Paul Murray: As Democrats talked about Trump’s flaws, he talked to Americans about their problems

If Kamala Harris couldn’t beat Donald Trump after everything the Democrats and the media have thrown at him over the past eight years, imagine how humiliated she would have been against a decent candidate. The Democrats didn’t even put Harris through the due-diligence authorisation of a democratic selection process, installing her as the nominee while baying at the moon about attacks on democracy. She was a “diversity choice” by Joe Biden to run as his vice-president in 2020 and that was enough for them to parachute her into the race against Trump just three months ago without testing any other candidate. They got what they deserved after covering up Biden’s mental decline for years and leaving it so late to move him on against his wishes. And with opinion polls consistently showing more than two-thirds of voters thought America was on the wrong track under Biden, Harris told the all-female panel on the leftist love-in The View on October 8 that she wouldn’t do anything differently. “There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of . . . and I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact, the work that we have done,” Harris said. The arrogance and insensitivity of that response is breath-taking. But it epitomised her hollow campaign. At the time, CNN’s polling showed Biden’s disapproval rating was at an historic 55 per cent high. The Democrats and their supporters in the media have to face one stark insurmountable fact: the rabid demonisation of Trump hasn’t worked. And it shredded their credibility. That axiom was clear to many conservatives long ago. It was Trump’s pathway back with people who felt the system had let them down. Because while the haters were talking about him and his flaws, he was talking to Americans about their problems. The impeachment farces, the long list of dodgy prosecutions in Democrat-run jurisdictions, the attempts to hang the January 6 mob’s actions on his shoulders, the constant drumbeat that Trump was a threat to democracy that built to direct accusations he was not only a fascist, but worse than Hitler, all failed to stop his return. Why? Because most American voters didn’t believe it. And that’s a major problem for the American media. Because it means that most people don’t believe them anymore either. The opinion polls understated Trump’s support because of the demonisation. Many intimidated Trump voters shut up, kept their own counsel and waited for the chance to vote. At every Trump rally, he pointed out the “fake media” in attendance and the crowd booed. Now the nation has booed at them too — from the sanctity and anonymity of the polling booth. Watching MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough the morning after the loss was illuminating. He was supine. The most vicious anti-Trumper in the US media couldn’t quite work out what had happened. But he was prepared to blame everyone but himself. The Democrats and useful media idiots like Morning Joe learned nothing from Hilary Clinton’s election-losing gaffe about the “basket of deplorables” and did even worse this time in slurring Trump supporters. They also reaped the whirlwind of a dishonest campaign that treated voters like chumps. Every layer of the Democratic campaign for Harris was built on distortions, even worse than Trump’s obnoxious bluster. The media — and not just in America — can’t just shrug off their behaviour in reporting the horrid campaign, showing a partisanship even more extreme than the usual political polarisation. Take, for example, the bogus Iowa poll on election eve. The Des Moines Register newspaper dropped an opinion poll that claimed Harris would flip the State 47 per cent to 44 among likely voters. It was done by pollster Ann Seltzer. “Her reputation for accuracy has been cemented with swathes of correct forecasts in various US political contests before and after that, to the point she’s even been referred to as an oracle,” the Australian ABC breathlessly reported. And just like the rest of the left-leaning media, they fell on the result as an indication Harris would sweep the seven swing States that would decide the election. That was despite other polls previously having Trump winning Iowa by as much as 10 points and the consensus that the swing States were too close to call. It was a clear case of confirmation bias. That’s when people favour information that confirms their pre-existing beliefs or values while disregarding information that contradicts them. It affects how we gather, interpret, and remember information. And it’s hard not to think that this was exactly the reason the misinformation — which amounted to a form of push polling — got such wide media traction. In former days, the news media would have treated such a wildly out-of-kilter poll with caution — if not disdain. But they hugged it like Linus’ blanket. Harris was soundly beaten in Iowa, 43-56. So how and why was such a bogus poll constructed? And why didn’t the media question it properly? No one will be rushing for the answers. But the media has much soul-searching ahead. And there’s a big message in this rollicking defeat for the Left everywhere. Having lost touch with much of the working class through their descent into identity politics — gender, race and the rest — they think they can scare people back into voting for them. That isn’t working either. Trump campaigner Kellyanne Conway says $500 million was spent by Democrats on abortion advertising alone, in total presidential race spending of $3.5 billion. Sure enough, it was Trump’s three conservative appointees to the Supreme Court who helped overturn the flawed Roe v Wade decision and return abortion law to the States, just as in Australia. But the Democrats’ advertising pushed the falsity that Trump would somehow impose more draconian abortion laws federally — completely misunderstanding the basis of the Supreme Court’s decision. Just like in Queensland’s recent election, the intention was to frighten women, especially younger ones, into the Harris camp. On every possible stump occasion, Harris raised what she said was the issue of “reproductive rights.” That’s a strange misnomer because abortion is about the opposite to reproduction. But it suits these Orwellian times. The bottom line to this defeat is that Harris was simply a terrible candidate to run against someone like Trump. Her heavy reliance on celebrity endorsements was worthless, possibly a negative. The Democrats were happy to contest with a dripping-wet liberal from far-left California because she was a woman of colour. In most of America, the term “Californian liberal” is a form of derision. The blinkered Democrats leadership couldn’t see the need for a more relevant candidate. They only had to look back to the primaries for the 2020 race. Harris dropped out when she was trailing in fourth place for the endorsement of her home State. Bernie Sanders, the palest, stalest white male in the contest won that California primary. On Thursday, he castigated Harris and the Democrats for letting down the working class. In that vacuous The View interview, the only thing Harris said she would do differently was to invite a Republican into her Cabinet. She then embarked on a ridiculous campaign tour alongside Trump-hater, former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, in the misguided belief that your enemy’s enemy is always your friend. The Cheney family was never a friend of the Democrats and Harris’ reliance on disaffected Republicans for relevance was another of her many campaign failures. The Democratic Party is being ripped asunder because Trump is stealing its heartland. At the moment, its leaders desperately rail against young black males and Hispanics for switching allegiances without understanding the reasons. They need look no further than the identity politics that caused the rise of people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez within the party to find the disconnect with its roots. However, there is an identity crisis also underway within the Republicans as Trump’s MAGA movement gradually replaces the traditional GOP and its support of the privileged. With the pro-Trump vote flipping the Senate and likely giving him control of the House, the party will have to adopt the new President’s populist policies. For better or for worse. Finally, how does former Speaker Nancy Pelosi feel about the role she played in Trump’s recrudescence? The woman widely promoted as the most powerful person in the Democratic Party kept Biden in place long after she knew he was past it, but her plan blew up in the cringeworthy debate against Trump. Why did she leave it too late to move him on and have a proper primary process for a new candidate? Or was that actually her misguided purpose? Or did she really think Biden could hang on to beat Trump then be replaced under the Constitutional provisions after the election? Also delusional. Pelosi’s visceral hatred of Trump clouded her judgment so much that she effectively handed him the presidency again by enshrining Harris. Hate reaps its own rewards.