In recent conversations with Democrats in California, New York, D.C., and Maskachusetts they’ve volunteered their feelings regarding the High IQ Party’s recent loss of power. I’ve also checked out their Facebook and X feeds.
Typical and eloquent: “What’s WRONG with Americans?” The poster owns a $2.1 million home in Berkeley, California, holds a taxpayer-funded job that requires a master’s degree, has a husband who earns money at a technical job, has a nonbinary child (1 out of 2, I think, so only a 50 percent rate of identification with the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community), and is passionate about cats and foster kittens. She will never compete with a low-skill migrant for a job nor an apartment for rent. I responded by pointing out that low-skill immigration is economically harmful to the working class, citing a Harvard study that is consistent with Econ 101 (albeit inconsistent with the Democrat Religion in which Our Lady of Open Borders performs miracles of raising wages and lowering rent every time a migrant walks across), and therefore another explanation was that some American voters are differently situated than she is. She and her friends doubled down on how the only reasonable explanation for a Republican vote was stupidity and/or immorality. I cited the example of my mother’s Haitian aide who voted for Trump. Did the white Berkeley Righteous want to say that there was something wrong with this Black immigrant? Answer: defriending. (Just like when my friend’s daughter asked the “male feminist” (button) social studies teacher in Lincoln, Maskachusetts why companies didn’t hire only women in order to earn higher profits after the teacher asserted that women do the same jobs as men for 80 percent of the salary. Answer: Detention!)
Part of a subsequent text-message exchange with a friend who was part of the Facebook conversation:
I think this is an example of how Democrats failed to understand that peasant Americans might be turning against them. Democrats live in bubbles where they almost never interact with anyone who disagrees with them or where disagreeing with the Democrat dogma is punished so severely that dissenters stay quiet.
If California ever finishes counting its ballots (slower pace than Ron DeSantis restoring power after Hurricane Milton!) we will likely find that there are some Trump voters even in Berkeley. But they are never going to put out a lawn sign or mention their Love that Dare Not Speak its Name in casual conversation.
The result is an asymmetry. The working class understands [let’s call her Nina] and her point of view as a homeowner and holder of a job that requires an advanced degree that undocumented migrants and their descendants are unlikely to ever earn. But Nina will never understand the working class.
(This reminds me of what a wise gringa in Corcovado, Costa Rica said about parrots: “They understand our language, but we don’t understand theirs.”)
Here’s a typical Democrat on X highlighting “Why Does No One Understand the Real Reason Trump Won?” (Democrat-run The New Republic), which points out that a majority of Americans were apparently fooled by lies in “right-wing media”. As Democrats were not fooled, that makes non-Democrats… stupid.
My mom recently had lunch with a Radcliffe ’55 classmate. The 90-year-olds, both in poor health, talked about their fears of an impending Trump dictatorship. My mom’s friend heaped derision on the Americans who had voted “against their interests” for Trump. She expressed sorrow that would-be-Assassin #1 hadn’t killed Trump. I successfully refrained from pointing out that a change of government in D.C. isn’t the biggest risk faced by a typical 90-year-old.
It’s interesting that that Democrats claim to be the Party of Empathy, a quality in which all Republicans are sorely lacking, and can’t put themselves in the shoes of a working class American for even a few seconds. On a recent Uber ride from Stuart, Florida back home the driver was an immigrant from Colombia who had voted for Trump in hopes that further low-skill immigration would be curtailed. Having never tried to make a living as an Uber driver, I don’t think any of my friends could fathom the man’s desire to not see the labor market flooded with new arrivals. Nor would they understand why he doesn’t want to pay higher taxes and/or receive fewer government services so that college graduates can fly to Europe instead of paying back their student loans.
Here’s a beautiful one. An election prophet says that his/her/zir/their prophecy of a Kamala-Tampon Tim victory did not come true because the electorate was irrational (i.e., stupid) and misled by misinformation/disinformation spread by Elon Musk.
Surveying X, we find the old reliable explanation for why not everyone supports Democrats:
(If a Trump dictatorship is all about misogyny that raises the question of why there wasn’t/isn’t more solidarity among the sisterhood. As in 2016, the Trump 2024 campaign manager identified as a woman (she’ll now be his Chief of Staff). A Representative who identifies as a woman just agreed to be Trump’s UN Ambassador. Why are people who identify as “women” helping Donald Trump against the interests of those who share their gender ID?)
Readers: What are you hearing from your Democrat friends? As noted above, mine are saying that they knew tens of millions Americans were stupid and easily fooled by Fox News and similar, but they made a mistake in underestimating the number of stupid Americans.
