The New Yorker:

Despair permeates white, Black, and Latino working-class life. Democrats will have to find a new way to speak to it.

By Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

When Kamala Harris announced her candidacy, the flurry of excitement created the impression that a social movement was afoot. Thousands of people joined phone calls to raise money and to establish networks focussed on supporting her. Tens of thousands of people braved heat and long lines to join rallies that breathed life into Harris’s new campaign. Their hope was apparent: that Harris could make a sharp departure from the deeply unpopular Joe Biden and the status quo that he had come to represent.

Instead, from the Democratic National Convention, the campaign did something different. Intending to create a contrast to the grim mood of the Republican convention weeks prior, they cast themselves as optimists and patriots with what Harris described as a “new path forward.” But the mood of celebration misunderstood an angry electorate, one struggling to stay ahead and firm in its belief that the country is headed in the wrong direction. So did the overwhelming focus on chastened Republicans, who appeared onstage to denounce Trump and took time away from clarifying how Democrats would attend to voters’ economic troubles. Yes, ordinary Democrats were relieved that a coherent person could take on Trump, but exulting in good vibes mistook a political mood that was turning dark. It is the disconnect that ultimately underwrote Trump’s dramatic victory over Harris and his pending return to the White House.

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