I saw where one unemployed Trump supporter voted for him because he was going to do away with Obamacare, which he called a bunch of communist BS. So long as he got to keep his ACA, he thought his health care would be taken care of. He couldn't believe it when he was told that Obamacare and ACA are the same thing. "Why do they have 2 different names for the same thing, when Obama is bad and affordable is good?" he asked. You can't make this shit up. I don't think the Democrats have a branding problem. I think they have an American voters' lack of intelligence problem.
Then Democrats have a messaging problem. People will believe crazy things when Republicans are the only ones doing the talking. Democrats have the loudest bully pulpit in the world (the presidency) and you wouldn’t know it
It is very un-self-aware to attribute the rejection of your candidate/ideology to lack of intelligence. That attitude certainly contributed to the election result.
Absolutely spot on, Dan! It reminds me of the sign someone carried at a 2020 Trump rally: "Government: Hands Off My Social Security." Uh, right...................
I’m sure most of you will disagree with me but I believe that if the Democrat was a white man withe the exact political history as Kamala, he’d beat Trump. All this pretending and pussyfooting around the gender\race issue in America!
Even if this white man was from born and raised in San Francisco California, and independent groups ranked as the most liberal senator in the senate? Possibly
My own word balloon: So in the year 2024 we're still not ready for a "liberal " in the White House? After all that liberals have done for the country...Social Security, Medicare, minimum wage, health insurance for all, safety regulations, regulations for assisting the disabled, integration. Civil rights...I could go on...while all conservatives have done is oppose, oppose, oppose. Well, I suppose we're just stupid then.
So what you are saying that the majority of Americans thought that a candidate who was seen as a liberal was less popular than someone seen as a fascist?
Black women are very unpopular in all walks of life. For lots of different reasons. Just look at business data for the number of white male CEOs vs black women CEOs. Demographics likely accounts for the 1.5% loss everywhere because misogyny and racism cuts across political boundaries.
It’s clear that many low information voters believe what you tell them whether it is true or not. Their ability and time to effectively evaluate information is basically zero. FoxNews popularity is a great example. It remains popular despite it being economical with the truth.
This being the case, Democrats don’t have a branding problem. Because if they brand themselves as the new fascists, Republicans will just make a distinction for them too. What they need to do is find a way to impact voters who have no more than a third grade education. That’s why X is full of memes. Pictures, not text. They make more impact.
The other thing to recognize is that in the US, unless your leader is a white Christian, you are going to lose votes.
While I’d like to trash the poll you mention, it’s clearly picking up American voters prejudice. If they want to win, Democrats would be smart to play on that rather than politically correct values which aren’t liked. Trump is a convicted sex offender after all. And American voters clearly found that more attractive than a liberal black woman.
The other issue to look at is turnout. While 100 million Americans generally don’t vote, figuring out a way to get them to is crucial. Which means attacking Republicans voter suppression tactics. That requires a lot of money, plenty of lawyers and attacks on right wing prejudiced justices ruling consistently in favor of Republicans regardless of the law. Find the skeletons in their closet and leverage that. Flip the red judges to blue. Democrats need to look at this as a war with the right wing.
I'll point out that I am a white Christian and I wouldn't vote for Trump under ANY circumstances. I voted enthusiastically for VP Harris because she reflects the values held dear by myself and my family.
Harris was seen as too "liberal" by voters who chose Trump. Trump was seen as a "fascist" by voters who chose Harris. It's possible that the Dems won't choose "new fascists" as their brand going forward. They might try something like "centrist" while focusing on economic issues and minimizing social issues. And it might help to avoid being contemptuous toward the voters that they will need if they hope to win in 2028.
So Chris, what you are saying is that if Democrats want to regain national office they need to either sound more like or actually share the racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, Christian nationalist ideas of MAGA Republicans. Wow! That is certainly some fine advice on your part.
My exact thoughts. I've been a bleeding heart liberal since the Vietnam War. Am I and my party supposed to change our stripes to fit in with the misinformed deplorables in order to win another election? No thanks, I'll take my lumps and stay true to my values.
I am sick and tired of the word liberal being used as an insult and denigration. Liberal literally means willing to respect and accept behavior or opinions different from one's own, open to new ideas. It's not a disease or a character flaw. I'm abundantly proud to be one. ✊
I hope they do this again in 6 months and then let's see what the Trump word cloud looks like. While they're at it, maybe they could survey Democrats and create a word cloud for the adjectives we would use to describe those who voted for Trump. That would be fun. The fact that these voters regularly are unable to distinguish between Obamacare and the ACA says about all we need to know.
