Crazy campaign plus catastrophic candidates equals surprisingly normal results - opinion

On Tuesday, an extraordinary thing happened. A country on edge went to the polls – with no one knowing what would happen.

In the end, the people spoke soundly, peacefully, and democratically. They reverted to the norm – ignoring all the static of this rollercoaster campaign to vote their pocketbooks, express their anger, and throw the incumbents out. 

The most potent numbers that usually speak loudest spoke loudly again: over the last four years, as more and more people felt their economic situation lag, their faith in America sag, registration for the party out of government, meaning the Republicans, inched up. That’s what won the election. 

Sometimes, in the insane world of American politics, a three-ring circus produces the most predictable and boring results.

It was a crazy campaign featuring two assassination attempts on the same candidate, an improvised switch of nominees mid-campaign, an increasingly unstable world, and a surprisingly unnerved electorate – with half the country fearing the other half.

Difficult choices

Both were catastrophic candidates. Not only did each catastrophize, feeding Americans’ fear of the future and one another, but each kept running for the title of Worst Candidate in American History. 

It was the King of Cussing versus the Queen of Word Salads. Kamala Harris launched a campaign of “joyous vibes” - fueled by accusations that her opponent was a “fascist” and his supporters were American Nazis or simply garbage. 

Donald Trump rambled and rumbled, so steeped in a culture of insults that he and his people allowed an insult comedian who specializes in offending groups open for him at a Madison Square Garden.

Ultimately, it was indeed “the economy stupid” – as James Carville famously said during Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign. 

Americans voted for “Change” – what Barack Obama promised in 2008, and what Kamala Harris didn’t when she couldn’t think of one substantive thing she would do differently than the man she had to replace because he wasn’t good enough to run but was somehow good enough to remain president, Joe Biden. 

While the mainstream media was busy bashing Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally for its offensive warm-up acts and wacky tone, a majority of American voters heard Trump echo Ronald Reagan’s devastating question from 1980, which unseated Jimmy Carter: “Are you better off today than you were four years ago.”

It is true. After January 6, 2021, no one would have predicted that the former president, who faced multiple impeachments and was on his way to earning multiple indictments, would return. 

Like him or not, Donald Trump deserves credit for playing the politics of this moment in history cleverly. He was the one who never quit. He was the one who kept stoking his base and who tapped a deep, enduring anger over immigration, crime, and chaos. 

Trump challenged the fear of defending or loving being American and of DEI regimes and cancel culture, political correctness, and a “fake news” regime on top of the economic lassitude. 

He helped obscure justified charges over mishandled presidential papers by focusing on unprecedented charges of fraud pursued by the Manhattan District Attorney, who won’t properly prosecute street criminals. 

Trump vowed that he wouldn’t let the insanity of the universities and the ‘American carnage’ in too many small towns triumph from coast to coast. 

Additionally, he had a clearer vision of the need to fight vigorously against the evils of Iran while recognizing the degree to which too many Palestinians still cheer on Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.

Of course, to all Trump's Jewish voters and Israeli supporters - beware what you wish for. 

Trump has promised to push to end the war quickly - on his timetable, not ours. Trump remains the same mercurial man who deemed Netanyahu ungrateful when he behaved properly toward Biden and first dismissed Israel as losers after October 7th. 

It's clearer than ever that Israel and the world need a strong and functioning United States with a president representing and respecting all Americans.

At the same time, the Democrats earned this loss fair and square.

In September 2023, your not-so-humble-correspondent wrote in Newsweek, “The Democrats are stuck. President Joe Biden remains unpopular, with two-thirds of Democrats believing him too old to run again, while two-thirds of Americans doubt his fitness for the job—yet Vice President Kamala Harris is even less popular. And this while the Republican frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, continues to consolidate a 30-point lead against his closest rivals.

“Democrats claim that defeating Trump is their top priority. If they mean it, they will act boldly: Kamala Harris should quit so Joe Biden can retire nobly. Most Americans dread a Biden-Trump rematch, and whichever party finds a fresh candidate to avoid this ordeal will improve its chances of winning the presidency. 

Yet the ongoing scourge of political correctness is preventing the supposedly people's party from listening to the people. Why not trust them to pick vigorous new candidates strengthened by a robust open primary season?”

I was pilloried. I was called “ageist” for doubting Joe Biden’s abilities. I was called “sexist” and racist” because you’re apparently never allowed to criticize a black woman, no matter how undistinguished she was as a presidential candidate in 2019 or as a Vice President.

I was called “right-wing,” “Trumpian,” and on and on, even though I was challenging Democrats to save the country from Trump – and themselves.

Democratic denial

However, the Democrats couldn’t help lying to themselves and to the people. They continued lying about Biden’s weaknesses until his first debate with Trump. 

They denied Harris’s incompetence, vagueness, distance from Israel, and closeness to San Francisco progressivism until the election results started coming in.

In 1980, when the Democrats lost, they didn’t ask, “What’s wrong with the American people?” Instead, they asked, “Where did we go wrong.” 

In 1981, Charles Manatt, a lawyer and banker, became chairman of the Democratic National Committee to fix a party that had been, he admitted, “outconceptualized, out-organized, out-televised, out-coordinated, out-financed and out-worked.” 

In 2016, Democrats lost – and blamed Trump – as well as the “deplorable” American electorate. 

In 2024, as Trump came back, Democrats blamed Trump – as well as the “fascist” American electorate. It’s time for soul-searching rather than finger-pointing.

But, of course, Republicans should beware, too. A clear election victory is no guarantee of a successful presidency. The divisions remain. The problems domestically and internationally are mounting. 

Trump’s shortcomings are still glaring – and may be exacerbated because there’s nothing more dangerous than an angry, vindictive, victorious narcissist. One hopes that the House will turn Democratic because every party needs institutional brakes – especially now. 

However, even if the House stays Republican – the chaos we have seen in the Republican caucus should calm any fears of some kind of Republican monolith or dictatorship.

Still, Trump and the Republicans have earned a victory lap. And the American people should enjoy the fact that the result seems to be pretty straightforward – while doing everything every citizen can to keep the transition smooth and peaceful.

The writer is a Senior Fellow in Zionist Thought at the JPPI, the Jewish People Policy Institute, the Global ThinkTank of the Jewish People, and is an American presidential historian. His latest book, To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream, was just published.