The election: Good news for democracy
The results are in, Donald Trump will return to the White House, and so democracy works, right? You betcha, and the fact that Trump is in and Kampala Harris is out should satisfy even the most skeptical election deniers that the 2020 election was on the up and up, too.
After all, if the presidential election of 2024 was good and true, that ought to mean the 2020 election was, too. It was run pretty much run by the same people, and even if some personnel had changed, the ground rules were pretty much the same ones that were in place four years earlier.
So let’s hear it for democracy, for free and fair elections, and for the biggest and best rule in American politics: winners win, losers concede their loss and move on, into retirement or in anticipation of the next election.
The beauty of democracy is that the losers can become the winners, maybe, eventually. There are no final answers in democratic politics, only provisional ones.
Only one thing should not be subject to debate or change: the primacy of democracy itself.
Democracy is not static; it is dynamic. It is a way of life; it’s an approach to life that says: “You and I are equal – equally responsible and equally empowered.”
And so, in this post-election period especially, let us, one and all, rededicate ourselves to that type of government – democracy – that claims equal justice for all, equal opportunity for all, and the responsibility of all to all that free society means both to the living and to the generations yet to come.
End of sermon.
As to how we got to the Trump win and the Harris loss, let’s begin with a number: 2%.
That was the difference in Pennsylvania, at least. In 2020, Joe Biden beat Trump by two percentage points, 50-48, in the state. This year the figures flipped. It was Trump on top in Pennsylvania with 50.7% (unofficially) to 48.2% for Harris.
The statewide two percentage point switch was mirrored in a large swath of Pennsylvania counties. For instance, Trump won Fayette County in 2020 with 66.3% of the vote. This year the unofficial final tabulation was 68.7% for Trump, 30.7% for Harris.
Washington County went for Trump in 2020 with a 60.8% share of the vote over Biden’s 38.1% share. In 2024, Trump did slightly better, 62.5% to the Harris figure of 36.6%.
A one-to-two percentage point gain for Trump was fairly common across the board.
Erie, Centre, Pike, Monroe, Philadelphia, Lawrence, Dauphin, Bucks, Montgomery – all moved toward Trump by the same slim margin. Luzerne and Indiana, too.
Of course, this pattern was not true for all the counties I randomly surveyed. Trump’s total in Greene County zoomed to 76% in 2024, six points better than he did in 2020. The once and future president’s numbers in Lancaster were on the plus-five side in 2024, compared to 2020.
Meanwhile, the results on Tuesday in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties were virtually identical to those of four years ago.
As for the cause of the 2% flip in Trump’s direction, inflation is tops in my book, though other factors undoubtedly were in play.
A close examination of the Trump win and the Harris loss is certainly warranted. As a preliminary observation, however, let me offer this: the Trump TV ads were superior to those offered by the Harris campaign.
The clip taken from Kamala’s appearance on “The View” in early October seemed particularly effective. Asked to name a Biden administration policy she would dissent from, the candidate answered, “There is not a thing that comes to mind.”
The Trump campaign ran the snippet again and again.
In addition, there is this: running for president is a personal experience for both the candidate and for voters. “Their heart,” as the great Teddy White wrote in the antediluvian year of 1960, “is his target.”
It’s clear in retrospect that Harris never broke through to enough voters in a way required of a winning candidate. One problem may have been that she was not afforded the necessary time to do what she needed to do.
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown. He may be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail.com.