There were dynamics to this election that I never saw before. The things Musk et al hammered home every day touched on a raw nerve, and I can’t quite define what I mean by that…but I’ll try.
It’s this: not just demonizing illegal immigrants, but demonizing those who don’t call them “illegal immigrants.” There’s a certain justice in this, as I see it. Why on Earth Democrats seem unable to see that we simply cannot let any who will immigrate illegally. Would we grant the right for any other one group to break the law? How about letting Albanian-Americans break store windows with impunity? It sounds ludicrous, but the logic is there. And when Americans are made to feel like heartless thugs because they go along with a guy who promises to stop the nonsense by whatever means possible, they’re more likely to back the candidate who is on “their side.” The one who doesn’t call THEM thugs. This sentiment is not confined to party. This is key.
Second, the LGBTQi+ issue. I’ve said before in other fora that I’ve seen the most visceral reactions across party lines to this issue. I don’t know why this is not manifestly obvious, but you can’t tell a person that they have to change their mind about something just because you changed your mind about something. I mean, in 1980, if I were asked what I thought about transvestites, I’d say I thought they were mentally ill. (Hey, I was 21, what did I know.) The vast majority of the country thought the same way. Over the past quarter century, a lot has changed. Lots of Americans, maybe most, but certainly including me, have changed their minds. I don’t care who you are on the spectrum of sexuality — as long as you’re a kind and thoughtful person, you’re okay with me. But does that give me the right to demand that everyone else who did not (to use Obama’s term) evolve on this issue do so? Well, you’d think so, by listening to a lot of campaign speeches this year. But I watched as people from many different political backgrounds lashed out in anger when the subject turned to something like, “Yeah, my kid tells me that they had a transvestite reading a story to them about how Jimmy didn’t feel right in his body….” Whether it happened or not, it seems possible, given the things they’ve heard on Fox or Newsmax, and they get so damn furious that further discussion is poisonous.
Until Democrats learn to deal responsibly with these two issues, we will continue to lose voter share. You simply can’t classify people as Neanderthals just because they haven’t changed their minds in the same time frame as you.