Did Harris lose because she was a woman?

[username7891]

Apparently even after calling Puerto Rico a floating island of trash, many immigrants still voted for Trump. It's been argued that some sectors of society simply won't vote for a woman.

Even on here, I saw a post asking if a woman would be respected by world leaders.

No. She was just a bit of a shit candidate. Have you listened to any of her speeches?

Trump spent one rally dancing to a playlist. Have you listened to his?

They've always been incoherent messes.

Yet despite that voters seem to be clear on what he stood for and liked it much more than the alternative offered.

The economy was massive issue - democrats with new leader could have tried to steer to new waters but it would have been an uphill battle for any candidate and being so late to it didn't help.

If they'd had a candidate male or female who matched Trump bizarre "star" power they'd have been in a better position - however there are a lot of people behind the scenes in democratic campaign who got their PR and campaign strategy plain wrong. Frankly there's a lot of blame to go round.

His crazy shit is baked in. I think people voted for him because as usual he provided simple answers to hard problems. Marco Rubio was depressingly eloquent on CNN yesterday, saying that Republicans dont patronise people by assuming some category or characteristic should determine what they think or how they behave. "We are all Americans" etc . You can kinda see the appeal a lot more over here in the US.

From what I can gather, people felt a lot worse off under Biden and believed Trump was better for the economy.

Harris didn't distance herself from Biden so they just saw more of the same with her. She didn't propose a clear alternative to the status quo and Trump was a known quantity.

People obviously have very short memories regarding Trump's last tenure but populism and lies won in the end. He doesn't make a lot of sense but people liked what they could understand: mass deportation, protect women, golden age of America.

People obviously have very short memories regarding Trump's last tenure but populism and lies won in the end. He doesn't make a lot of sense but people liked what they could understand: mass deportation, protect women, golden age of America.

I'd agree with this - though due to inflationary forces external to USA and world wide - they like here have been worse off in last few years.

He sold them clear simple ideas that were popular - how successful they will be is extremely doubtful but it is what people wanted not more of the same.

Personally I think it was a poor choice all round but they chose the worst option - but I don't live there.

I think a different candidate and/or a different campaign could have beaten Trump but that not what they had so we'll never really know.

Trump has been an incredibly strong candidate. His two election victories prove that.

He also was the worst President in at least the past 100 years, and will even worse in his second term.

But shouldn't the republican party also do better.

How can trump be their best candidate?

Obviously money talks and he has maybe made a few bribes to be candidate

I believe Scott Jennings on CNN was right in saying this:

"This is a mandate to do what you said you were gonna do. Get the economy working again for regular working-class Americans.
Fix immigration, try to get crime under control. Try to reduce the chaos in the world. This, this is a mandate from the American people to do that.
I'm interpreting the results tonight as the revenge of the working-class American, the anonymous American who has been crushed, insulted, condescended to," he said. "They're not garbage. They're not Nazis. They're just regular people who get up and go to work every day and are trying to make a better life for their kids. And they feel like they have been told to just shut up when they have complained about the things that are hurting them in their own lives."

I feel the same. I'm the anonymous who's just absolutely sick of lies, name-calling, arrogance, condescencion, setting people against eachother. Unlike the Americans, I don't have a choice for change. In Ireland they're all the same. Whoever might be* *different are so fringe that they will never get enough votes.

"the revenge of the working-class American, the anonymous American who has been crushed, insulted, condescended to,"

I would like to see specific examples of how these people have been injured. It seems to me that it's the republican party that crushes laws aimed at making life better for average people, from raising the min wage to childcare to health care.

It was the Dems who created Obamacare to provide health insurance for the working class, and now the republicans saying they will eliminate it. It is the republicans who are against health and safety rules, subsidized child care, union protections, publicly subsidized jobs training, subsidized university, better roads and transport, environmental protection and other quality of life issues. They are against the oversight boards that monitor lending and credit.

What exactly are republicans and trump going to do for the "crushed and insulted" working class? If the working class isn't going to stop being led around by for-profit preachers, and stop looking upon education as "elite," and stop trying to get back to the days before the economy was global, there is no helping them. Seems to me the Democrats at least have tried.

Actually, no, that's not true. The average US unemployment rate under Trump was 5.04% and under Biden it was 4.11%. In 2023 unemployment dropped to levels not seen in 54 years per the attached data: www.investopedia.com/unemployment-rate-by-president-8637843

As far as your other statement goes, "tax rules were better" is meaningless. Better in what way and for whom? Better for multinational corporations? Better for billionaires? Better for small businesses? Better for average Americans? Better for poor people? Better for families? Better for homeowners? And what is meant by "better"? That some people and companies don't have to pay taxes or don't pay their fair share?

