In the wake of Donald Trump’s resounding victory, a heavy liberal fog has settled onto the campuses. Classes were canceled, mourning spaces convened, angry phone calls made to parents — the whole nine yards of grieving. As the dust settles, the Democratic base is already lashing out, trying to attach the blame to somebody, some group, some bias.
It is irresponsible and incorrect to place the blame on the American public, the independents, or even Kamala Harris, rather than the party that has lost the faith of the American people by making decisions for them and alienating their voter base. The Democratic Party, not the voting populace, has failed the American people, shifting the identity of the party away from its base of working class voters.
2016 proved things about the American populace that we have forgotten: If there is belief in a narrative, anyone can be president. Remember that Barack Hussein Obama won the popular vote in the wake of 9/11 and the storm of islamophobia that followed it. He won because America chose him from a deep field, because he was charismatic, a generational speaker and he ran on a campaign of hope.
Obama wooed America. He was a cultural phenomena. His voice echoed through the country, promising a restructuring of the Democratic Party, which after the exhausting impeachment of the Bill Clinton era and crushing loss of Al Gore’s presidential campaign, was in need of a makeover. Obama struggled to deliver on these promises, outside of the steps he made toward Medicare for All. But aside from policy, he created a mythos and portrayed a confidence that made voting for him feel good.
This feeling was greatest felt in Black populations which rallied around Obama at unprecedented rates of 95 percent. His victory, on a symbolic level, changed for many what it felt like to be American. NPR spoke to Black voters who espoused this sentiment.
“America is beautiful,” Michael Smith, a Black voter from York, Pennsylvania said with a smile.
“I think they’re watching us, as, how are we going to handle it?” he said. “You know, we have to stand up and be counted, and represent, in a sense, to show America that it wasn’t a mistake.”
For many, it was a privilege to vote for Obama, and nine million more people voted in 2008 than 2004.
Hillary Clinton tried to channel the energy of what it felt like to vote for the first Black president and break the glass ceiling. She was next in line, and selected to run the campaign that would create another first for the country, take the Obama era fervor for breaking down barriers and build on it.
Bernie Sanders promised liberal ideas that would shift the expectations of the party. Obama planted the seeds of hope through democratic populism, and Sanders effectively marketed himself as the continuation of that message. The nation was crying for a step forward yet the Democratic Party didn’t listen, instead starting the project that facilitated Trump’s rise to power: alienation.
The party worked to push Sanders to resign, WikiLeaks released emails from the Democratic National Committee that displayed the party’s interior distaste with Sanders, and suggested derision by the Committee. While outwardly crafting an air of neutrality, the Democrats’ impulse to state-build and shift their base created a party with a shattered identity.
Chuck Schumer, Democratic speaker of the House and a powerful voice of the party saw the Republican alignment with a frustrated rural base and was happy to say goodbye to the historic Democratic base, aligning with professionals in suburbs over the working class vote. With the party in a fragile space, he made a gamble.
“For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia,” Schumer said at a forum sponsored by the Washington Post in June of 2016, “and you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin.”
The Democratic Party has not won Ohio on a national scale since this statement, and Kamala lost key states like Pennsylvania as city turnout faltered and state turnout grew. For the party to return to success on a national stage, it needs to tie its identity together, find its base and execute policies that align with the voice of its voters.
Adam Akins PZ ’27, is a second year from Sacramento, California. He thinks Ralph Nader has a posse.
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