I spent the last two weeks gloating over the victory, which I wagered a small sum on Robinhood’s betting market that Trump would win. In addition, I spent even more time arguing with millennials who voted for Harris and boomers who are lifelong democrats. I clearly am low IQ given how I spent my time.
In the millennial cohort, a sizable portion which claim to have voted against Obama, switched to Democrats in 2016 after fascist, rapist, whateverist Trump became the nominee. The boomer group was 100% democrat for life. From my observation, the boomer group is much more intransigent. They think bigotry won. They refuse to yield one inch in the culture war issues and claim it’s disinformation to not want men in women’s sports. That parents are now starting to question all vaccines is the fault of Joe Rogan and not the health professionals that recommended a medical treatment to kids for a virus with a median death age of 82.
The millennial group is a little more reflective and willing to consider maybe men should not be punching women in the face even if for sport. They also address the lack of concern around inflation and the economy. One even noted that Biden spent no time signing executive order to remove Title IX, and waited almost 3 years to even acknowledge the millions of people flooding the border. I think because the millennial group is more likely to have young children it makes us more reflective and willing to jump.
Myself, I defected to Florida from California, and from Blue to Red, with my newborn in tow after watching the school debacle (and finding a dead homeless person a block from my house). I reasoned if they close schools for a virus that kills elderly at the risk of children, they will likely find another excuse in the future.
JT, you are clearly the type of Nazi that we the good residents in California are so happy to have fewer of…good riddance to you!
If you look at the electoral map of California districts, you are surrounded by a sea of re. If political violence ramps up I would expect California to have it in the highest amount.
Good luck.
“What are you hearing from your Democrat friends? ”
If I find any Democrat friends, I’ll let you know.
I believe the data suggest that Trump voters were, on average, less formally educated than Harris voters. I know many uneducated people who are remarkably bright, as well as plenty of supposedly intelligent individuals who might think the Eighty Years’ War was part of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. For this reason, I don’t believe anyone can definitively claim that one political party attracts a more intelligent group of supporters.
From reading this blog, I get the impression that a recurring theme is the idea that some individuals have more economic value than others. In my view, this perspective does not lead to anything beneficial. I don’t claim to understand the purpose of our existence, but I am fairly certain that it isn’t about enhancing our economic status, whether individually or collectively.
There is an interesting correlation between education and IQ and who you support politically.
It is true that people with university education and advanced degrees are more likely to be democrats than the rest of the population.
But if you for example restrict the sample to university professors, you will find that those with the lowest GRE score are least likely to be registered republicans.
Most likely are professors of Engineering, Physics, Math and Economics, while those in English, sociology and Education are least likely to be republican.
The highest was engineering professors, where 40% of those registered to a party were republican.
I believe within the sample of hundreds of professors, these was not a single sociology professor that was registered as a republican.
I find it mildly amusing when the ‘highly educated’ conflate ‘credentialed’ with ‘educated’.
They think US is the ship of fools, the same as 300 years ago. Lions can’t see any significant change coming. The government isn’t going to shrink or balance its budget. Elon is going to lose interest in governing & shift to revolutionizing xmas. Then the party will resume again in 2028.
@PhilG I am not sure why you keep writing about your democratic friends. Why are you still friends with them, with your political views you should be having lot of really die hard Republicans as your friends. With trifecta Victory, what are your conservative/Republican friends and acquaintances saying. Now with peasant Americans along with real hard working people on Republicans side what are they going to do to improve these people’s lives. I live in a relatively rich community with 80% Republican and 50% of the community is either active military mostly working in mcdil base in Tampa or retired with at least 3 GOVT pensions. One of my non military neighbor is saying Trump is going to make USA as a Christian country, the other military person saying Trump is going spend lot of money on defence and it will benefit him. Looks he benefitted a lost in last Trump Term.
RH: I lived most of my life in the Northeast and (briefly) in California so most of my friends are from those politically homogenous areas. My Republican friends, including in our Florida neighborhood (much more diverse than where we lived in the Boston suburbs), aren’t as passionate about politics. They don’t wake up every day and pray to a leader on their side while damning the leaders on the other side. To the extent the Republicans I know have expressed their post-election feelings they’ve mostly expressed relief that the country won’t be taken further down the Biden-Harris path. At the same time, they seem to think that the federal bureaucracy is so entrenched that Trump won’t be able to change much of significance.
