Watching the US presidential election as an outside observer has been fascinating. I am not a US citizen but despite not having a vote that doesn’t mean I’m completely disinterested. The decision that US voters makes has far reaching implications for the rest of us. The US president is often referred to as the leader of the free world
Having said that, I hadn’t really had the opportunity to hear Kamala Harris speak until I tuned in to her concession speech. If Democrats want to look for reasons as to why she lost, they might want to start there.
First of all, at least she conceded. Donald Trump didn’t in 2020 and perhaps Harris delayed phoning him as long as possible to make a point. In her speech she talked about why you concede, the importance that this separates out peaceful democracy from despotic and violent regimes. Alongside that she talked about respecting the constitution. A concern on both sides of the Atlantic has been the deterioration of respect for the rule of law. Her, not to subtle, dig at the 45th/47th president was well made.
However that’s where the positives end. It’s also where the serious content finishes. Much of the speech sounded less like a political contribution and more like a recital of S Club Seven lyrics.
People have lauded the speech as gracious but it was anything but. That’s not because she failed to say anything positive about Trump. I’m not expecting that. It may have been helpful, if as Rishi Sunak did in the UK, she had wished him well in the sense that if he succeeded in governing well then the people would share in those successes. There was also no apology for failures in government or on the campaign trail.
The big hole in the concession is that she did not recognise that the majority of voters had rejected her and chosen Trump. She talked about coping in dark times and addressed the grief of her supporters telling them not to despair. However, she missed the point that many were not in despair but were celebrating.
If she had acknowledged this, then it would have enabled Democrats to begin learning lessons, to start the recovery. She would have shown a willingness to listen and to start understanding why many Americans voted Trump. That they also voted for a Republican Congress and Senate suggests too that this wasn’t just a personal vote.
Just as the UK needs a healthy opposition, a realistic alternative, so too, the US needs Republicans and Democrats. There needs to be a realistic possibility of a Democrat president in 2028. If that is to happen, then Democrats need to recognise that this is not some mere fluke injustice, that this isn’t a personal vote for a demagogue but is as much about voters saying no to their offer as yes to the republican offer.
Faithroots 