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Since I first voted in 1968, the Democratic Party platform has changed significantly to a more progressive platform, from one of moderation. In the next few months, the party will begin a self-analysis to find out how and why it lost the presidency. For starters, Democrats should have listened to the millions of people who appealed to them that inflation has reared its ugly head and is causing them to make difficult choices in their daily lives. Like almost every presidential election in the past, pocketbook issues determine the outcome of the election. They should also recognize that they have lost many of the blue-collar and middle-class members the party once prided itself as being in the Democratic camp.

Donald Trump’s voters are not uniform. Yes, several in his constituency do not have college degrees, but many do have degrees and are not living paycheck to paycheck. The demographics include more than white males. This has been completely missed by the Democratic Party. The ugly truth of inflation is color blind and the party, for whatever reason, has not recognized this fact.

Finally, many of the same people who left the Democratic Party and voted for Trump were and are frustrated by the raising of issues that were perceived to be as important to the party as the general economy, immigration and crime. Democrats will have to decide whether they want to double down on the progressive platform or return to the Democratic Party of yesteryear.

I think the results of the presidential election were more of a loss for the Democrats than a win for the Republicans. James Carville’s 1992 joke “It’s the economy, stupid” is still relevant. Trump’s supporters have certainly set the table for him, but the Democrats’ inability to deliver a digestible message that explains the economy over the past four years has probably put him over the top. Almost all values ​​of the economy are favorable for Americans, but the electorate does not believe. President Joe Biden inherited a powerful pandemic and a struggling economy, but has held very few press conferences over the past four years to address inflation. If the roles were reversed, does anyone honestly think that Trump would have hesitated to use the bully pulpit, putting himself in front of the American people week after week, blaming the Democrats for inflation? Of course, Trump’s skills as a snake oil salesman, combined with his expansive right-wing media apparatus, give him an enormous megaphone.