You can’t outplay Donald Trump by playing a trump card.
Vice President Kamala Harris lost an election by strategically swinging to the right and hoping to garner the vote of moderate Americans while retaining the progressive base that came out for her party in 2020.
This has led to a catastrophic loss that should motivate progressive parties within Western countries to listen to their base about policies that will earn them votes rather than take them for granted as the lesser of two evils.
Et Cetera contends that journalists and citizens with the right to express themselves need to step up and urge parties not to capitulate to neo-liberal and fascist narratives.
Not only did Harris lose the Electoral College this Tuesday, but she also lost the popular vote, a feat that hasn't been accomplished by a Democrat since 1988.
This also comes with her garnering about 10 million fewer votes than current President Joe Biden received in 2020, with Trump garnering about the same in 2020 and 2024 with just more than 70 million votes.
A turnout like this for the House Of Commons would gut Canadians of their rights to bodily and medical autonomy, kill social services and continue to propel housing, price gouging and cost of living issues that “axing the tax” will not solve.
Many Democrats, and Canadian liberals, will angrily wave fists at progressives and blame them for not showing up as they did in 2020 and not turn to criticize Harris for running a campaign that is ideologically closer to George W.H. Bush and Dick Chaney in 2004 than any campaign that could’ve been run on a progressive base.
Harris’ messaging was not aimed at the progressive base that came out in 2020 at the height of the BLM movement, a movement which President Barack Obama called thugs during the 2015 Baltimore riots after the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray Jr. He died in police custody and the six officers who were charged with later acquitted.
Harris did not address this base and famously told them “I’m speaking” when protesters appeared at her rally to speak out against genocide in the Middle East.
Instead, she focused on trying to appeal to the moderate and undecided vote.
Seventy-eight per cent of respondents to a 2023 Payroll.org survey stated they would find moderate or high amounts of difficulties if they were to miss a paycheque. In 2019 this was 74 per cent.
Voters in a reactionary nation, being goldfish in political nature, are going to look at economic decline, facing bills and debt creating struggles to put food on the table when they decide to vote against the party in power that does not heavily message on how they’ll make it easier for people to feed their family.
While most surveys put Canadians at around 50 per cent compared to the American’s 78 per cent, it is still a pressing issue for Canadians with price gouging putting a steep rise on bills.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called out grocers for their high prices but the idea of a federal consumer watchdog was tabled by the NDP in 2023, which sits idle waiting to be discussed.
A mobilization is needed.
This is a call to action. We need to step up.
Join organizations and actively push for politicians to adopt progressive policies to earn your vote and prevent lackadaisical politicians and voters willing to accept the “lesser of two evils.”
These politicians are not going to step up and do something to help the electorate unless it demands they must.
Politics is a popularity game. Politicians will only act on things seen as popular. In the wake of Harris hemorrhaging millions of votes, Trudeau, the next Democratic nominee and other Western liberals need to learn this with public outcry being their instructor.
