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It’s apparent that the Democratic Party is back at the drawing board, with many of its leaders still working to understand what went wrong. Last week, media outlets were filled with reports, analyses, and opinions from anchors, pundits, and strategists discussing the outcome. Democratic strategist David Axelrod expressed agreement with Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy’s critique of the Democratic Party following Vice President Harris’s loss to President-elect Trump in the 2024 White House race on CNN Thursday.
“The people pulling the strings in the Democratic Party, get rid of them—they’ve lost the plot. Tonight it is on the Democrats,” Portnoy said on Wednesday, adding, “They gotta look themselves in the mirror. This moral superiority complex they have, this arrogance—they need to wake up and see that.”
Axelrod, former chief strategist for President Obama’s campaigns, aligned with Portnoy’s observations.
“I absolutely think that’s what it is,” Axelrod said during his Thursday appearance on CNN. “I don’t know if I’d put it quite that way, but I think he’s on point there.”
However, Axelrod disagreed with Portnoy’s claim that the election outcome was a “ringing endorsement” of Donald Trump, seeing it instead as a rejection of incumbency and, in part, of the attitude Portnoy described.
Following Harris’s defeat, in which she lost all seven swing states and Trump made gains in Democratic strongholds like Chicago and California, some figures, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, argued that the party has abandoned the working class. Others, like Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison, pushed back, contending that President Biden was the “most pro-worker President of my lifetime.”
This claim may be valid in terms of actions on the ground, as unions endorsed Harris. However, some argue that Democratic rhetoric might alienate the very people the party says it aims to support in socioeconomic advancement.
On Wednesday, Axelrod acknowledged that “racial bias” and “sexism” played a role in the election outcome. “I think we owe people respect for what they do and what they mean,” he said, noting that “blue-collar workers and people who work with their hands make this country go.” He added that these voters “feel like they are thought of as less and that their priorities are not the priorities of the Democratic Party.”
Axelrod concluded his critique by saying, “Let’s be honest: There were appeals to racism in this campaign, and there is racial bias and sexism in this country.” He also commended Trump’s team for running a “very smart” campaign.
Visionary Kai EL´ Zabar has worked as CEO of arts organizations and as editor, writer and multimedia consultant accumulating a significant number of years in experience as an executive, journalist,publisher, public relations, media training, marketing, internal and external communications. Kai currently continues her life’s work as Editor-in-Chief Of Chicago News Weekly where she has resumed her column, “E NOTES.” She is ecstatic to be in the position to grace Chicago and the world with a publication that articulates the Black voice.