The Democrats: time for wholesale reform?

As Democrats "sift through the wreckage of their shattered coalition", one question should jump out at them, said Ruy Teixeira in The Liberal Patriot: "Who is the Democratic Party for, exactly?"

It was no surprise that Donald Trump made further inroads with his base of white, working-class men in the election. But he also improved on his 2020 vote share with Latinos, Asians, urban voters, and young voters. Even women, predicted to turn out in droves to protect abortion rights, voted for Kamala Harris by a smaller margin than for Joe Biden. It was a truly bleak result for the Democrats, said Jonathan Martin on Politico. Unlike in 2016, they couldn't even claim the consolation of winning the popular vote. The only upside is that the depth of the defeat presents them with an opportunity for a total rethink. "Democrats now have a mandate for change."

The first thing they need to change, said Maureen Dowd in The New York Times, is their preoccupation with group-based identity politics. Although Harris didn't make a big deal of her gender or ethnicity during the campaign, that didn't compensate for the fact that the Democrats in the Trump years became the party of "condescension and cancellation". As the nation's self-appointed language police, they shamed anyone not fluent in gender-fluid pronouns or in "faculty-lounge terminology" such as "Latinx" and "Bipoc" (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour). They embraced ideas such as defunding the police and letting biological males play women's sports. This intellectual and moral preening played well with college-educated women – the only cohort where Democrats made gains – but it "alienated half the country, or more". Most Hispanic and Latino people do not like the term Latinx; and there is data showing that more white progressives think "racism is built into" US society than black and Hispanic Americans.

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The Democrats have an image problem, agreed Mike Pesca in The Atlantic. Despite Harris' efforts to sell them as "the party of change, freedom and not being weird", many voters see them as prigs, killjoys and scolds. With its stultifying "rules-bound persnicketiness", the party "resembles that most American of institutions: the HR department".

Still, the Democrats shouldn't lose all perspective on this, said Jackie Calmes in the Los Angeles Times. The result was a shock but it was not a total rejection of their agenda. In historical terms, Trump's margin of victory was slim. He may have won votes by using the issue of transgender rights against Harris, but voters in many states took the Democrats' side on ballot measures for abortion rights, a higher minimum wage and mandatory paid leave; and polls suggest strong support for irregular migrants being able to apply for legal status, a policy the Democrats favoured. In short, the party is in a stronger position than it seems. It should learn the lessons and move on.