The shocking loss of Kamala Harris should not be a surprise.
The evidence was building for years as inert leaders in the Democrat Party looked the other way at Biden’s increasing feebleness, which climaxed in his pathetic presidential debate performance in June 2024. His stroke-like stance, empty eyes, stuttering, and physical instability have been visible for years, but no one in the party leadership had the guts to tell him to step aside at least a year ago. That could have meant a more rigorous candidate replacement process and more time to strategize. 
But like the pathetic exit of long-time Senator Diane Feinstein (who died in office at age 90), who also refused to step aside despite her staff’s warnings that she was suffering from dementia. The Feinstein story paved the way for Biden to avoid addressing his age and mental agility limitations.
That seniority and respect for protocol keep new talent from emerging in the Democratic Party. The aged Nancy Pelosis’ disdain for the more vigorous and energetic AOC, accompanied by Hillary Clinton’s disrespect for Sen. Bernie Sander’s progressive platform as it popped to her neoliberal one, caused Hillary to focus more on containing Sanders’ powerful message to young people and minorities about the wealth gap than fighting Trump.
But there are more signs of Democratic weakness. Here is a short list:
Merrick Garland, the worst Attorney General in US history, paved the way for Trump’s election. Garland famously waited over a year to appoint a Special Counsel, a noticeable contribution to Trump’s escape from prosecution. Garland’s appointment was a
mistake from Day One. He was a judge and prosecuted the Oklahoma bombing case in 1995, 26 years before he was named Attorney General, but he was never an administrator. He had a judge’s temperament, meaning he had no sense of immediacy. A case could always be postponed, declared, recessed, or have more time for deliberation. He was an institutionalist and believed in an 18th-century version of the Justice Department that is wildly outdated in electronic news media and partisan politics. He is an 18th-century man. As Obama maintained, if he were a legal scholar, he should have been in a law school and not named Attorney General in the Trump era of blatant criminal acts. Garland is a wimp, and his lack of action makes a mockery of the justice system, which a sociopath like Trump played like a master criminal.
Kamala Harris, the nearly forgotten VP, runs for president. Harris was never the ideal candidate, but Biden’s refusal to step aside made her the unfortunate choice. Harris is a terrible speaker and was kept in the dark for four-and-a-half years. She was never considered a policy expert until the abortion issue arose as a result of the right-wing Supreme Court. If Harris was a prosecutor with real court experience, she never showed any of that supposed talent in her stilted public speeches. Her husband did not add anything to her campaign, either. She also questioned whether the US is ready for a woman president. Based on the losses of Hillary Clinton and Harris, it looks like even though women vote in more significant numbers than men, they don’t think gender alone is the cause for their vote. Voting for women is also not attractive to Latino and Black men, based on exit polling.
Tim Waltz, the nice guy from Minnesota, was just a nice guy from Minnesota with no personality. Remember Tim Kaine of Virginia, the man who spoke some Spanish and let his white undershirt be visible to show he was an average guy? Of course not. That’s why Harris avoided Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who would have been a better presidential candidate than Harris and a better VP choice. Still, Shapiros’ strong presence would not have overcome Harris’s weakness. A Democratic presidential ticket for Gavin Newsome and Josh Shapiro, as an example of youthful energy, would have been a powerful, articulate team to beat Trump, but that would never have been possible without an open convention.
Michelle and Barack Obama’s days as powerhouses in the Democratic Party are over. She can dance on stage and read from a teleprompter, but her advice is too weak for today’s media-saturated environment. Her advice, “When they go low, we go high,” was welcomed by the Trump people who knew that the Dems were wimps again. Trump went lower and lower in his racist, anti-woman, anti-immigrant messages, and it worked. Eight-one percent of white men who never went to college voted for Trump. Harris failed to craft a message that would appeal to Black men and Hispanics. More Black men voted for Trump and ignored Obama’s message. Whatever the Obamas are selling, their college-level oratory and multi-millionaire affluence are ignored by the homies and young Hispanics. If anything, there is a class distinction between the college-educated wealthy Blacks (Obama, Erin Holder, Oprah) and their less affluent brethren.