Yup! Said it over and over prior to the election. It was so easy to see what was coming. A San Francisco liberal democrat just doesn’t play in the Midwest swing states. That’s why she was defeated so easily. Her selection of liberal Walz brought absolutely nothing to the ticket except more liberal views. VP Harris was really the last person, other than Joe Biden, the Dems wanted but were stuck with her after their deception of JB decline couldn’t be spun any longer. This ticket was doomed, never had a legitimate shot.
Still, Chuck Todd thought VP Harris was in a better position than President Trump 1 weeks prior to the election! 😂
Yes, Kamala was too liberal for the electorate. However, two important words are missing from her cloud that people wouldn’t own up to: *woman* and *black.*
You may believe that is the case, I won’t try to convince you otherwise but really she is a flawed national candidate. This was seen clearly in the Dem primaries. She didn’t get one single vote. So it’s easy to say the GOP is bigoted but the Dems soundly rejected her first. She’s just not a good candidate.
Which still shows your comment was a lie, because you said she got zero votes in the primary but left out the part that when voting started she was not on the ballot..
There were like what, twelve other candidates in that primary. She was not well known nationally so could not raise the money needed for an effective campaign.
Since then she has been VP for four years, and, had no trouble raising over 1 billion dollars for her campaign, and had plenty of support nationwide.
You are completely missing the forest for the trees! I responded to someone saying she wasn’t elected bc of the terms *woman* and *black*
My comment is that you can believe the GOP voters are racist and misogynistic BUT it was the Dems that rejected KH first! Yes she got no votes bc she couldn’t survive in the Dems primary. Are we to assume that the Dems are racist and misogynistic????
KH is an awful general election candidate. Her politics don’t play in the Midwest swing states. She was given a very poor hand to play by the Joe Biden ministration. The Harris/Watz ticket was doomed from the get-go. Nothing more nothing less. Have a great day. 😎
I don’t think the GOP is necessarily more bigoted than other groups. But clearly the collection of voters that she needed were, regardless of whether they were Republicans, Democrats or more likely, somewhere in between. And that’s the point. Her loss has likely nothing to do with her being a liberal. Local, state and Congressional liberals were winning easily in the states she lost. Because they were white or male. If a white Democrat man had run for President they wouldn’t have lost votes on the basis of race or color. If Shapiro had run he’d have lost votes for being Jewish.
These details are important for Democrats to understand next time. Having a white male candidate attack Republicans for sex and corruption scandals would have been a better option because those issues cut across political parties.
Interesting that you see her as flawed but have no problem with the unstable and dangerous Trump. These descriptions do nothing but reinforce the perception of those paying attention that his supporters are less than rational and well-informed. Describing as patriotic a man who carried top secret documents to his unsecured resort, strong-armed state officials to overturn election results and coordinated and fomented an insurrection against the government does not say anything commendable about those respondents. It does speak to the effectiveness of an incessantly dishonest campaign of hyperbolic smear backed up by a dedicated, shameless propaganda system. And Trump, who used his best "Look, I'm lying" voice to say he knew nothing about Project 2025 is now gleefully nominating numerous of its significant contributors to key positions in his administration. You may not see that as stupid - you're welcome to your opinion - but don't try try to sell me that it's great judgment.
As we sort through the ruins we must question why voters focused on Harris being too liberal in comparison to Trump’s conservatism when it’s a fact that Trump is a con man and little he says is true. Plus, he’s planning to end democracy. Choosing as people did is comparable to choosing the delicious looking pie with arsenic in it over the lopsided, slightly burnt but safe pie. If those pies are all our country had to offer, true citizens would have chosen the latter and figured out how to bake. Our problem is we haven’t molded citizen for decades now and we’re paying a high price for that. And the media has missed why this has happened and is still missing it by reporting these facts about the election with no sense of responsibility for looking beyond the surface. You presented this like you have no stake in this game when the media’s job is to inform beyond the surface. Why is this happening? Is the fact that we don’t have proper citizens a so what, who cares issue to you? If not, are you willing to dig deeper?
Our nation is like a huge ocean liner. When a ship starts to sink we look for the leak in its foundation. That’s something no one in power is doing because people are truly clueless about education, democracy’s foundation.
