Minorities and trump: what did democrats do wrong?

by: Abby, Etta, and Makieda

Abby: Much of the narrative surrounding the 2020 election has been around the Trump campaign’s surprising success with voters of color. However, I think generally, the way the media is approaching this issue is a little bit divorced from reality. POC still overwhelmingly voted for Biden.

Makieda: Democrats themselves made such a big deal about not winning some POC by margins they would have wanted. Despite the fact that there are often clear values that some communities of color have in common with the Republican party, Democrats often assume that voters of color will be voting for them without adequately and actively working to secure voters from these demographics.

Etta: Yeah, and I think that can breed significant resentment among conservative people of color where they feel like liberals are always preaching about including and projecting voices of color but actively silence these groups when their opinions don't align. I think in this way liberals can really alienate large swaths of voters and paint liberals in a really bad light.

Abby: There is something to be said for some of Trump’s rhetoric making certain people feel seen. “I have done the most for the Black community,” etc, regardless of the fact that he just, well, has done quite the opposite.

Etta: But it’s not a new thing that people vote against their interests. It seems extremely jarring to us, as liberals who identify with a lot of these communities, to see people vote for someone who seems to so publicly and aggressively dismiss their concerns and rights. But I think that making this a huge deal is really counterproductive, obviously the democratic party isn’t doing enough to win over these voters.

Abby: And I think that’s partly because some black voters feel tokenized by the Democratic Party; there was some sentiment of feeling like picking Kamala Harris as VP was just for show and the Biden campaign’s idea of clinching the Black vote, when in reality people want to be treated as people, not just a “vote.” Additionally, I think that to some Black voters, the harms of the Trump presidency on their communities may feel less concrete than the harms perpetuated by the Biden/Harris ticket, ie. the wounds of the 1994 crime bill are really deep, and some people have qualms with Kamala Harris’s record as a DA, which included a lot of decisions that harmed the Black community.

Makieda: It's also important to acknowledge that the Democratic Party is still an overwhelmingly white, straight and cis space because of the way that politics work so at the end of the day so many marginalized communities still feel distrust in the people in power within the party. The Black community for example, has, especially in 2020 when calls for systematic reform of America’s policing flooded the media, great concern over the history of policy regarding policing.

Etta: And I think it is really true that a lot of issues for people of color were lost in this election, especially with Biden spending so much of his time and resources trying to win back the “blue wall states” which are majority white. This is what happened in Florida, Biden did so little campaigning in Latinx communities that Donald Trump was able to pick up a lot of votes.

Makieda: Ultimately, moving beyond the election, it's important that the Democrats continue to center the voices of marginalized people in policy discussion because that's the only way in which real change can be acquired. The 2020 election has significant room to create a culture of progressivism but many voters of color fear that the Democrats will yield to change in an attempt to appeal to the “center” or the “moderates.”

Abby: And hey, we know it can happen, just look at Georgia!