It’s important in a democracy that the losing side grapple with its defeat and learn the right lessons for next time. A certain amount of reflection and self-criticism is healthy, but we’ve blown past that point and are in danger of over-interpreting the 2024 results. Despite headlines proclaiming the GOP won in a “rout” or declaring that “This is the collapse of the Democratic Party,” November’s election was actually quite close. Trump received 49.9% to Kamala Harris’s 48.4%, a difference of a point and a half. That’s a smaller margin than any winner since Richard Nixon in 1968. The popular vote margin in 2000 was also razor-thin, but the candidate who received more votes that year was not the Electoral College winner. If the same percentage of Hispanic voters that chose Hillary Clinton in 2016 had voted Democratic in 2024, Harris would have been the victor. The Republicans took control of the Senate, but their margin in the House was reduced.
This is not to say that the Democrats don’t have lessons to learn. It seems pretty obvious that shaking off the outsized influence of “the groups” — the immigration rights, LGBTQ rights, anti-development, anti-police agitators is a good place to start. By all means, Democrats should convene conclaves and discuss all of that with their pollsters and greybeards.
Mona Charen
But in the meanwhile, Donald Trump did not suddenly become more normal or less of a threat to democratic norms and institutions than he was on Nov. 3. Yet a fog of obfuscation has settled on the country, one in which Democrats are offering peace pipes, withholding judgment on some of the wilder Trump Cabinet nominees, and focusing on areas in which the two parties can work together rather than the ones on which they differ. The papers have been filled with chirpy articles offering how Trump can really make a difference on housing policy or public health or our energy future.
If the Democrats have concluded, with Rep. Jared Moskowitz, that “we (Democrats) were to the left of the American people” on immigration, fine. And if Democrats want to pay lip service, with Rep. Ro Khanna, to the DOGE initiative (if it even is an initiative), OK, though it would be nice if they noted that other commissions have addressed the matter of government waste and deficit spending to zero effect. The Grace Commission in the 1980s and the Simpson-Bowles Commission in the 2010s made substantive proposals to Congress and the president. But in order for anything to happen, Congress and the president must take their duties seriously and, just perhaps, enact laws. Instead, our elected leaders said thank you very much for your service and ignored them. In keeping with the unseriousness of MAGA, this DOGE (the title is an acronym for Department of Government Efficiency but also a reference to, what else, an internet meme) is not even a congressionally authorized investigation, far less a new government agency. It’s a chimera, and even before Trump has taken the oath, Elon Musk is already retreating from the fantastical claim of cutting the budget by $2 trillion.
Democrats and others should focus a bit ess on last November’s election and a bit more on what Musk has become. Not content with threatening to primary any Republican who dares assert independence from Trump, Musk has gone abroad seeking fascist-adjacent leaders to support and promote. The man Trump has entrusted with vast influence has endorsed the German AfD, a Russia-philic, extremist right-wing party that cannot seem to stop using racist and antisemitic slogans; agitated against the British government by spreading lies, promoted the cause of right-wing provocateur Tommy Robinson, and announced, as it were ex cathedra, that Nigel Farage is no longer acceptable as the leader of the Reform UK.
Where are the calls for Trump to repudiate Musk?
Perhaps people are feeling defeated. After all, Trump himself just gave a press conference in which he repeated Kremlin talking points (totally false) about the origins of the Ukraine war. It’s perfectly reasonable for Democrats and others to conclude that Trump is aligned with Putin and with the fascists worldwide who adore him. Remember how he responded to news that Putin’s tanks had rolled into Ukraine? He thought it was brilliant. Maybe he’s trolling when he threatens to use force to retake the Panama Canal or, God help us, Canada. But maybe his authoritarian juices are rising as inauguration day beckons. It’s impossible to say at this moment, but what is possible to say is that most Americans do not perceive Trump to be a would-be Putin. They may be OK with him firing some bureaucrats and deporting some illegal aliens, but they didn’t sign up for unabashed authoritarianism.
Or perhaps they did. But one thing is certain — we’ll never know unless the opposition shakes off its torpor. If Democrats and tech barons and newspaper owners and columnists keep pretending that Trump is really interested in health reform or housing initiatives and continue to sweep the dangerous and fascist messages under the rug, there is zero chance that the American people will understand what is happening.
Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the “Beg to Differ” podcast. Her new book, “Hard Right: The GOP’s Drift Toward Extremism,” is available now.