I’m one of the few talking about it and the people in power aren’t listening because depriving everyone from being able to report the corruption that has taken over education for decades IS the corruption in education. It has worked like evil magic.
By turning the public against teachers, the crooks, who’ve hijacked education and made it their treasure chests, eliminated the only way their corruption could be known.
If we had no respect for doctors, we’d be a sickly nation. If we had no respect for scientists, we’d eventually lose this planet. By creating no respect for teachers, the people who once molded citizens - those running our schools - hid from scrutiny while ending the molding of citizens. That’s how democracy slipped away. The only way we’ll get it back is by fumigating our corrupt education system and empowering called to teach teachers to show us the way.
The question is: did they do such a good job at prejudicing you against teachers you won’t listen to us even now when we know what happened to democracy? We used to be the heroes. Don’t let their need to evade the law take away your teachers - society’s organic heroes. I offer you my memoir about my teaching days, A Graver Danger, with hope a teacher can still do her job.
Chris, I know education isn’t your thing, but a nation thst doesn’t listen to its teachers - the purest of public servants - is destined to fail. Here’s the audio prologue from a teacher’s memoir that explains how Trump happened to us. If you read this book you might reconsider not reporting about education. Our schools that were to build citizens built morons while the media slept.
I think the problem is a bit more simple than all the tortured analysis. Throughout his presidency, as well as in his life prior and since, Trump has demonstrated a complete lack of character and integrity as well as a host of mental disorders. He's a pathological liar; vulgar, petty, thin-skinned narcissist, fraudster, grifter (Trump footwear, bible, guitar, crypto, anyone?). Just a bit of attention to his words and behavior would reveal his ignorance, lack of principle, routine incoherence. Somehow that was depicted as 4-dimensional chess. The media certainly failed to properly define him and expose him, but the only reasonable conclusion is that people just weren't paying attention. His obvious unfitness and even criminality got a pass and America decided to give him another shot.
This isn't on Harris or the Democrats. I saw results of a yougov survey this week that indicated people think 30% of Americans live in New York City - and another 30 in TX and CA (interesting math!), 40% of the country is Black, 30% is LGBT, 20% transgender. In a country that votes for its representative government, this divorce from reality is deadly. Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. This is America in 2024.
Interesting that liar was thrown in there for Kamala Harris. Wow. We actually know who the real liar is but folks appear scared not to call him that.....
This sounds more like an advertising issue than the reality of her positions. I don't know that the Democrats have to change their brand as much as they have to do a better job countering what the Republicans say is their brand.
And doesn't truth in advertising count anywhere in this calculation?
Good analysis, but I take issue with the statement, "Democrats allowed themselves to be branded as too liberal," particularly the phrase "allowed themselves to be."
Kamala's campaign fought hard to be seen as centrist -- almost to a fault. But when you're dealing with a conservative media ecosystem that's vastly larger in scope than anything on the left, it's hard to fight the negative branding.
On the right, they all move in lockstep to the same messaging (and misinformation). Additionally, algorithms on nearly every social media platform benefit conservative channels (there is more and more information coming out about this phenomenon).
So, yeah, the Dems will be fighting branding headwinds until this situation changes, as they are constantly cast as the villain in places that are seen by more eyeballs. It's just the nation we live in now.
The Dems are incompetent at branding, period. They will continue to lose big races as long as that continues. The far-right noise machine has successfully branded the liberal viewpoint as threatening to the average voter, rooted more in liberal arts faculty excesses than in the New Deal. And Harris did little to distance herself from her 2019 comments.
The Dems are also incapable of short, pithy campaign sloganeering. They had nothing to compete effectively with MAGA, Trump=Safety/Kamala=Crime, etc. When I saw the 30-sec Trump TV ads in September that were simply comparisons of prices in 2020 and 2024, I knew that Trump would prevail.
I saw where one unemployed Trump supporter voted for him because he was going to do away with Obamacare, which he called a bunch of communist BS. So long as he got to keep his ACA, he thought his health care would be taken care of. He couldn't believe it when he was told that Obamacare and ACA are the same thing. "Why do they have 2 different names for the same thing, when Obama is bad and affordable is good?" he asked. You can't make this shit up. I don't think the Democrats have a branding problem. I think they have an American voters' lack of intelligence problem.
