Many Democratic voters thought they were feeling a vibe shift by the time Nov. 5 rolled around in this year’s U.S. election cycle. Most polls showed a tight race, but some numbers from Ohio, late observations from a prominent data scientist, and some intangible feeling in the air suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris was going to break new ground in political leadership and take the Oval Office in January. Instead, Trump won a surprising and decisive victory.
Since then, political pundits have been dissecting Trump’s success and Harris’s failure: Did misogyny and racism hold Harris back? Did toxic masculinity guarantee Trump’s win? Had the Democrats ignored the realities of today’s economy or failed to present a coherent vision of the future?
