By Michael P. Riccards

My liberal friends are in a state of shock from the election. Not only did Trump and the Republicans carry every toss up state, but they carried the House and the Senate. And the GOP candidate made significant inroads in the Hispanic, Black, Catholic and young vote, all familiar components  in the old Democratic coalition.

My conservative friends are ecstatic, until they feel the ax on their favorite programs. The election has the usual postmortems. But I think the simple answer is provided by the late American political expert, Richard Milhous Nixon, who said the key to victory is the big M, Momentum. 

Harris had the Big M after the Democratic establishment helped to knife a weary Biden with the help of George Clooney, Nancy Pelosi and the Obamas. Then Biden, probably out of spite, pushed very quickly and crowned Kamala Harris, who had already proven herself the weakest opponent he faced four years ago in the primaries.

But the new Democrats could not oppose a woman from black-Asian Indian background who never let us see her real persona and or what her positions were.    She was greeted with a sigh of relief for the first month, raised an incredible one billion dollars, and named some vice president running mate from nowhere who had a fascination for Communist Chinese women.  

The Trumpites insisted that the problems were the economy and immigration. Harris wanted to talk about popular left wing topics, including reproductive rights. This is, for better or worse, a rather moderate to conservative country. So the Trump campaign jumped all over a statement Harris made in support of federal funding transgender medical procedures for individuals who rely on the government for medical care, including those in prison and immigration detention. In a nation that is worried about the future of Social Security and Medicare and rising pharma costs, the GOP made transgender surgery her topic. 

Then In dealing with the awful inflation after COVID-19, she resurrects price controls which have not worked since the Roman Empire. They did not work for Truman, for Nixon, for Ford and of course they would not work for us today. Why not use the power of the federal government as a consumer to divert its buying against  the rapacious corporations to others less greedy ones or even let in foreign imports to compete? If they can compete with steel and tech chips, why not eggs, meat and diet Pepsi? 

Then instead of helping find endless rooms and apartments for illegal immigrants,  how about finding places for U.S. veterans with PTSD? At least show some interest in the troops fighting in the era of endless wars.

And most absurdly, how can a party of Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy boycott the Al Smith Dinner and make it clear their disdain for Catholics? Catholics as a group had been a basic part of the Roosevelt coalition since 1936. Feminist Democrats want to show their disdain for Catholic voters by their insistence on playing a game heavy with pro abortion rhetoric. Since the established Church does not agree, they simply ignored Catholics, and so this time Catholics in droves ignored them.

The slippage in the old Democratic base is not just a one time thing. It is the reflection of a mass discouragement with the once working man’s party for a trendy advocacy of group loyalty. 

The only thing that will help the Democrats is that Trump and his team will attack the basic foundations of the American state, and alienate their once-allies. So in two years, the Republicans will lose control of the House of Representatives, and Vice President Vance and Governor DeSantis will fight as to who is the greatest disciple of the visionary of Margo Largo.

The Democrats will try to find for the presidential nomination another ethnic group to give them their candidates. Joe Biden will be raising money to build his presidential library on Rehoboth Beach, and Kamala Harris will become the president of Wellesley College  which will train another generation of women to be angry.   .   

Michael P. Riccards, a former college president, is the author of 30 books, including “A Republic If You Can Keep it.”

Categories: Jandoli Institute, Michael Riccards, Politics