Last May, Donald J. Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. In November, Trump ran for re-election and won against the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris. On Jan. 10, Justice Juan Merchan sentenced Trump. Now, the president-elect is the president and Americans are saddled with a new first. A felon for president.
Trump’s victory didn’t surprise me; I always had a gut feeling the Republican candidate would come out on top. This feeling didn’t influence my vote but it did lead to conversations with several of my close friends.
It is undeniable the Biden Administration lowered the unemployment rate and rapidly grew the GDP. Nonetheless, it is also undeniable that the majority of Americans disapproved of the Biden Administration. One assessment from the Pew Research Center revealed only 37% of Americans said they currently approve of Biden’s performance in the Oval Office.
This is all to say that Harris’ loss was to be expected. Statistics and numbers don’t matter when public perception of the economy, candidates and future of the country is, at best, murky. As someone who voted for Kamala Harris, I’d argue most Americans think life’s tough and the solution is Trump.
To be frank, this realization sucks. After the election, I realized that one, I hate losing, even if parasocially, and two, I am out of touch. Voters were not influenced by the same social issues that influenced me and others. Rather, class is what determined the outcome of the 2024 election.
I am no Ebenezer Scrooge (Bah humbug!) and, obviously, not everyone who voted for Kamala Harris is some wealthy elite. Yet, there is a good number of individuals who felt abandoned by the economic policy spat out by the left.
Post-election, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders publicly called out the Democratic party on X, formerly known as Twitter. Sanders wrote, “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.”
Likewise, in the months leading up to the election, American political and communications consultant and pollster Frank Luntz explained how it is ‘’paycheck-to-paycheck voters’’ who will determine the outcome of the election. Sanders is correct. Luntz ended up being correct. Paycheck-to-paycheck voters largely supported Trump.
What piqued my interest was the intersectionality that paycheck-to-paycheck voters could provide insight into. I wanted to observe how different LGBTQ+, people of color, disabled, etc. identities may intertwine with financial struggles, especially with Dorothy Allison’s death right after the election, an author who wrote vividly about her experiences growing up poor and queer in the rural South.
Yet, I couldn’t really find anything. It’s damning and further reveals where Harris may have lost votes.
A major talking point from the left is “the American people voted for a felon.” You see this rhetoric delivered with upturned noses and sneers. It’s something I used to say. Now, I believe this language is something that will inevitably alienate voters in the next election because people aren’t realizing that Trump’s criminality makes him more relatable.
For instance, in an interview with the New York Post, Duke Tanner, an ex-boxer, said “By the president getting that mug shot, he was able to see through a black man’s eyes,”
The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization that reports on issues in criminal justice, conducted a study consisting of more than 54,000 people behind bars. Of these 54,000, the majority of those incarcerated said they would vote for Trump. The Marshall Project also reported “Many respondents said they take issue with the way the party has made Trump’s felony convictions a central feature of Harris’ election campaign… And some flatly reject Harris because she was a prosecutor.”
Trust that my intention is not to play the role of a Trump apologist but rather to point out where Democrats and Harris have failed. Going back to the discussion of class, low-income groups are overrepresented in the prison system too.
Admittedly, there is some nuance to be had in this conversation. Trump has certain privileges others do not. Republicans are passing anti-felon legislation and the like. But, the topic of Trump and the 2024 Election ultimately leads to a discussion of classism in contemporary America.
