The Art Of Losing An Election

3:35 pm. The day after Donald Trump’s election victory.

I log onto Twitter and find an infographic of voters broken down by race and gender. And sure enough, just as in 2020 and 2016, white men and women are the only demographics where the majority voted for Trump. Anybody who isn’t blind to white supremacy can see this is why Trump won the election.

4:13 pm. I click over to the Financial Times, where an analyst points out that thanks to the economic instability created by COVID and Russia’s war in Ukraine, the incumbent party in every single developed country has lost or very nearly lost their elections this year. In most cases, the electorate swung to the right. Anybody smart enough to follow geopolitics understands that this is why Trump won the election.

5:22 pm. I turn on CNN and images of the mutilated children and shattered homes in Gaza flash across my screen. An impeccably groomed anchorperson explains that Joe Biden’s administration, with Kamala Harris as Vice-President, has provided unconditional financial and political cover for Netanyahu’s year-long genocidal campaign. Anybody with a moral compass can feel that this is why Trump won the election.

7:02 pm. I open Truth Social where I learn that Marxist, transgender, critical race theorists are feeding pets to Haitian immigrants. Luckily, God-fearing, concealed-carrying patriots stood up against the woke mind virus and saved America. And that, thank the Baby Jesus, is how King Trump won the election.

The great thing about post-election analysis is that with ~74 million voters all doing their thing, you’ll never get it completely wrong.

Do you want to blame racism for Trump’s win? No problem. Donald Trump was a leading light in the racist “birther” movement, he has a distinguished track record of racial discrimination, and he was endorsed by the Proud Boys and a former Grand Wizard of the KKK, yet 57% of white voters decided he was their guy. Although, so did 46% of Latino voters, 39% of Asian voters, and even 13% of black voters.

Or maybe you prefer sexism? Easy. Donald Trump is a serial sexual abuser who bragged about grabbing women by the pussy and spying on naked underage girls. He ran against a female candidate in an election where abortion rights were a key issue, and yet 55% of men didn’t care. Although, neither did 45% of women.

Or perhaps you’d rather paint Trump as a brave, politically persecuted patriot? Why not? Donald Trump has braved two assassination attempts, endured mendacious “lawfare” just because he committed a few dozen crimes, and gave up his comfortable, billionaire lifestyle for the selfless goal of Making America Great Again. Just ignore the fact that he’s a draft-dodging, dictator-loving liar who tried to overturn a democratic election both by fraud and force.

In the post-truth era, you can tell yourself whatever story you like as long as you’re willing to ignore a few key details. But it turns out, you can’t tell voters which details to ignore. And this, sadly, is where the Democrats went wrong.