How Democrats lost the race, and the plot

THERE WERE FOUR ISSUES WHERE DEMOCRATS FALTERED ON FOREIGN POLICY, ECONOMY, POLITICS AND CULTURE

- Prashant Jha

To understand the political tsunami that has hit America in November 2024, go back to November 2022.

The Democrats had just emerged relatively victorious in the midterm elections, retaining the Senate and losing the House by a narrow margin. Donald Trump's more extreme loyalists had lost the election and predictions of a Red Wave had been rebuffed. And the mood was jubilant among liberals.

Joe Biden had a choice.

At that moment, after leading his party to a historic win in 2020 to "save democracy" and then the midterms, Biden, approaching 80, could have either announced that he would not seek renomination or decide to contest again. Biden didn't make a commitment either way in the press conference right after the midterm results, but soon after, his aides let it be known that the president wasn't in any mood to give up. And within a few months, Biden was back in the race, smug that he was the only man who could defeat Donald Trump.

Biden's delayed exit

Tuesday's verdict may give Biden's apologists a chance to claim that if he had remained the nominee, Democrats may have won. There may be others who suggest that Trump won because Kamala Harris was the candidate on the other side. But while counterfactual history is hard to disprove, all evidence suggests that wouldn't have been the case.

Instead, all the evidence suggests that the biggest mistake Biden made was deciding to contest, and Democrats made was in remaining too polite and allowing Biden to have his way till a disastrous debate performance this June exposed his age-related deficits and forced him out.