Then Democrats have a messaging problem. People will believe crazy things when Republicans are the only ones doing the talking. Democrats have the loudest bully pulpit in the world (the presidency) and you wouldn’t know it
Painting with a very broad brush!
Link please.
It is very un-self-aware to attribute the rejection of your candidate/ideology to lack of intelligence. That attitude certainly contributed to the election result.
Absolutely spot on, Dan! It reminds me of the sign someone carried at a 2020 Trump rally: "Government: Hands Off My Social Security." Uh, right...................
More fake news.
I’m sure most of you will disagree with me but I believe that if the Democrat was a white man withe the exact political history as Kamala, he’d beat Trump. All this pretending and pussyfooting around the gender\race issue in America!
Even if this white man was from born and raised in San Francisco California, and independent groups ranked as the most liberal senator in the senate? Possibly
Very possible.
My own word balloon: So in the year 2024 we're still not ready for a "liberal " in the White House? After all that liberals have done for the country...Social Security, Medicare, minimum wage, health insurance for all, safety regulations, regulations for assisting the disabled, integration. Civil rights...I could go on...while all conservatives have done is oppose, oppose, oppose. Well, I suppose we're just stupid then.
Wow. Key words for trump include rapist and felon and people still vote for him. Amazing.
But these were key words chosen by people who most likely didn't vote for Trump.
You forgot the words winner & mandate.
He has no mandate unless he's dumping Melania for Elon.
So what you are saying that the majority of Americans thought that a candidate who was seen as a liberal was less popular than someone seen as a fascist?
Black women are very unpopular in all walks of life. For lots of different reasons. Just look at business data for the number of white male CEOs vs black women CEOs. Demographics likely accounts for the 1.5% loss everywhere because misogyny and racism cuts across political boundaries.
It’s clear that many low information voters believe what you tell them whether it is true or not. Their ability and time to effectively evaluate information is basically zero. FoxNews popularity is a great example. It remains popular despite it being economical with the truth.
This being the case, Democrats don’t have a branding problem. Because if they brand themselves as the new fascists, Republicans will just make a distinction for them too. What they need to do is find a way to impact voters who have no more than a third grade education. That’s why X is full of memes. Pictures, not text. They make more impact.
The other thing to recognize is that in the US, unless your leader is a white Christian, you are going to lose votes.
While I’d like to trash the poll you mention, it’s clearly picking up American voters prejudice. If they want to win, Democrats would be smart to play on that rather than politically correct values which aren’t liked. Trump is a convicted sex offender after all. And American voters clearly found that more attractive than a liberal black woman.
The other issue to look at is turnout. While 100 million Americans generally don’t vote, figuring out a way to get them to is crucial. Which means attacking Republicans voter suppression tactics. That requires a lot of money, plenty of lawyers and attacks on right wing prejudiced justices ruling consistently in favor of Republicans regardless of the law. Find the skeletons in their closet and leverage that. Flip the red judges to blue. Democrats need to look at this as a war with the right wing.
I'll point out that I am a white Christian and I wouldn't vote for Trump under ANY circumstances. I voted enthusiastically for VP Harris because she reflects the values held dear by myself and my family.
Harris was seen as too "liberal" by voters who chose Trump. Trump was seen as a "fascist" by voters who chose Harris. It's possible that the Dems won't choose "new fascists" as their brand going forward. They might try something like "centrist" while focusing on economic issues and minimizing social issues. And it might help to avoid being contemptuous toward the voters that they will need if they hope to win in 2028.
So Chris, what you are saying is that if Democrats want to regain national office they need to either sound more like or actually share the racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, Christian nationalist ideas of MAGA Republicans. Wow! That is certainly some fine advice on your part.
My exact thoughts. I've been a bleeding heart liberal since the Vietnam War. Am I and my party supposed to change our stripes to fit in with the misinformed deplorables in order to win another election? No thanks, I'll take my lumps and stay true to my values.
I am sick and tired of the word liberal being used as an insult and denigration. Liberal literally means willing to respect and accept behavior or opinions different from one's own, open to new ideas. It's not a disease or a character flaw. I'm abundantly proud to be one. ✊
I hope they do this again in 6 months and then let's see what the Trump word cloud looks like. While they're at it, maybe they could survey Democrats and create a word cloud for the adjectives we would use to describe those who voted for Trump. That would be fun. The fact that these voters regularly are unable to distinguish between Obamacare and the ACA says about all we need to know.
