Twilight of Democracy: How the democrats lost, and what that means

On November 5, throughout neighborhoods, apartment complexes, car radios, bars and restaurants, the nation’s eyes and ears were focused on two things: their political party, and the election results. Hopeful Democrats watched with growing disbelief as all the swing states started leaning right, counties turning shades of deep and light red like blossoming ticks. On the television, Trump’s West Palm headquarters were blasting Kid Rock as he was filmed speeding over from Mar-A-Lago to greet a growing crowd of MAGA Republicans. While the Kamala Harris headquarters, stationed at her alma mater Howard University, grew silent, surrounded by a morbid air of palpable trepidation. When the Harris-Walz Campaign Co-Chair addressed the crowd with the news that Harris would not be speaking until the morning of Nov. 6, the crowd’s disquiet was reminiscent of a large shovel being dropped on cold pavement, leaving an echo of loneliness that lingered throughout the Democratic Party.

As the night progressed, it became woefully apparent that Trump was set to win all of the swing states, the popular vote, the house, and the senate. The following morning left the Republican Party aglow in a celebratory high while the Democratic Party curled its knees into its chest; stared at the world with wide eyes of confusion, of anger – bathed in the irksome feeling that the country they thought they knew had been completely misconstrued. Philosophy Professor James Haile from University of Rhode Island, who specializes in Philosophy of Race, Literature, and the intersection of 20th century American and African American Literature and Existentialism, did not feel surprised on election night. He says, “I expected it. I expected someone like Trump to rise out of the shadows post Obama.” Prof. Haile elaborates that something went terribly wrong after the Obama administration, and that the Democratic Party did not set themselves up to handle the aftermath of what came next. “One of the questions I thought to myself is, how do we prepare for what comes next after Trump? If we saw how bad it got after Obama, how can we make sure that doesn’t happen again?”

Prof. Haile believes that the collective is unwise, but the individual is smart. He continues, “People are shocked to see how many people voted for him; I’m not shocked.” As a Democrat, he believes that the Democratic Party lost people through their use of the loose language around terms such as diversity, equity, and inclusion, without ever giving merit to what those things actually mean. “These terms are representative terms, but what does social justice actually look like?” Says Prof. Haile, “We need to get smarter about getting our goals accomplished.”

Paola Mejia is an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who moved here in 2018. She is a student at Community College of Rhode Island and is pursuing a major in Psychology. She is worried about Trump’s election, “I don’t know how it is going to affect my immigration status, or the help I receive from the government so I can afford school. I work with homeless and queer youth at a shelter that is federally funded and receives grants, so I worry if my job is something that will exist next year.” Mejia has immigrant friends that are already planning to leave, telling her “‘I’m not going to wait for this man to put me through more misery at a camp.’” She says, “It’s really sad, a lot of people have built their entire lives here, working people with dreams who are now in limbo and unknown of what to do and how to do it.”

Senator Jessica de la Cruz, minority leader of the Rhode Island Senate and representative for North Smithfield, Burrillville, and Glocester, believes that “The American people want a secure border and the immediate focus for deportations will be on illegal immigrants with criminal convictions or charges.”

Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric does not focus solely on illegal immigrants or criminals, but the immigrant population as a whole. In an article for CNN on Nov. 5th, Eric Bradner and Kate Sullivan write, “Donald Trump described the United States as an ‘occupied country,’ pointing to both undocumented and legal migrants as he pledged Monday to ‘rescue every city and town that has been invaded and conquered.’”

There have been numerous comparisons to Trump as Hitler, a dictator and an autocrat. This is because of the pervading notion of otherness that he perpetuates in order to grant superiority to himself and his followers. Prof. Haile believes that Trump offered the country a savior in order to rise to power, saying “the more people that lean into him being an autocrat, a dictator, the stronger he became as a candidate. We didn’t understand the psychology of what he was enabling. Trump is a mastermind because he can lean into the temperature of the room and manipulate it to get what he wants accomplished.” After Obama, some white workers were disgruntled and Trump used that to his advantage, alongside other insidious feelings many people had about power and race. Haile continues, “In a liberal state, when you call someone a bigot, you assume they don’t want to be seen that way; that they will adjust their behavior. Now, MAGA people think that title is a compliment. We have this assumption that people want to be good people, which isn’t the case.”

Trump uses conspiracy to gain voters because conspiracy is another regurgitation of a “them vs. us” mentality. If the masses believe one thing (liberal media), then the door into a conspiracy (say election deniers) offers the individual a chance to cede from the group and enter a superior realm of individuality; that they are more intelligent because they know what the truth is. Haile elaborates on this, saying, “People know there is something that operates beyond them; something that is fixed, but they don’t know how. Conspiracy theories give them this ‘how,’ without getting them any closer to the truth. What the Democratic Party needs to do is to start being honest about the things that are wrong, but be honest about how it needs to be fixed.”

These focus areas for the Democratic Party appear to be a need to distance themselves from identity politics and refocus themselves on the working class. David Place, State Representative of Burrillville/ Glocester for House District 47, believes that the Democratic party is no longer for the working class. Place elaborates, “The people haven’t changed, but they feel the Democratic Party has moved away from them.” Place continues, “I have a higher than average subset of union workers that work in my district, a lot of blue collar unions who see the Democratic Party as focusing on other issues rather than the things that are important to them.” Such as the price of groceries, and illegal immigration.

The truth is the Democratic Party is still aligned with the core values of the working class, but have lost their audience because of narrative. In the minds of the public, the Democratic Party narrative is elitist, an opposition to the Republican, blue-collar narrative. These narratives shape how we view our politicians; it’s a question of how their stories converse with ours. Prof. Haile elaborates on the narrative, “Trump’s narrative is really ignorant, but it has worked time and time again. Kamala lost because she couldn’t beat the narrative; for example, J.D Vance is a compelling orator because just look at how he sells his story – Hobo to Yale. You look at someone like Kamala, and her story is elitistly middle class, but you somehow look at Trump and he’s not considered elitist, even given his wealthy background. That’s the power of the narrative.” Prof. Haile concludes, “That is how we lost this country. Who is telling this narrative, and how have we lost this narrative?”

Plato writes in The Republic, “Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.” When we Democrats elected our first Black president, when we pushed further for LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, gay marriage, universal health care, etc, were we pushing too far? And in this, did we dig our own grave; did we construct our own demise because our narrative didn’t match reality? But what narrative do we really want, if not a country “of liberty and freedom for all…” •

Vice President Kamala Harris shares a statement to reporters about gun violence following the mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs parade celebrating their Super Bowl win before boarding Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews, Wednesday, February 14, 2024, in Maryland. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)