By JAY H. ELL
In the aftermath of the Democrats’ sterling performances in interim elections, finally a pulse is detectable in the lifeless body. Three elections held on April 1 reflected large gains by the party that had been given up for dead.
In dark red Florida, Republicans had their majorities slashed in two Congressional by-elections from over 30 percent to 14 percent. The cherry on the top was the convincing 10 percent victory of a democratic Supreme Court Judge in Wisconsin, a state which Trump had won by a few thousand votes. What made the triumph so significant was that the Trump/Musk team had inexplicably gone full court press on this clash, risking all on an office race in a State. These victories have occurred while there is a debate as to which the direction the Democratic Party should be taking at the moment.
The Trump crowd had crowed that the MAGA king’s endorsement and zooming in support in favor of the Republican-backed candidate put the president himself on the ballot. Musk went even further out on a limb – spent 26 million dollars in support, gave million dollar checks to two “lucky” fellow travellers, paid for canvassers and advertisements, and claimed that this election “would determine the fate of Western civilization”. As a backdrop to this drama, Corrie Booker the African American Democratic Senator, spoke in the Senate for 25 hours 5 minutes, breaking the record of the segregationist Strum Thurmond, set while opposing the Civil Rights Bill.
All in all, a welcome big day for the Democrats after aeons of agony. Trump’s response to all this was to attempt to turn the clock back by morphing America into an industrial economy from the service economy that has literally made it rich and great. In so doing he carried on with the lie that the exporting countries pay the tariffs he imposes, not the American electorate.
All this begs the question as to whether the Democrats can win the real thing, what their tactics should be now, and do they have the leadership to get them across the line? But to start with Trump’s victory in 2024 and what it does and does not reflect.
Does the USA 2024 election reflect an irreversible change in the American and world order?
Delusional Trump has proceeded as if he had received a life-long paradigm-changing mandate for the ordering of America and the world. His 2024 victory, however. was not an overarching seismic shift in the American political scene. The Democrats gained in the House and won seats in the Senate where Trump had won the State. He won the popular vote by 0.5 percent of the electorate which apparently is “the greatest majority of any President”.
What the Orange God is trying to achieve may be a revolution and the beginning the American Weimar Republic, but he and his unhinged clown show of a cabinet have misread the American electorate as the town halls of the Republican legislators are showing, the massive turnouts every time a Democrat appears publicly, and the post-2024 election results have indicated. Also his wing man Elon Musk who has gleefully taken on the task of dismantle American institutions is the target of even the MAGA base. He is meeting with unprecedented protests throughout the country and a universal boycott of his car.
The fact that Zelensky has a higher approval rating than both Trump and Vance tells it all. So if Jay H. Ell is right, what happened in November 2024, and how can this be rectified?
Jay H. Ell believes that the 2024 election was a vote of no confidence in government per se. The turnout was 3 percent less than 2020 in spite of all the money Musk and the others spent to drive up the numbers. The Democrats were successfully portrayed as the status quo. Despite Trump’s braggadocio, his vote tally in 2024 was 4 million less than “Sleepy Joe Biden’s” record-breaking 81 million in 2020. But how did the Democrats assist the deeply flawed Trump?
Scene from an anti-Musk protest outside the US Treasury building in Washington D.C., 2 February 2025. Image: Jason Gooljar on Flickr.
Why Trump happened to win the three crucial Mid-Western states by 220,000 votes which deprived Kamala Harris of the Presidency is largely the fault of the Democrats led by Joe Biden and his inner circle. They hid his loss of cognition, and then saddled the relatively unknown Harris with a limited time to persuade the electorate that she could be entrusted with the Presidency.
Harris was burdened with Biden’s campaign team who tried to hide her even from the conventional media, let alone the internet bros, like she was Biden. She was also a woman who “happened” to be black. In addition she was “crowned”, not having the legitimacy of winning a primary. Harris was made to defend the status quo tied to Biden. When she answered that she was unable to recall one mistake of the Biden administration, it was obvious she hadn’t been given permission, for example to reflect on such obvious answers as “improve the border policy, inflation is a problem, or we didn’t message our achievements that well”.
But enough already with the hand-wringing and the wailing about what could have been. Also enough already with the Democrats wallowing in self-pity and hopelessness. It is time to move on.
How can the Democrats win and regain the narrative?
How can the Democrats win? Firstly, broadly speaking, there are two schools of thought as to what they need to do. The first is the approach advocated by the famed Democratic operative James Carville, “Just stand there and do nothing and watch Trump disintegrate”. The other is to start promoting an agenda that represents their roots – the party of the American worker. The answer is to do both. The way Trump and Musk are sucking all the oxygen from the room allows the Democrats to do what they are just doing and let the Trump MAGA implode. And implode they will big time as they tank the economy.
The Trump/Musk efforts alone will make the Republicans the underdogs in 2026, and put 60 House members at risk. Nevertheless the party of Franklyn Roosevelt needs to come up with policy proposals that separate them from Trump. Being the party of identities and social issues rather than the people doesn’t’ cut it. Roosevelt didn’t just run against Herbert Hoover’s failures, he initiated the American welfare state. They need to run on an overall package that addresses the needs of the citizenry, provides a social net, maintains institutions, and increases the taxes of the rich. In other words, do all they can to distribute the massive wealth in the USA and restore the dignity of those abandoned in the service age.
Scene from an anti-Musk protest outside the US Treasury building in Washington D.C., 2 February 2025. Image: Jason Gooljar on Flickr.
The Democrats need to elect leadership sooner than in two years’ time. Chuck Schumer has been unfairly criticized for not allowing the Republicans any leeway to blame the Democrats for causing a government shut-down. However, he is from another era. Charisma and enthusiasm as well as skill and talent is the name of the game, and the Party has a deep bench. Besides Booker, there is Newsom, Occasio-Cortez, Beasley, Buttigieg, Whitmer and Warnock. Not to mention Harris. They all need to speak to the internet left-leaning bros that have sprung up since the election.
The groups such as Indivisible, Hands Off and Run for Something should be garnering more and more support. Lastly, the spontaneous protests that are literally spanning the country whether it be for the closing down of this, that and the other or against the banker of the MAGA crowd, Musk, have to continue to draw attendees with their homemade placards. It will be interesting to see whether any of this will have any impact on the Republicans in their now threatened constituencies.
At the end of the day
Whichever way this is spliced and diced, America and the world are in for economic woes. This includes those affected by the callous axing of the USAID programmes. Donald Trump, who bankrupted six of his companies, is using his experience to bankrupt America.
It is just a matter of time before Trump’s newest and best friend, Elon Musk, is banished from Mar-a-Lago. The rationale will be that he needs to save Tesla before he saves Western Civilization. The insanity of the indiscriminate, reckless, painful, thoughtless, DOGE cuts are beginning to sink in. They are only matched in stupidity by the protectionist tariffs. There is no truth in the rumor that Trump will run for a fourth term in 2032.
FEATURED IMAGE: An anti-Musk protest including US Congressmen outside the US Treasury in Washington, DC, 4 February 2025. Jason Gooljar on Flickr.