Phil, I have a question that I realize might be a little awkward so if you choose not to answer I will remain a loyal reader, i.e. not cancel my subscription. My question is this: I have been reading that some women like Woofie Goldberg have announced that they are going on a “sex strike” and I have even seen photos of women who have shaved their heads, etc. to make themselves unattractive to men. The two women that you referred to, are they going to go on a sex strike? I mean as Julia Louise Dreyfus put it, the Trump fascists are going to regulate what a woman can do with her own “snatch” – Julia Louise Dreyfus’s words, not mine. Are the two ladies you referred to concerned about this issue and if so how are they addressing it?
Does “I wouldn’t touch that crack with your pole” strike a familiar note?
JDC: I guess Caryn Elaine Johnson (age 69 and professionally known as “Whoopi Goldberg” proves that a Democrat is never too old to go on a sex strike. However, all of the Democrat females whom I know affiliated only with meek loyal Democrat men who share their political views. Ergo, there wouldn’t be any reason for them to quit sex other than the standard ones that cause roughly half of married women to stop being interested in sex with their husbands after four years.
I think a fair accounting would find deep insanity on both sides.
How many right-wing types have been saying “If we lose this election, we’re no longer going to have a country.”
I heard this daily. Trump said it. Elon said it. (Just heard it on his Rogan interview last night).
Can we really say the left has been using the stronger over-the-top rhetoric?
Re: What Democratic friends are saying. Many of them think the Democrats had it coming for their last 4 years, but that Trump’s base is insane.
People who watch a lot of MSNBC (like my mom and stepmom) fall back on the racism/sexism stuff.
I think the better explanation is that Trump’s voters are misinformed.
I listened to Elon on Joe Rogan last night, and in the 2 hours I listened to (so far), I caught 3 key arguments:
– The Democrats have a secret plan to bring migrants into swing states
– The new immigrants would swing the vote totals to the Democrat’s favor
– Those 51 intelligence officials lied about Hunter Biden’s laptop
When Rogan endorsed Trump, he mentioned Elon’s show as important in his decision.
What is the truth?
– Those immigrants can’t vote
– Sure seems like most of those immigrants are clustered in non-swing states
– I’ve never once heard anyone on the left talk about using this tactic. They’re just sympathetic towards people from s-hole countries.
– Those 51 intelligence people didn’t say any such thing: https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000175-4393-d7aa-af77-579f9b330000
It’s telling that Elon’s best arguments were all lies and conspiracy theories.
It’s clear that Rogan has been red-pilled for quite a while, but being finished off by a set of lies is unfortunate.
> What is the truth? – Those immigrants can’t vote
1) they can’t vote … yet. That happens after “a pathway to citizenship”
2) they already affect the number of representatives, where seats are apportioned to states based on population, not just citizens. CA and NY already have 2-3 extra seats in congress due to illegal immigrants counted in their population
3) if “sympathy towards sh*those countries” is the goal, it’s much more cost efficient to send them money so they can improve their country, rather them importing them to live here at great financial and social cost.
David: “Trump’s voters are misinformed” sounds like an alternative way to say “Trump’s voters are stupid” (the original post’s headline). Democrats are smart enough to inform themselves from correct sources, e.g., Fauci, Pfizer.com, New York Times (the Hunter Biden laptop is fake), etc. Trump voters are stupid, which is why they don’t get the correct information about cloth masks and experimental COVID vaccines preventing infection/spread of COVID and why they believe Russian disinformation, such as the Hunter Biden laptop being genuine.
The linked letter DOES portray the Hunter Biden situation as a Russian hoax, rather than the truth that it was.
Faucian Bargain (and others) — let me give you my best argument for that letter being correct.
https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000175-4393-d7aa-af77-579f9b330000
First, the letter says “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation”… “We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails, provided to the New York Post by President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement — just that our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case.”
This is just the plain text. Anyone telling you “They said it was fake” didn’t bother to read 5 paragraphs of text.
Maybe the words “information operation” are confusing or unclear.
This doesn’t mean fake. Here are a few examples.
For the 2016 election, Russian groups hacked the DNC’s email and released embarrassing emails about the Hillary vs Bernie campaign. This was an information operation.
In 2017, right before the French election, Russians hacked someone’s email and released a combination of real and fake emails 2 days before an election. This was also an info opp.
In 2020, Wikileaks became a huge info app, with the Russians using Wikileaks to disseminate stolen info. This is why Trump was trying to get in contact with the Russians, to figure out what was going to be released next.
In 2024, Iran hacked someone in the Trump org to steal vetting files on JD Vance and tried to get US sources to publish it. Another info opp.
I detail all this just to point out that hacking and releasing embarrassing (but true) info is a common way foreign govts interfere.
