Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Nov 9, 2024

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Nov 9, 2024

A massive electoral disaster struck the democratic party in the United States when it lost the 2024 election to Donald Trump. The far right business man Donald Trump won a resounding victory with a considerable section of the American working class on his side [1], [2]. Trump is widely known as a liar, a misogynist, a bully, who has been sentenced by courts in multiple cases of felony, tax evasion etc, known for anti-migrant, pro-gun ownership & anti-abortion postures, but these clearly are ’no problem’ and no deterrent for a section of the voters. Kamala Hariss tried hard to rally the women’s vote in defence of reproductive rights. But clearly a section of the women voters ditched her and so did a section of male electorate from also among Black, Latino men, in considerable numbers —who clearly didn’t want a woman (and a women of colour) to take power in a backlash to the ‘metoo’ movement among other things [3], [4]. The Democratic Party in America has become a gentrified urban party. It is responsive to its educated party nomenklatura and activists who set its agenda in a politically correct & identitarian frame that is not so class based [5]. The party seems out of tune with a large section American voters who are less educated, rural, not unionised, drawn to conservative values, and who believe gun ownership is the way to self protection, with disdain for the establishment, impatient with democratic institutions, political parties and are drawn to authoritarian ideas and new elitist figures who don’t want to play by the rules [6], [7], [8]. A sort of taboo prevails in social democratic & progressive party circles around the world that can’t spot xenophobia, racism and sexism within working classes and labouring people, it is time to acknowledge hard reality. It is time for serious self-introspection among progressives & democrats in Americas and in Europe, in Asia, in Africa to recognise & understand the popularity of forces of social regression and to craft realistic counter strategies.

November 9, 2024 —HK