November 10, 2024

"[T]he 2008 Barack Obama Democratic Party intersectional coalition has died. It is not that the coalition is wounded or endangered..."

"... it is that it is dead. Trump made historic inroads with Hispanic voters, Black voters, young voters and other demographic subgroups that have been vital to the Democrats since 2008. Trump won the nation's single most Hispanic county -- 97% Hispanic Starr County, Texas -- by 16%. Queens County, New York, famously one of the most ethnically and racially diverse counties in the country, moved over 20 points toward Trump from his 2020 performance. Overall, Trump won just under half the national Hispanic vote, and he made historic inroads with Black men. Voters under the age of 35, such a core Democratic constituency in the not-so-distant past, are now a swing voting bloc. Obamaism is dead. This is a seismic shift in the American political landscape, and it's not clear where Democrats go from here...."

Writes Josh Hammer, in "The Death of Obamaism, and the Historic MAGA Opportunity" (Real Clear Politics).

78 comments:

Heartless Aztec said...

Hurrah!

Iman said...

Ding Dong teh bitch is dead.

Political Junkie said...

Where do Democrats go? My out of the box pick is John Fetterman in PA. I like his pro Israel stance. I wanted Dr Oz to beat him of course, but he did not. I wonder if Fetterman could be a "unique" candidate like DJT. One truly special Fetterman hook could be, "If you elect me Preseident, on day 1 I will rock only the most beautiful suits". People might vote him in, game show/reality show style, just to see Fetterman all done up. He has been James Gatz (stylistically) so far in his life, on day one of his presidency he will become Jay Gatsby (stylistically), or GG. Cheers all!

Peachy said...

As seen on X

I think it’s time to accept the Democratic Party’s main purpose is money laundering

gilbar said...

Trump won the nation's single most Hispanic county -- 97% Hispanic Starr County, Texas -- by 16%.
Overall, Trump won just under half the national Hispanic vote,
and he made historic inroads with Black men.

what does that leave left for the left? besides Affluent White Female Urban Liberals (awful people)??

more specifically..
What does this sea change do for the Democrat Party's opposition to the border wall?
I'm assuming, that From Now On.. Only "refugees" from places like Haiti will be allowed in?
(lock up your pets!! including your squirrels!!)

James K said...

It's easy to make too much of these shifts. They are meaningful, but also very candidate-dependent. If the Republicans retreat and nominate some boring establishment type in 2028 they would give up all of these gains in an instant. And the Democrats could recoup some of their losses by nominating a more compelling centrist.

Political Junkie said...

There is a Politico story today highlighted in RCP about Ruben Gallego. Mentioned how he went to boxing matches, rodeos, etc and hung around afterward and visited with people. My suggestion to D's is "go pick the apple of the tree, not the ground". Meaning - Review lists of rodeo ticket buyers, boxing/MMA fights, etc, and then go pick your candidate from those lists. Good God I think that is a good idea. I should not have shared it. Joe Biden needs to send me a check for 50k. Cheers all!

rhhardin said...

I have no idea what Obamaism is unless it means estrogen cloud.

William said...

Americans are the children of immigrants and the grandparents of anti-immigrants. That applies to Hispanics too. Why would a fourth generation Puerto Rican feel more kinship with Venezuelan immigrants than with her Italian-American husband.

Duke Dan said...

James K has a point. These aren’t permanent R voters. But the key is Trump broke through and made them change from voting lockstep. They are no longer permanent D voters now.

Temujin said...

Obama won on White Guilt back in his day. He was always an empty suit on substance. That White guilt is still prevalent among White progressive women, but has since worn off- or been beaten off of much of the rest of the country. We all wanted to believe that voting in a Black President would heal those open wounds that still existed in our country. But...that didn't happen.
As it turned out, Barack loved to play on it and our country got more divided under him than we had been previously. And it showed in all of Barack's elections after that. He did fine. But his party got their asses whooped in each off year election. Barack would get behind a candidate back then...and they would lose.
In this respect, nothing much has changed except that we are less vulnerable to feeling guilt about something we don't feel responsible for. And as we are constantly being told by the left that we are incompatible to live with, we are White Supremacist Nazis (even the Black conservatives among us), we are racist, homophobe, xenophobe, misogynists, who drool on ourselves while eating Chef-Boyardee ravioli out of a can, we tend to build up some callouses around being called ridiculous names. Not only doesn't it work anymore. But they sound ridiculous and childlike in doing it. No one can take them seriously any longer.

So the Barack as God stuff simply wore off years ago and their pulling him out only made journalists goosey. The rest of us looked, said "Meh", and continued on our day. Same thing with Bruce, Oprah, and the rest of the empty suits.

Enigma said...

With the large white majority of the USA now gone (i.e., 85% to 90% in the 1960s; close to 60% today), politics must recalibrate. Water seeks its own level. For this to occur, Obama's election was a necessary to get past the 100% white male history of US presidents. Now that we've seen Obama's governance and learned that he too served the establishment bureaucracy, the shallow symbolism of race is done.

