Racial depolarization has begun. The Democrats have become too academic in their discussions with voters. Appealing to moderate Republicans with calls to "protect democracy" didn't work; those moderate Republicans still came home to Trump. The Dems were always going to have a tough time coming out of the post-COVID world with the economy. However, Biden choosing to run again at 81 and not having a competitive primary were indubitably the real killers.
Trump has attained political success because his message is paleocon populism, which is very popular with the GOP base, but had largely been neglected by generations of neocons like George W. Bush and John McCain. Democrats need to embrace a message of economic populism if they want to defeat Trumpism. When Trump implements his tariffs and fucks up the economy, they need to be ready. The wealth gap continues to grow. Billionaires are now openly in control of the government. When the prices don't go back down like people expect, and Trump can't run again and hype up his base, that's when they need to be ready.
They've got four years in the wilderness to get it right the next time. Last night was humbling for them.
The biggest danger to Dems is getting their base to pivot with them. I think it is extremely plausible that staffers in Washington pick up on this quickly, but how do you convince the campus activists and MSNBC reporters to shut the fuck up for a moment and stop feeding a constant stream of ammunition to the right wing to be blared on woke tears compilation reels?
Trump will erode our international alliances further, and will cozy up to dictators again. Our nation’s influence will be weakened as foreign actors prey upon Trump's massively over-inflated ego and deep insecurities. China will fill the void we leave behind if Trump really goes for the isolationist foreign policy that his supporters seem to want. People don’t seem to grasp that foreign aid is not really "foreign aid"; it’s an investment that helps us get something we want from a nation in exchange for an extremely small percentage of our budget.
With that said, if American isolationism ruins Europe, then perhaps Europe has to change.
