Percentage of the vote doesn't tell the whole story. Voter turnout was down and Gaza was a big reason why.
Percentage of the vote doesn't tell the whole story. Voter turnout was down and Gaza was a big reason why.
Some analysis of the 2024 presidential election focuses on different demographic groups and reTrump’s increased voting strength among them.
But that may hide more than it reveals.
Because turnout across the board was down.
So a larger percentage of a smaller number doesn’t explain what happened with much clarity.
Absolute votes, particularly among young and Black voters were down.
And Biden/Harris support for Israel’s war on Gaza was a big reason.
Dr. Alvin Tillery is a professor at Northwestern.
He studies and teaches about diversity and democracy.
Dr. Tillery has offered up his explanation of why younger voters and Black voters turned out in lower numbers.
“I wish somebody would come out and just be truthful about the fact that…Israel’s war on Gaza probably cost them, like, 50,000 to 100,000 votes in all of these swing states, right? Like, look at Michigan!” said Tillery. “But if you don’t want to own up to that stuff, then you know, you can tell your story about what a titan Donald Trump is.”
Rather than a break with the Biden policy on Gaza, most young voters heard and saw Harris double down on her support for Israel.
In fact, when Harris was asked, she could not point to one single Biden policy she differed with.
Instead she chose to move even further to the right and campaigned with Liz Cheney.
Now the Democratic centrists have returned to their practice of pointing fingers at the Left within their Party and blaming “wokeism” for their losses.
Having listened to non-stop ads on TV in NY for congressional races in the weeks leading up to the election, I could not tell the difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. From the Democrats it was all about border security.
Democratic gray heads like David Axelrod are now suggesting Rahm Emanuel to head the DNC.
Whatever happened to “we won’t go back again”?
Wrote Charles Pierce in Esquire:
“Can we all just agree not to listen to the likes of James Carville and (especially) David Axelrod anymore?”