President Donald Trump is bursting with new political momentum just in time for early voting and the final weeks of the 2024 campaign. If he wins on Nov. 5, and the endless counting continues for days, if not weeks, afterward, he will accomplish the greatest reversal in American political history.
Democrats may try to delegitimize the results, but ultimately they will only be responsible for their defeat for five fundamental reasons.
The first is the poor quality of the candidate they chose, Kamala Harris. She was a terrible candidate for president in 2019 (and failed to become president in 2020), but she proved why in 2024: Harris lacks basic political skills. Although she is adept at climbing the ladder among Democratic elites, she lacks a feel for retail politics and is unable to improvise. Her instincts are left-wing, but she generally has no beliefs beyond her personal ambitions.
But long before President Joe Biden was elbowed out of office and Mr. Kamala took office, Democrats were on a path to defeat.
The events of January 6, 2021 should have caused enough political damage to Trump that he would never be a candidate again. However, the Democratic Party was not satisfied with pursuing his political responsibility. They pursued a partisan strategy of “law” against him, against his supporters, and even against his legal advisers.
The “law” was accepted by the high-minded gentlemen of the Democratic Party, but in reality it is the worst tactic of a third world dictatorship. He united the Republican Party around Trump in a way that nothing else could have done.
If that was the Democrats' plan to elevate Trump to the Republican nomination in order to make it easier for Republicans to win the general election, it backfired. Americans of all political backgrounds felt the danger of the Democratic Party's abuse of power.
Democrats also chose to reverse President Trump's successful border policies. It's unclear whether they couldn't foresee the outcome of millions of immigrants from around the world, or whether that was part of their plan.
Either way, the choice to tear down the border wall and end the “remain in Mexico” policy for asylum seekers awaiting trial led to disaster. Democrats persuaded no one that immigration reform was the solution.
Inflation was another inevitable result of clear and unnecessary policy choices by Democrats. When Biden took office in 2021, there were already trillions of dollars in coronavirus relief funds still unspent. The so-called “American Rescue Plan” was an expensive reenactment of the early Obama-era spending spree, targeting Democratic states and districts. But the economy has already recovered, and cash has fueled inflation not seen in decades.
Biden's weak leadership on the world stage was also entirely foreseeable. Biden, who has long campaigned on the idea that Trump is too close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, sought to appease Russia. After a disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, Putin sensed Biden's vulnerability and invaded Ukraine. Meanwhile, Biden tried to revive the failed Iran nuclear deal, injecting money into his administration that later financed terrorism against Israel and sparked a major war.
Democrats point to positive aspects of the Biden era, including a return to pre-pandemic Trump-era low unemployment rates. But few Americans believe the country is on the right track.
And Democrats don't have an answer. They cling to unpopular ideas such as transgenderism and promise higher taxes and increased censorship. They recycle old falsehoods about Trump and stir up fear about abortion rights.
They are a political party that has lost its mission. They deserved to lose.
Joel B. Pollack is a senior editor at Breitbart News. Breitbart News Sunday Sunday nights from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM ET (4:00 PM to 7:00 PM PT) on Sirius XM Patriot. he is the author of Agenda: What should President Trump do in his first 100 days?available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of Trumpian Virtues: Lessons and Legacy of the Donald Trump Presidencynow available on Audible. He is the recipient of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter @joelpolak.
