Why she deserved to lose: Gaza genocide
Why she actually lost: voters inappropriately blaming democrats for the high inflation in 2021-2023
- (it wasn’t really Biden’s fault or the democrats’ fault, it was a global issue and pretty much every country has dealt with high inflation in the last few years. The US’s inflation has been about average internationally, maybe even a bit lower than average.)
Why this sucks:
- since Gaza protest voters weren’t actually a difference maker, there’s not as much opportunity for us to agitate about it as we would’ve liked. Liberals will probably be dismissive of the argument that Harris lost because of her position about Gaza, and they’ll be right; it just doesn’t really hold up.
- the liberal smugness about ignorant voters that we’re surely going to see in the next few weeks is… actually kind of correct.
Let me know if you think I’m wrong about any of this. I’d kind of like to be wrong, honestly.
It’s a mistake to treat these issues as disconnected. People saw the Biden administration writing blank checks to Ukraine and Israel when they were struggling to make ends meet. Foreign policy had both a material effect and a perceived effect on the economy, and people might not have a correct understanding of exactly how or why but I’m inclined to believe people made some connections there.
Obviously it’s disappointing that more people aren’t opposed to genocide on principle, but there are people who blame it for interrupting their treats, or who are upset about treat disruption resulting from it but don’t connect the two.