Yup! Said it over and over prior to the election. It was so easy to see what was coming. A San Francisco liberal democrat just doesn’t play in the Midwest swing states. That’s why she was defeated so easily. Her selection of liberal Walz brought absolutely nothing to the ticket except more liberal views. VP Harris was really the last person, other than Joe Biden, the Dems wanted but were stuck with her after their deception of JB decline couldn’t be spun any longer. This ticket was doomed, never had a legitimate shot.
Still, Chuck Todd thought VP Harris was in a better position than President Trump 1 weeks prior to the election! 😂
Yes, Kamala was too liberal for the electorate. However, two important words are missing from her cloud that people wouldn’t own up to: *woman* and *black.*
You may believe that is the case, I won’t try to convince you otherwise but really she is a flawed national candidate. This was seen clearly in the Dem primaries. She didn’t get one single vote. So it’s easy to say the GOP is bigoted but the Dems soundly rejected her first. She’s just not a good candidate.
She did not get one single vote in the dem primaries because she ended her campaign before a single vote was ever cast!
When you have to be dishonest in your comment it just shows that you have no real point to make.
Because the $$$ dried up and had no support. Cmon man
Which still shows your comment was a lie, because you said she got zero votes in the primary but left out the part that when voting started she was not on the ballot..
There were like what, twelve other candidates in that primary. She was not well known nationally so could not raise the money needed for an effective campaign.
Since then she has been VP for four years, and, had no trouble raising over 1 billion dollars for her campaign, and had plenty of support nationwide.
You are completely missing the forest for the trees! I responded to someone saying she wasn’t elected bc of the terms *woman* and *black*
My comment is that you can believe the GOP voters are racist and misogynistic BUT it was the Dems that rejected KH first! Yes she got no votes bc she couldn’t survive in the Dems primary. Are we to assume that the Dems are racist and misogynistic????
KH is an awful general election candidate. Her politics don’t play in the Midwest swing states. She was given a very poor hand to play by the Joe Biden ministration. The Harris/Watz ticket was doomed from the get-go. Nothing more nothing less. Have a great day. 😎
I don’t think the GOP is necessarily more bigoted than other groups. But clearly the collection of voters that she needed were, regardless of whether they were Republicans, Democrats or more likely, somewhere in between. And that’s the point. Her loss has likely nothing to do with her being a liberal. Local, state and Congressional liberals were winning easily in the states she lost. Because they were white or male. If a white Democrat man had run for President they wouldn’t have lost votes on the basis of race or color. If Shapiro had run he’d have lost votes for being Jewish.
These details are important for Democrats to understand next time. Having a white male candidate attack Republicans for sex and corruption scandals would have been a better option because those issues cut across political parties.
Interesting that you see her as flawed but have no problem with the unstable and dangerous Trump. These descriptions do nothing but reinforce the perception of those paying attention that his supporters are less than rational and well-informed. Describing as patriotic a man who carried top secret documents to his unsecured resort, strong-armed state officials to overturn election results and coordinated and fomented an insurrection against the government does not say anything commendable about those respondents. It does speak to the effectiveness of an incessantly dishonest campaign of hyperbolic smear backed up by a dedicated, shameless propaganda system. And Trump, who used his best "Look, I'm lying" voice to say he knew nothing about Project 2025 is now gleefully nominating numerous of its significant contributors to key positions in his administration. You may not see that as stupid - you're welcome to your opinion - but don't try try to sell me that it's great judgment.
Flawed = Lost = VP Harris
Winner = President Trump
Informed enough to see this clearly
As we sort through the ruins we must question why voters focused on Harris being too liberal in comparison to Trump’s conservatism when it’s a fact that Trump is a con man and little he says is true. Plus, he’s planning to end democracy. Choosing as people did is comparable to choosing the delicious looking pie with arsenic in it over the lopsided, slightly burnt but safe pie. If those pies are all our country had to offer, true citizens would have chosen the latter and figured out how to bake. Our problem is we haven’t molded citizen for decades now and we’re paying a high price for that. And the media has missed why this has happened and is still missing it by reporting these facts about the election with no sense of responsibility for looking beyond the surface. You presented this like you have no stake in this game when the media’s job is to inform beyond the surface. Why is this happening? Is the fact that we don’t have proper citizens a so what, who cares issue to you? If not, are you willing to dig deeper?