So when the intelligence guys said “This looks like something Russia would do”, this is right.
And what about the details?
The computer shop guy said he’s nearly blind and received a laptop from someone who claimed to be Hunter Biden, but the shop owner couldn’t make out his face.
Sounds like he was a maga guy because he then offered up the laptop to the FBI, then to Rudy G. Somehow Steve Bannon also got it.
When reporters interviewed the shop owner, his story kept changing. He didn’t seem trustworthy.
What is the likelihood that: (1) Hunter was wasted enough to drop off a laptop, but not sober enough to retrieve it, and (2) it went to a blind computer repairman, who (3) was MAGA enough to give it to the FBI, and (4) when he didn’t see anyone arrested, started spreading it to other MAGA people?
The laptop story was shopped around to all the major news sources, but none of them found it credible enough to publish without verification before the election.
It was finally published by the NY Post, a well-known right-wing source who published it 2 weeks before the election, without any verification, it seems.
The last important point: it’s common for news outlets to hold back publishing when they don’t trust the source.
All the major news sources had the Steele Dossier before the election, but none of them published it because they couldn’t verify it, until Politico finally published it after the election.
Many news sources had the JD Vance story before the election, but they didn’t publish it because they suspected it was stolen and coming from a foreign source.
So to summarize:
– The 51 intelligence people said they didn’t know if it was true or false
– They said it looked like an intelligence opp
– Based on timing and content, it exactly matches what the Russian have a history of doing
– The circumstances around how the info was received were sketchy
– The shop owner didn’t seem credible
– Among credible new sources, the standard procedure is to not publish in these cases.
So the letter makes total sense and was a prudent thing to do. No complaints.
So the opt-repeated “51 intelligence officials claimed the laptop was fake when they knew it was true” is the actual lie, and people who claim to be truth-tellers shining light on corrupt officials have it exactly backwards.
I find it even more incredible these lies can spread with the 1 1/2 page document just sitting there online, holding the truth for anyone who reads it with a clear mind.
@David
The letter is as semantically correct as Bill Clinton saying, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman,” but in both cases most people now see through the doublespeak.
In addition to what @Sam said, the DNC’s media organs did not report it as “although likely true, this material may have been obtained through a Russian HACK:” the legacy media reported it as “this is Russian DISNIFORMATION, which you should disregard.”
Thankfully nobody globally, and especially no American taxpayers, have been affected by the Biden influence peddling. We can all peacefully knowing that Ukraine has remained a sleepy, peaceful country under the Bidens’ transparent and effective leadership.
I was particularly frustrated when John Oliver did his segment on the election results and tried to argue against soundbite analyst claims that the Democrats are too woke. He argued that Harris didn’t focus on LGBT+ issues at all, then he immediately moved on to celebrate a Delaware town for electing a trans official. John Oliver and his writers don’t understand that voters see Harris, the Democrats and his own show as part of the liberal bloc and vote against the *bloc* – that every time their show celebrates a trans official’s election a few future Democrat votes flip red, dispersed across all future elections. And the same for every other liberal media outlet.
This feels like propaganda from Oliver.
While true that Kamala didn’t focus on that, staying quiet about something for 2 months doesn’t undo the last 4+ years.
I was trying to think of a single Democrat who came out against any trans position.
Is Moulton the first? This feels new:
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4992877-seth-moulton-democrats-depth-of-election-losses/
* Btw, I heard AOC removed her pronouns from her twitter bio in the last few days.
David,
Moulton is a hypocrite of the first water:
“He voted against passing a Republican-backed bill – the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act – as recently as last year.
Moulton is also the co-sponsor of the Democrat-pushed Transgender Bill of Rights, which would allow trans participation in sports matching their gender identity.”
He’s stupid, too, because his reversal won’t be appreciated much in MA. So his political career there may be finished unless he sees the light again and repents.
Here’s a weird pair of ‘before’ and ‘after’ articles about one segment of Trump voters:
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/2024-us-presidential-election/trump-claims-record-muslim-support-in-michigan-warns-of-warmonger-cabinet-under-harris/3384171
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/muslims-who-voted-trump-upset-by-his-pro-israel-cabinet-picks-2024-11-15/?utm_source=newsshowcase&utm_medium=gnews&utm_campaign=CDAqDQgAKgYICjC3oAwwsCYwn5DKAw&utm_content=rundown&gaa_at=g&gaa_n=AVINqTxdJ9v4RQqTpwiXyZ3OlknF4zghWeRJfPyX5hH2A01pBmK5jf1ooMWZ_uVufQjE_3H6Rpmzs7BiupIl&gaa_ts=67384472&gaa_sig=NF9Su81tMJNl3m5XVW8A0c5hG_sk9ve7SxsYN1UpOtiXfxKGUa-lR33EJqV7PYNXKMd0egxFdHBx4kja_saUlw%3D%3D
Before the election, Trump’s pick for Secretary of State , Marco Rubio, was quoted
earlier this year as saying he would not call for a ceasefire in Gaza, and that he believed Israel should destroy “every element” of Hamas. “These people are vicious animals,” he added.’
