My reaction to Donald Trump’s recent victory was very different than my reaction in 2016. Back then, I was deeply upset by our having elected a narcissistic, misogynistic, xenophobic, inciter of violence, and anxious about what his presidency would portend for our future.

This year was different. Though still deeply distressed about what Trump’s re-entry to the White House would mean for women, immigrants, the future of health care, labor rights, and the environment, my overriding emotion was anger. Anger at the Democrat’s political campaigns and consultants who brought us this disaster, and at the collapse of the political parties as vibrant organizations that once brought people together, empowered them, and were responsive to their needs.

Instead of representing and empowering voters, parties today are fundraising vehicles that amass billions of dollars each election cycle. These dollars go to consultant groups who use the money to raise more money to pay for advertising, conduct polling to shape messaging defining and promoting their candidates, or defining and discouraging support for their opponents.

Controlling huge amounts of campaign dollars, these consultants set campaign agendas, effectively replacing parties as forces driving American politics. This consultant class are today’s power brokers operating without accountability.

Beyond the power they wield, one problem with the political consultant class is that they are ultimately answerable not to political parties or voters, but to the donors paying their tab.
They’re also overly cautious, unimaginative, and out of touch with voters and their needs.

A former Obama official once decried the “foreign policy blob,” a cast of characters who’d served in past administrations and now populate think tanks and the commentariat. Out of touch with a changing world and offering nothing but the groupthink of conventional wisdom which failed before, they are destined to fail again. The same is true of the political consultancy blob. Out of touch with a changing electorate, they offer nothing beyond old ideas that are now destined to fail.

For example, those who ran this year’s Democratic campaigns failed to appreciate the economic insecurity of white working class voters, instead focusing their attention on the “Obama coalition” of young and non-white voters, and college educated women. They rejected increasing taxes on the richest 1%, providing universal health care, and raising the minimum wage as too leftist. Instead of attending to the needs of working-class voters in key battleground states, they had Kamala Harris campaign with Liz Cheney to win over moderate Republicans, and suburban women—which failed.

Of particular note, they wouldn’t recognize the impact of the genocide in Gaza on not only Arab American voters, but also on key components of their Obama coalition—young, progressive, and non-white voters.

Sensing the opening created by Democrats’ miscues, Trump embraced the white working class, promising new jobs, while preying on their feelings of abandonment by railing against immigrants.

And Trump exploited Harris’ failure to meet with Arab Americans.

Instead of using the short time available to her to introduce herself to key constituencies by personally meeting with leaders and winning new allies, she made do with mass rallies of supporters.

So the consultants failed. Democrats lost the White House and both houses of Congress. Harris won far fewer votes than Biden did in 2020, losing ground in almost every demographic group, including Hispanics, Asians, white women, and, of course, Arabs.

Now the Democratic pundits will find fault with the voters and their choices, not with the poor decisions they themselves made. They’ll denounce White voters as racist or misogynistic, and ask: How could Hispanics vote for Trump after what he and his supporters said about them? How could Arabs and Muslims forget what Trump did to them during his first term?

In hearing this, I am reminded of a saying attributed to St. Augustine—that in the contest between the church and the world, it’s the church that must go to the world, not the world to the church. In other words, don’t blame the voters. If you want their votes, you must earn them.

That’s why I’m mad at the campaign, the party, and the consultants. They made their money, they made poor choices. And now we will pay the price.