The Democratic Party has learned nothing about defeating Trump

In a historic turn of events, the 45th president of the United States of America left the White House after a humiliating defeat after the 2020 elections. He did not concede his loss and never congratulated his successor Joe Biden. 

But Donald Trump made sure to let the new administration know that he would be back on Pennsylvania Avenue. The words he spoke four years ago came true in the early hours of 6 November, when he was elected the 47th president. 

This is the second time in the history of US elections that a one-term president has been re-elected. Grover Cleveland was the first to stage such a political comeback as he served from 1885 to 1889 and then 1893 to 1897. 

Despite two assassination attempts and being convicted of 34 felonies, Trump emerged successful. And this time around he won the popular vote, unlike in 2016 and 2020.

Just a few weeks ago Trump was a man staring into the abyss. He was going to jail. Therefore, winning the presidential elections of 2024 was crucial to him — it was personal and probably the only way out of his legal battles. 

At first, the former president was poised to face off with Biden. It wasn’t long after their first presidential debate of 2024 that the Democratic Party realised that they were in trouble, thereby prevailing on Biden to step down and pave the way for his vice president, Kamala Harris. 

She would only have 107 days to run an effective campaign to defeat the Trump machinery. The amount of money Harris raised in that short time was unbelievable. It is reported that she raised over $1 billion. 

But Harris fell short of being a convincing candidate with a message that resonated with the people. A good number of analysts argued she was unable to put brakes on Trump’s Make America Great Again campaign. He has a base of supporters who, no matter what he represents, will not think of voting for anyone else. 

The mainstream media and some polls kept suggesting that this was the closest race in recent history. The established media kept insisting that this election could go either way, even though Harris was leading in all swing states within the margin of error. This simply meant Harris was losing. There is no way that she was leading all seven swing states within the margin of error of 3 points. 

 Also, Trump carefully played the victim, and people began to see his arrest, charges and even court hearings as injustice, and most of the country began to see this as unfair treatment. 

But all in all, Harris had no coherent message for the people. Her appeal of bringing back the politics of joy only lasted the early days of her campaign and failed to stick. 

Harris was manufactured from the get-go. She was not subject to any litmus test to prove herself; she didn’t have to do primaries with anyone but was rather handpicked by her boss, Biden, then endorsements started flocking in. 

When voters listened to both candidates, they began to see Trump as a fighter, especially in the days after the first assassination attempt, and Harris looked more like someone who was being led by the hand to victory. 

Harris was well aware of this perception and she tried hard to convince the public that she was tough, that she had, for example, prosecuted transnational gangs as the former district attorney and attorney general of California. Unfortunately, to most Americans she never appeared tough. 

If the Democrats had convinced Biden to step aside earlier, hold primaries, and then go for a convention to elect the next candidate for president they would have produced a far more competitive candidate and someone who could have taken on Trump more effectively. 

The rush to put Kamala forward was unnecessary and a recipe for disaster. And the idea that rallying celebrities to endorse your campaign, with the hope that such endorsements will have a trickle-down effect, has proven to be unworkable since the 2016 run of Hillary Clinton. 

The Democratic Party has learned nothing about defeating Trump. They made the same errors now as they did in 2016. The party has shifted away from being the party of the Fifties and Sixties, during the time of leaders such as JF Kennedy. The Democratic Party of then was the anti-war party, the party that stood for global peace, the party of the working class and middle Americans. 

The Democrat Party of today, which is basically a party of delusion, is up for wars anywhere and everywhere. They do nothing to address problems of the working class at home, such as high food prices, homelessness and lack of opportunities and jobs. Instead, the party is consumed with identity politics, the woke stuff and other not-so-important issues of our time. 

They need to change course, do some soulsearching and find a message for the people — a message of hope and equal opportunities for all. This is very close to what Trump was trying to sell to the American people — and we saw the election results. 

Harris was no match for Trump. She might have run a decent campaign, raised a lot of money and got endorsements from prominent people but Trump enjoys a loyal fan base which is immovable. 

Harris attempted the presidency alone in 2019; she was one of the first candidates to drop out of the Democratic Primaries then. How could she really think that she would be a good candidate for the same party in the 2024 elections? The Democrats have no one to blame but themselves because this election was theirs to win without any difficulties but, as usual, they messed up with the wrong candidate. 

Aaron Ng’ambi is a geopolitical analyst and newspaper columnist, leadership instructor and a social entrepreneur.