Our nation is like a huge ocean liner. When a ship starts to sink we look for the leak in its foundation. That’s something no one in power is doing because people are truly clueless about education, democracy’s foundation.
I’m one of the few talking about it and the people in power aren’t listening because depriving everyone from being able to report the corruption that has taken over education for decades IS the corruption in education. It has worked like evil magic.
By turning the public against teachers, the crooks, who’ve hijacked education and made it their treasure chests, eliminated the only way their corruption could be known.
If we had no respect for doctors, we’d be a sickly nation. If we had no respect for scientists, we’d eventually lose this planet. By creating no respect for teachers, the people who once molded citizens - those running our schools - hid from scrutiny while ending the molding of citizens. That’s how democracy slipped away. The only way we’ll get it back is by fumigating our corrupt education system and empowering called to teach teachers to show us the way.
The question is: did they do such a good job at prejudicing you against teachers you won’t listen to us even now when we know what happened to democracy? We used to be the heroes. Don’t let their need to evade the law take away your teachers - society’s organic heroes. I offer you my memoir about my teaching days, A Graver Danger, with hope a teacher can still do her job.
https://karenhorwitz.substack.com/p/the-prologue-of-a-graver-danger
Xxx
Chris, I know education isn’t your thing, but a nation thst doesn’t listen to its teachers - the purest of public servants - is destined to fail. Here’s the audio prologue from a teacher’s memoir that explains how Trump happened to us. If you read this book you might reconsider not reporting about education. Our schools that were to build citizens built morons while the media slept.
https://karenhorwitz.substack.com/p/the-prologue-of-a-graver-danger
But Chris, that was a good place to be four years ago. And, it might be a good place to be four years from now.
opinions from X are hardly the county's. But then I thought she was a little too centrist for me!
So you voted for Trump?
Haha not in a million years!!!! I love Kamala and Hillary!
I think the problem is a bit more simple than all the tortured analysis. Throughout his presidency, as well as in his life prior and since, Trump has demonstrated a complete lack of character and integrity as well as a host of mental disorders. He's a pathological liar; vulgar, petty, thin-skinned narcissist, fraudster, grifter (Trump footwear, bible, guitar, crypto, anyone?). Just a bit of attention to his words and behavior would reveal his ignorance, lack of principle, routine incoherence. Somehow that was depicted as 4-dimensional chess. The media certainly failed to properly define him and expose him, but the only reasonable conclusion is that people just weren't paying attention. His obvious unfitness and even criminality got a pass and America decided to give him another shot.
This isn't on Harris or the Democrats. I saw results of a yougov survey this week that indicated people think 30% of Americans live in New York City - and another 30 in TX and CA (interesting math!), 40% of the country is Black, 30% is LGBT, 20% transgender. In a country that votes for its representative government, this divorce from reality is deadly. Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. This is America in 2024.
Interesting that liar was thrown in there for Kamala Harris. Wow. We actually know who the real liar is but folks appear scared not to call him that.....
This sounds more like an advertising issue than the reality of her positions. I don't know that the Democrats have to change their brand as much as they have to do a better job countering what the Republicans say is their brand.
And doesn't truth in advertising count anywhere in this calculation?
Good analysis, but I take issue with the statement, "Democrats allowed themselves to be branded as too liberal," particularly the phrase "allowed themselves to be."
Kamala's campaign fought hard to be seen as centrist -- almost to a fault. But when you're dealing with a conservative media ecosystem that's vastly larger in scope than anything on the left, it's hard to fight the negative branding.
On the right, they all move in lockstep to the same messaging (and misinformation). Additionally, algorithms on nearly every social media platform benefit conservative channels (there is more and more information coming out about this phenomenon).
So, yeah, the Dems will be fighting branding headwinds until this situation changes, as they are constantly cast as the villain in places that are seen by more eyeballs. It's just the nation we live in now.
The Dems are incompetent at branding, period. They will continue to lose big races as long as that continues. The far-right noise machine has successfully branded the liberal viewpoint as threatening to the average voter, rooted more in liberal arts faculty excesses than in the New Deal. And Harris did little to distance herself from her 2019 comments.
The Dems are also incapable of short, pithy campaign sloganeering. They had nothing to compete effectively with MAGA, Trump=Safety/Kamala=Crime, etc. When I saw the 30-sec Trump TV ads in September that were simply comparisons of prices in 2020 and 2024, I knew that Trump would prevail.