard and Abha Bhattarai, “Linda McMahon made a fortune with WWE. Wrestling scandals now shadow her rise,” Washington Post, November 19, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/19/linda-mcmahon-trump-administration-wwe-allegations/; Neal Rothschild, “Trump neuters the watchdogs,” Axios, November 30, 2024, https://www.axios.com/2024/11/30/trump-staff-investigation-fbi-doj; Melody Schreiber, “‘He is one of us!’: US anti-vaxxers rejoice at nomination of David Weldon for CDC,” Guardian, December 1, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/01/antivaxxers-david-weldon-cdc-nomination; Deepa Shivaram, “Trump nominates Russ Vought for White House budget director once again,” National Public Radio, November 22, 2024, https://www.npr.org/2024/11/22/nx-s1-5193351/trump-russ-vought-omb-budget-director; Ishaan Tharoor, “Trump and the Israeli right resume their embrace,” Washington Post, November 15, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/11/15/trump-israel-right-wing/; Casey Tolan, Scott Glover, and Sara Murray, “Police report reveals new details from sexual assault allegation against Trump’s defense secretary nominee,” Cable News Network, November 21, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/21/politics/pete-hegseth-police-report-defense-secretary-trump/index.html; Nick Paton Walsh, “Trump’s Ukraine envoy has a plan to end the war that Putin may revel in,” Cable News Network, November 29, 2024, https://edition.cnn.com/2024/11/29/europe/trump-new-ukraine-envoy-analysis-intl/index.html; Michael Wilner and Max Greenwood, “Matt Gaetz withdraws as Trump’s attorney general pick amid sexual misconduct allegations, Sacramento Bee, November 21, 2024, https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/article295925304.html; Emily Zemler, “Pete Hegseth's Mom Calls Him ‘Abuser of Women’ in Released Email,” Esquire, November 30, 2024, https://apple.news/AuE1xwOjBRCO-owoAJrGyNQ
[3] Gil Duran, “How the 'Broligarchs' plan to use Trump,” Nerd Reich, November 25, 2024, https://www.thenerdreich.com/how-thebroligarchs-plan-to-use-trump/; Brooke Harrington, “What the Broligarchs Want From Trump,” Atlantic, November 24, 2024, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/broligarchy-elon-musk-trump/680788/; Lynn Parramore, “How to Disguise Racism and Oligarchy: Use Economics,” Evonomics, n.d., https://evonomics.com/how-to-disguise-racism-and-oligarchy-use-the-language-of-economics/