On this edition of Parallax Views, popular election analyst Josh Cohen aka Ettingermentum returns to breakdown the 2024 election, its outcomes, and just why exactly the Democratic Party lost the Presidency, House, and Senate. We'll look at where the Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party campaign went wrong in their race against Donald Trump and the Republican Party. Josh will discuss why he believes Joe Biden played a big role in the the defeat of Democrats along with Kamala Harris's inability to differentiate herself from Biden. We'll also talk about the Harris campaign as the Democrats' first "post-woke" campaign, the issue of inflation and the economy's role in the 2024 election, Gaza and the Uncommitted campaign, and what the future may hold for the Democratic Party (we'll talk about Gretchen Whitmer, Andy Beshear, and the wide-open field for Democrats as well as the emergence of the post-Obama Democratic Party in the aftermath of this election). Josh's main analysis: bottom line, Democrats were self-indulgent and arguably played things too safe in a time where they needed to creatively respond to the situation in America.
Some other issues covered in the course of our conversation include:
- Democrats trying to appeal to moderate Republicans (as seen by the Harris campaign cozying up to Liz Cheney) in this election cycle
- Comparing Trump's win to the victories for abortion rights at the state level; are we really seeing a cultural shift to the right-wing; why was the Dobbs decision not enough for Democrats to win nationally?
- Criticism of the analysis being provided by figures like Matthew Yglesias and James Carville in relation to the election; the role of figures like Yglesias in the tone of the Democrats' overall campaign in the election cycle
- The border and immigration in relation to the 2024 election
- Israel/Palestine and the Gaza crisis as a wedge issue for Democrats
- The shattering of Joe Biden's reputation in the past 4 years and his low-approval ratings
- Comparing Democratic candidates that won their election bids in 2024 to the ones that lost
- Josh addresses the criticism that the results of the 2024 election had nothing to do with the economy because "the economy is fine"; the average Americans dissatisfaction with the current macro-economic environment
- Democrats' loss of ground in New York
- And more!