I agree with both of these posters. Harris was a shit candidate, but Trump's an out-of-control dumpster fire. I voted for Harris, but she was not a candidate I would have chosen, if there were any real choices available. With all the extremely intelligent and experienced people in the US, I feel like we should have better candidates.

Crushed as in feeling overwhelmingly disappointed or embarrassed. He didn't say anything about injuries.
Trump didn't say he'll eliminate Obamacare.

The American people chose, and we are here to see what the Republicans will do. The Democrats tried, and, obviously, the people considered they didn't try hard enough.
They had 4 years to work on health and safety rules, subsidized child care, union protections, publicly subsidized jobs training, subsidized university, better roads and transport, environmental protection and other quality of life issues. I don't know about all the above, but the roads are shite.

On the bright side, Trump appointed the first ever lady Chief of Staff

Hopefully he'll fix those issues, especially if his party controls both chambers of Congress.

Hilary Clinton won the popular vote 2 terms ago.

If anything I think many people, particularly those who don't follow politics much, will vote for Harris just because she's a woman and in this case because of her ethnicity.

Saw a chart recently that gave the voting breakdown by age, sex etc. For much of it it was roughly a little give or take either way, then it got to African American women which was a 87% vote for Harris.

But gender did play a role. Time and again, voters, very often women themselves, told me that they just didn’t think that “America is ready for a female president”.

People said they couldn’t “see her in the chair” and asked if I “really thought a woman could run the country”. One person memorably told me that she couldn’t vote for Harris because “you don’t see women building skyscrapers”.

Sometimes, these people would be persuaded, but more often than not it was a red line. Many conversations would start with positive discussions on policy and then end on Harris and her gender. That is an extraordinary and uncomfortable truth.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/09/us-voters-kamala-harris-donald-trump-republican

The cognitive dissonance displayed by some people in the article is interesting. People seemed to believe whatever Trump said, even when he contradicted himself.

In his last term he appointed multiple idiot relatives to important positions, so I don't have high hopes for his "team" this time.

Coverage of the chief of staff appointment is that she's highly regarded

I know virtually nothing about her, but I've heard the same thing. Hopefully she'll rein in the crazy.

Kamala Harris lost because for the past three years as VP everyone thought of her as a joke. No one took her seriously so they're not going to take her seriously as a presidential candidate. Plus, they cancelled the primaries, they funded genocide, they ditched universal healthcare, they promoted fracking, the kids in cages at the border is still going on. She just wasn't any good and people saw that. So they stayed home or took a punt at Trump.

https://www.ft.com/content/6de668c7-64e9-4196-b2c5-9ceca966fe3f

I can read this at the minute - not sure if it will stay that way or is someone has a share token- but it is looking at the data behind the votes.

The main areas were:

Democratic support depends on high-income voters
....
Immigration probably pushed voters to Trump
....
Trump captured the suburbs and cities became less Democratic
...
Hispanic-majority areas swung to Trump
...
Low turnout among Democrats accentuated the swing towards Trump

they promoted fracking

You aren’t going to win Pennsylvania unless you promote fracking. That’s why she had to walk back her anti-fracking stance.

Frankly it boggles the mind that Europe is not exploring fracking potential. Do you want to pay high market rates for this essential resource? Do you really want to rely on the Middle East, Russia or US for it?

I don’t understand.

If gender bias was her downfall, it's a problem with democrats too. Harris lost by a mile in the 2019/ 2020 democratic primaries.

Oh fgs. America has not just voted for the Taliban. Cut the hyperbolic nonsense.

Why did the Democrats lose? Here's a few suggestions.

1. Biden should have had a succession plan in place from day 1 to choice a candidate with a chance of winning.
2. Kamala Harris was rushed in as a desperate last minute choice.
3. Jobs and economy are more important than anything else.
4. Roe v Wade was a terrible decision legally- it made no sense to hang it on the constitutional point. I'm not surprised it was over turned but several states had separate ballots on abortion. Arizona voted for Trump and voted to protect and extend abortion rights to the point of feotal viability.
5. Patronising, out of touch liberal celebrity supporters. Julia Roberts telling women they don't have to vote the way their husbands tell them. Eva Longoria telling Latinos they are American too- vote Harris. In reality the Latino Democrat vote slumped because legal Latino immigrants don't support mass immigration. Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift, the Clooneys et al. Just bore off- everyone knows you're famously liberal- but do any of you think you're remotely in touch with the lives, worries, hopes and fears of anyone on the average wage.

I'm British and frankly thanks to these celebrity airheads Ukraine will be thrown to the wolves and climate change denial will be mainstream.

Hispanic-majority areas swung to Trump

Yes well done Eva Longoria with your patronising vote Harris calls.