Dems never addressed the wealth-income gap. For decades, this has been the cornerstone message of Progressives, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. It also should have been the cornerstone campaign issue in 2024. The statistics show the gap is only getting worse, and Trump will overseas the creation of American plutocrats who will benefit from deregulation, buying privatized federal programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, railroads, and the US Postal Service. This is because the Dem leadership and its most prominent donors are part of the top 1%, so addressing increased taxes, eliminating tax loopholes, and closing the carried interest tax benefit that helps hedge and private equity funds, as well as real estate developers. Even though Dems can not unilaterally close tax loopholes themselves, they never raised the issue to national prominence. Voter disgust with the economy also mistakenly translated into their failure to purchase homes, household goods purchasing, and other financial problems. The Dems also crafted terrible messages about the economy, even as it reached historically positive levels.
Geriatric leadership among the Dems. As an average voter, I watched Joe Biden’s pathetic appearance in the Biden-Trump televised presidential debate on June 28, 2024. Within the first 15 minutes, it was evident to all that the 81-year-old Biden was incapable of leading, let alone campaigning for another term. He was incoherent and distracted before 67 million people. Comments on YouTube were pointed. One said, “If Biden was up there by himself, he would still lose the debate.” Another said: “Trump’s greatest weapon in this election campaign is to let Biden speak as much as possible.” Another asked if “this footage from a nursing home cafeteria?” Calls for Biden to step aside quickly followed, but Biden’s ego and protection from his White House supporters delayed his choice, which wasted precious time in finding a replacement. With no time for an open convention, Harris became the default and flawed replacement. However, the problem of elderly leadership extends to the Senate and includes Dems and Republicans. Among the Dems, the oldest senators are Ben Cardin (80), Dick Durbin (79), Richard Blumenthal (78), Ed Markey (77), Tom Carper (77), Jeanne Shaheen (77), and Peter Welch (76). It’s unclear if these senators could persuade Biden to resign, so they brought Nany Pelosi (84) to convince Biden (81) to drop out. Trump (78) has aged better than Biden, but despite his limited mental capacities, he appears more vigorous than Biden.
Biden’s ego and health problems doomed the Dems. Joe Biden must take responsibility for Harris’ loss. Biden’s ego refused to allow him to step aside, and his mistaken goal of “finishing the work” he started was a weak excuse for staying in office until his mid-80s. Biden’s hubris is unforgivable. It’s worse that the Dems surrounding him never forced him to step aside. As former Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said in this video, when he first took office, Biden said he was a “transitional president” who would pass the leadership baton to younger Dems. But that was a lie. Biden’s ego and the egos of his clique prevented him from stepping aside. Biden should have started that transition process months into his presidency, but he did not, keeping VP Harris in the shadows for over three years. When Biden’s pathetic debate appearance showed the nation he was feeble, it was already too late for any replacement to emerge. That is Biden’s hubris, and it brought down the entire Democratic Party.
The Electorate’s Perception of Age Made a Difference
In an age of appearances, how old you look makes a huge difference. Trump’s looks benefitted his perception, even if he says almost all lies and fabrications. Trump’s fans don’t care about the facts, ethics, or his criminal convictions, and this message is not lost on many Americans who are waiting for less regulation, law enforcement, pardons for criminals, and payback from wealthy donors for their cash investments (not contributions) in the Trump campaign.
The Anti-Trust, Anti-Regulation, Monopolist Jackels Are Loose
As this is being written, the Trump administration is compiling its list of political vendetta ledgers and pro-business priorities that will favor predatory capitalists (hedge and private equity funds, real estate developers), oil companies, and airlines are all preparing to work in an era of little regulation and monopoly capitalism. As Matt Stoller has pointed out, the monopolists are on the move. Look for “mega-deals like Comcast buying Charter, Exxon merging with Chevron, banks consolidating, and Amazon and Google once again going out and making large acquisitions.” In this environment, Trump will make Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire primarily as a result of giving him massive federal contracts financed by taxpayers. This could be one of the most significant underhanded wealth transfers in history.
As for the many high-level federal positions that come as political spoils for Trump, these posts will be for sale to the highest bidders. These Trump loyalist treasure hunters will look at the greed model perfected by Jared Kushner, who has billions in assets and millions in fees from Saudi and East European governments. This greed model will be replicated in an unregulated capitalist regime. The Emoluments Clause will become a legal relic in the Trump administration. With little or no regulations, corporations will have quick and easy access to the subservient Federal people drafting anti-trust, securities, environmental, tax, trade, and energy policies.
The wealthy will get richer, and the wealth gap will hit historic highs in Trump’s reign of unregulated, pirate-based capitalism. A new age of monopoly capitalism is now developing.
Let the looting begin.