And oddly, some Arabs and Muslims who voted for Trump are surprised and a little hurt that his pick for Secretary of State seems to have a definition of ‘peace’ as being to let Israel annihilate Hamas. Which may well the correct course of action for long term peace, but I guess doesn’t come across that way, hence the disappointment?
Henry: an American Muslim could have a lot of reasons for voting Republican other than support for Arab Muslims in Gaza. I’m not sure that I would believe media reports because we can look at revealed preference. The typical Muslim worldwide does not support his/her/zir/their Palestinian brothers, sisters, and binary-resisters with cash. It is the US and EU taxpayers, most of whom are not Muslim, who keep the Palestinian war effort going via funding UNRWA and, thus, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Democrats and liberals can get some advice from a comedian. Watch this 8-minute clip from Bill Maher, “New Rule: Tough Love Dems,” and you’ll see why they lost.
Maher breaks down the Democratic, Liberal and Progressive issues like DEI, transgender rights, racism, “woke” culture, and even IQ in simple, straightforward terms. But his most telling point is this: “Stop screaming at people to get with the program and instead create a program worth getting with.”
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtCK-dMb-F8
What we can learn from this is that old Democrats, such as Bill Maher, are out of step with present-day Democrat thought leadership, e.g., that provided by AOC, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and other young rising stars.
If Democrats really believe that Donald Trump is an existential threat to the country, and at the same time believe that America is a fundamentally racist and sexist country, not ready to elect a Black woman, why would they ever select Kamala Harris as their nominee?
Paul: That’s a great point. There are plenty of cisgender heterosexual white men who share the Biden-Harris-AOC progressive agenda. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Merkley is 68 and one of the most progressive senators, according to https://progressivepunch.org/scores.htm?house=senate . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Pocan is 60 years old and one of the most progressive members of the House (above Ilham Omar and AOC!).
Paul — A few reasons:
Biden dropped out with roughly 100 days left, and many people couldn’t imagine getting through a mini primary in a short time and coming out unified. Past primaries took months and left half the party angry, and it looks months to recover. In this case, people thought there was no time.
There was a lot of fear that skipping over a black woman would tear the coalition apart, and women and black voters would stay home.
It’s pretty easy to imagine an alternative path where they swapped in a generic white guy and spent a huge amount of time on in-fighting and trying to smooth over feelings instead of taking on Trump.
– The people who spent capital pushing Biden out likely didn’t have the standing for another fight. It was a bruising fight for Pelosi and others.
– As soon as Biden got behind Kamala, all the other candidates endorsed her.
Some people talk about “the elites” coming together to push Kamala forward, but the opposite was true. Pelosi, Obama, and the board of the NY Times all either asked for a primary or held off endorsing Kamala as long as they could. But there was a massive push from the base of the party to make it Kamala, and people were running out of alternatives.
Pelosi and Obama likely knew she was a weak candidate, but the mass of the party just wanted to pull together and start fighting Trump.
Kamala had performed terribly in 2019, but most people seemed to forget how badly she did (and that they didn’t really like her). I think they just wanted to get beyond the infighting and start taking on Trump, and Kalama was the quick path forward.
I think it was a mistake, but it’s easy to see how another path could have also been a disaster.
@David, This was largely the work of the Democrats. Biden surrounded himself with “smart” and “loyal” advisors who shielded his mental decline from public view. Even the liberal media remained in the dark (or maybe they intentionally didn’t report on it?!) until the first debate with Trump. Biden’s condition was essentially a non-issue in the news.
Could Biden’s own stubbornness have played a role, for refusing to step aside sooner? Maybe — we’ll never know for sure.
But is this why the Democrats lost? No. Was there a better candidate than Harris who could have won? No. And why? Because the Democratic agenda was all about “woke” culture and DEI than anything else.
Here is someone explaining it in black & white, to CNN reporter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrU7wlwEn2A&t=125s
This election was not about “the economy stupid”, it was about the “woke” and DEI that drove voters away from Democrats.