Over the long run people tend to vote personal needs and priorities, and only manipulative puppet masters or anarchists would EVER vote for unrestricted immigration and the end of law enforcement. Finally, Hispanics are often Catholics, and Catholics who actually follow their own religion (vs. the current Pope) tend to be far more conservative than today's Democrats.

Race in the USA per the Census Bureau:

https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/improved-race-ethnicity-measures-reveal-united-states-population-much-more-multiracial.html

William said...

I'm not a fan of Obama, but he was, as the saying goes, articulate and poised. Kamala wasn't. She was more likely to be Sister Souljah than to have a Sister Souljah moment. The Obama coalition isn't dead, Maybe the next Obama will modify the Democrat stance on unlimited immigration and Drag Queen Story Hour, and then go on to win if he or she has symmetrical features and a mastery of grammatical sentences.

Maynard said...

Every four years, I look forward to pundits explaining how this election totally changes everything.

Political Junkie said...

William - I agree. IMO, if KH was swapped out for a stronger D candidate (think Obama in 2008), then the D would have been able to defeat DJT. IMO.

Political Junkie said...

Yep.

Quaestor said...

"and it's not clear where Democrats go from here..."

Yes it is -- rioting, arson, looting, murder, persecution. The Democrats are a coalition of doctrinaire National Socialists who shout "The Jews must die!" and doctrinaire Marxists who shout America must die!. At this moment, they are mobilizing their troops. If you think it's 2024, you're mistaken. It's 1939. Prepare to defend yourselves, your families, your businesses, and your country.

n.n said...

Internally, externally, and mutually inconsistent ideologies are not viable, and will selfie-abort as their liberal character progresses under diverse political incongruities.

Charlie Currie said...

Who were the most affected by the lockdowns, the mask wearing, the social distancing, the school closure? The young. Obama is just another old guy who had no influence on their lives, except that their parents couldn't stop talking about how wonderful he is/was - so transformational, and how terrible Trump is. Except they never saw it in either.

Yancey Ward said...

+1000- There is nothing new under the Sun.

HistoryDoc said...

On the surface, the election seemed to be Trump vs Harris.

At a deeper level, it was Elon pitted against Obama. My takeaway is that you go against Elon at your own hazard. Obama lost, and like all Soviet democraticals, will not take losing well.

Paddy O said...

I genuinely believe Pelosi is the worst thing to ever happen to Ds. She turned the party in a rigid narrow controlled way to secure power and wealth for only those within the chosen circle. Keeping out any flexibility and maintaining control by increasingly old people for a generation. It became defined by corruption not values and they push people out who didn't play and reward those life Schiff who go all.in with blatant lying. They killed their bench and silenced anyone who could balance out the crazy and corrupt

Paddy O said...

Obama was pulled along with that rather than leading that. Obama without Pelosi might have been so much more.

RCOCEAN II said...

Hispanics seem to be assimlating and voting based on their pocketbooks and not their ethnicity. Of course, "HIspanic" is a meaningless phrase. A Puerto Rican in NYC, a mexican in Arizona, and an Argentinian in Chicago, have about in much in common as a German, an Irishman, and a Ukrainian. The common language really isn't that much of a binding agent.

Mason G said...

"then the D would have been able to defeat DJT"

Without cheating?

Joe Bar said...

I listened to Fetterman on Rogan's podcast, and it is clear he is still suffering after effects of his stroke. He does not present himself as clearly and intelligently as he should. He also has problems with comprehension; he still needs his iPad to transcribe conversations. He is not as radically to the left as many democrats, and that is good. However, he has a lot of obstacles to overcome.

Roger Sweeny said...

The reports of its death are greatly exaggerated.

planetgeo said...

Completely agree. Both sides do this ("they'll never win another election") bit every time there's a unique candidate who unexpectedly wins. Trump is unique. He basically blew up the standard Republican model, and like the Democrats, even the Republicans do not yet seem to fully understand why.

Original Mike said...

"[T]he 2008 Barack Obama Democratic Party intersectional coalition has died."

Good. {Scratches "learn the meaning of 'intersectional' off the To Do list.'}

Dixcus said...

The Democrats killed it because a lot of young men were attracted into the Party by Obama and then after him Bernie Sanders.

Of course, the Bernie Bros were hounded out of the party.

They all checked out and started watching Joe Rogan.

Dixcus said...

People really underestimate how much we have Barack Obama to thank for the success of Donald Trump. Without Obama taking 2 years to produce a fake birth certificate, Donald Trump would never have happened.

Rory said...

Pelosi's immediate family has been on the government payroll, since 1926. Her daughter's been on the DNC for years, waiting to inherit the seat in Congress

Mr. T. said...

