Donald trumps

Donald trumps | Daily Tribune

Despite the incessant attacks against his character and integrity both as a person and a public figure, Donald simply trumped his opponent in an electoral exercise that should supposedly be a neck and neck battle. In fact, surveys conducted few days before the election even had Harris leading by a slight margin. But once the dust settled, the story was different.

To be honest, it is quite difficult to digest the outcome of the US Presidential Election. Harris, who confidently ran on race and gender, ironically lost by the same race and gender. As she hoped a lot of women and minority voters would come out, they sure did, except they did it for Trump. Not her.

Political analysts and pundits are lost for words to explain Trump’s convincing victory. On paper, at least, Harris seemed to be the safe choice and supposedly more relatable to today’s generation of voters. Yet, they never showed up for her.

From the very get-go, she had been championing women’s rights and those of minorities and had been focusing on what she thought were pressing concerns of the day like protecting democracy against the likes of Trump, whom she blatantly compared to Hitler and pursuing reproductive rights issues in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision, overturning the Roe-versus-Wade doctrine.

In fact, she had the backing of the Hollywood elite and in a jiffy was able to raise billions of dollars to fund her campaign simply on the strength of left-wing liberals who pooled together their resources to make it happen.

But there lies the rub.

The liberal agenda, which initially proved to be responsive and in keeping with the demands of modern times has by this time already run its course. There’s a plethora of reasons why but the common ground points to being out of touch, too elitist and isolating, if not outright alienating.

This is not to say the issues liberals uphold and advocate for are not significant. They are. Pushing for women’s and minority rights, and fighting for inclusivity and equality are key progressive areas that need attention.

However, they shouldn’t shove them down people’s throats and compel them to abandon their held beliefs so they can embrace these ideologies hook, line and sinker. On the contrary, they should painstakingly advance these causes in the hope that at some point there will be some paradigm shift. For indeed, change is a process, not an event.

Besides, staging an effective campaign strategy ultimately boils down to reaching out and addressing voters’ specific concerns and sentiments. In the case of the average Americans, it’s all about inflation, immigration and other urgent economic concerns, which Harris and her camp sadly failed to critically address. The fact she could not even abandon or at least distance herself from some of Biden’s shortcomings that led to these issues proved deleterious for her.

The key really, at the end of the day, is to listen to voters’ sentiments and make a response that truly resonates with them instead of condescendingly imposing on them what should and should not be done. Getting on a moral high horse just won’t do. And it also doesn’t help when supporters call out the voters and outright brand them as dumb and stupid.

If these things sound familiar, yes, they are.