Election results make people say and do silly things. Too many overnight experts giving too many bad takes. This time was no different.
Here are some of the worst.
The Patriarchy Wins Again
I won’t belabor the point since I’ve written about this a few times, but Democrats and pundits can’t seem to get past the idea that Donald Trump won the presidency because of sexism.
For this, we turn to the ladies of The View.
Alyssa Farrah, who served in the last Trump Administration but voted Democrat in this election, was pointing out that voters in Starr County, Texas, the most Hispanic county in the country, voted for Trump – a dramatic turn from prior elections.
Before she could answer the rhetorical question of why that was, co-host Sonny Hostin interrupted with “Misogyny.”
Farrah was trying to make the point that border security is important in border counties like Starr County, and Trump’s call for securing the border was attractive after four years of border mismanagement from President Joe Biden.
Hostin was having none of it.
“Misogyny and sexism – that’s what that was,” Hostin said.
If only we had data on whether this county would support a woman for president.
Oh wait, we do!
In 2016, Starr County voted overwhelmingly in favor of Hillary Clinton, 79% to 19%.
Now, it’s possible that between 2016 and last Tuesday all the feminists moved out and the sexists moved in.
Or maybe voters thought they were voting for a man named Hillary Clinton.
Or maybe Farrah was right and that voters along the border thought Trump’s plan to secure the border was better than Biden’s and Harris’s record of not securing the border.
Not to pile on poor Hostin, but America will also soon have a record number of female governors, while some states voted for Trump for president and women for Senate, like in Wisconsin and Michigan.
These sexist voters are terrible at being sexist!
A Flawless Campaign
MSNBC’s Joy Reid has now repeatedly marveled at the “flawless” campaign run by Vice President Kamala Harris.
Really? I can think of at least one glaring flaw: Harris lost.
Reid’s logic was that it would have been very difficult for America to elect a woman, and especially a woman of color, and so given that Harris had no way of winning, her campaign was flawless.
Again, let’s turn to the data. In 2008, America elected Barack Obama, who is Black. In fact, Obama was re-elected four years later. I feel comfortable saying that America is ready to elect a Black president.
The country also routinely elects women as senators and governors, which are pretty important positions. It’s a matter of time before a woman is elected president and I would not be even a little surprised if it was a woman of color.
Strangely, I don’t remember Reid supporting Nikki Haley, who is of Indian descent and ran in the Republican presidential primary last year. Maybe, like the Starr County voters who didn’t realize Clinton was a woman, Reid didn’t know Haley was a woman of color.
We’ll never know.
Democrats Have No Answer To Joe Rogan
MSNBC commentator Anand Giridharadas complained of the awesome power of right-leaning podcast host Joe Rogan and pundit Jordan Peterson.
To Giridharadas, the right-wing media is modeled after terrorist groups who “radicalize” people worried about the “price of eggs” and brainwash them into supporting “full blown fascist politics.”
“There is nothing like it on the pro-democracy side,” Giridharadas said (I assume he sees himself on the pro-democracy side). “When a man is just lost and lonely and not yet radicalized, we don’t have the equivalent of Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson to move that man in a feminist direction.”
It’s an interesting take, for sure, albeit one with a very limited understanding of terrorism, facism, the effects of inflation, public relations and the appeal of Rogan and Peterson. Basically the whole thing was off, but he was really passionate and made a very serious face.
While you could forgive Giridharadas for having a selective memory and forgetting that Democrats control our popular culture, Hollywood, the music scene, academia, the mediaand the permanent bureaucracy, it’s funny he couldn’t remember the left-wing news network whose chair he was occupying at the time of his comments.
Harris had no shortage of influential backers. Taylor Swift, one of the most recognizable people in the world, backed her, as well as the best list of high-profile endorsers money could buy.
Harris actually declined to appear on Rogan’s podcast, which I assume is also the fault of the right-wing conspiracy.
Rogan and Peterson told me to write this. I’m powerless to resist.
What Am I?
Who and what exactly am I? A gadfly with keys to the Daily Kos wants to know.
Writing in the progressive blog, Lucy Montrose condemned as unhelpful one of my recent columns: “Democrats do have a man problem, and it’s their fault.”
At the time I argued that Democrats have alienated men to an almost absurd extreme, citing California Gov. Gavin Newsom saying mass shootings were a case of masculinity gone wrong, Harris’ husband telling a story about being in spin class, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz trying to woo male voters by going on a pheasant hunt, only to beclown himself by appearing to have never loaded a gun before.
Montrose’s felt I offered no constructive feedback for how Democrats could persuade male voters.
But soon she descended into madness, first wondering if I was actually a female NY Post columnist with the same last name, and then landing on the possibility that I was possibly AI.
It was a work of art.
Am I me? Am I someone else? Am I a robot? A ghost? Merely a concept? There’s really no way of knowing.
However, at Montrose’s urging, I offer the following three suggestions for Democrats to appeal to male voters.
Practice makes perfect. Remember that when staging a publicity stunt.
Never start an anecdote with “I was at spin class when…”
Cry less. We never know how to handle that.
Follow Matt on X @FlemingWords.