In assessing how Kamala Harris lost the election to Donald Trump, Stanley Feldman, a political scientist at Stony Brook, told Reach Out America that the campaigns didn’t matter. Not even the candidates mattered – which is remarkable considering the extraordinary contrast between the most vile, unfit candidate who made clear his indebtedness to billionaires, NeoNazis and Christian Nationalists and the most competent, dedicated, accomplished candidate who made clear her desire to promote an “Opportunity Economy” agenda so that people do not just survive, but thrive.
Sure inflation, immigration, the Israel-Hamas War were factors in depressing turnout among key demographic groups. Also misogyny, racism, four-years worth of voter suppression tactics, not to mention bomb threats to 59 Democratic voting places and 2-3 hours-long lines in Democratic areas vs. 10 minutes in suburbia had to factor in 10 million fewer votes for Harris than Biden received while Trump barely added to his 2020 total.