The Obama "Coalition" was, like everything comes out of Chicago, a fraud. As a progeny of the corrupt and parasitic Chicago democrat machine, all of Obama's fake veneer of "hope" and racial healing was well-polished, bright lighted on the outside, but in reality full of slimey, crime ridden rot. Reflect: Obama would always stand in front of the Nation pretending to be some kind of saint, while his minions (Clinton, Holder, Lerner, Biden, Perez, Yellen, Geithner, Jackson, Sebellius) would work behind the scenes to stab citizenry in the back.

Let us even go back further how Obama even became front and center nationally! How many remember? He and his senate campaign ILLEGALLY doxxed and leaked sealed court documents of Jack and Jeri Ryan. Under normal circumstances, Obama should have been sharing a cell with George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich. But Chicago corruption and Black Privilege rules all in Crook County...

Spare us all this rhetorical nonsense: there never was any coalitions, no unity, no redeeming national anything ever with Obama.

Dixcus said...

JD Vance will be our candidate in 2028.

Dixcus said...

Have any more bodies washed up on his front yard lately?

Dixcus said...

Obama is one of the clean ones. Not like the others. It's storybook, man. - Joe Biden

Dixcus said...

They're already organizing illegal riots for his inauguration.

Dixcus said...

He means white people voted for Obama.

Dixcus said...

And let's not even get into the fact that he is Kenyan and produced a forged birth certificate 2 years after being elected.

Big Mike said...

I’d take Duke Dan’s comment a step further. These are Trump voters, and not Republican voters. For them to become Republican voter the entire party is going to have to embrace his economic policies and refocus onto the working men and women — and do so believably.

Big Mike said...

I’d take Duke Dan’s comment a step further. These are Trump voters, and not Republican voters. For them to become Republican voter the entire party is going to have to embrace his economic policies and refocus onto the working men and women — and do so believably.

tcrosse said...

The coalition may or may not be dead, but the oligarchs who bankrolled it still have their billions. They just have to re-think how to apply them.

Lazarus said...

Obamaism? Doesn't that coalition go back to LBJ or FDR? Obama was the beneficiary of Bill Clinton's strange appeal with the affluent suburbanites he added them to the coalition. Real voters in the coalition rarely thought about intersectionality. That was for the college kids and their professors.

Big Mike said...

Repeated here without comment:

President-elect Trump was on track to win 400 electoral votes in a head-to-head race against President Biden, according to the White House’s own internal polls.

The news was revealed by Jon Favreau, a one-time speechwriter for former President Obama who now hosts the liberal Pod Save America podcast.


Does anyone besides me remember young Jon Favreau in 2008, posing with a beer bottle in one hand and the other hand figuratively cupped around the breast of a cardboard figure of Hillary Clinton? Always keeping it classy, like the good Democrat that he is.

Dude1394 said...

Thank goodness. It took 12 years but we finally purged Hussein, bushes, Cheney, pelosi, Romney, Ryan. But we haven’t gotten rid of that rat McConnell yet. He has one more pile to leave before he is gone.

Bruce Hayden said...

Does the average Hispanic America citizen think of himself more as LatinX? Or American? That was the election last week.

Which got me thinking last week - that Trump was a marketing genius with MAGA. What sort of people here don’t want to Make America Great Again? Those opposed to American greatness? Opposed to American exceptionalism? Or that America is just more evil than the other countries around it?

A lot of Hispanics answered the LatinX v American question this last week. They are -patriotic, and a lot of Hispanic men like Trump’s machismo attitude. They are living the American dream, that the Dems, under FJB and Harris, tried to destroy.

Big Mike said...

I subscribe to Bari Weiss’s Free Press. Yesterday they published an article by a woman named Evan Barker. Here is how it begins:

I was 17 when I started working in Democratic politics. While still in high school, I was an intern for Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign; later, I served as a field organizer for Hillary Clinton. By the time I turned 26, I was a consultant for dozens of U.S. House and Senate campaigns, four George Soros-backed district attorney races, and a wide range of Democratic organizations. I’ve raised at least $50 million for the left.

And yet, on Tuesday, I voted for Donald Trump. It felt like the biggest middle finger I’ve ever raised to the party I’d supported for most of my adult life. When he won, I was utterly euphoric.

Let me tell you why.

Kathryn51 said...

I think I'm going to ditch my WSJ subscription and subscribe to Twitter (Elon needs to make a profit at some point) and the Free Press. I'm still someone who would rather gather info by reading than listening (i.e. podcast).

Ampersand said...

Obama's birth certificate was quite real. It is true that the claim that he was not American born was created by Obama's dishonest attempts to be cool by marketing himself as authentically African when he was just starting his career. But once the right started to raise the issue, it was decisively rebutted by contemporaneous news accounts. Only the uninformed, or those interested in propagating nonsense, dispute Obama's Hawaiian birth. Trump's initial support for the proposition is embarrasing.

Dixcus said...

Real birth certificates don't take two years to forge.

doctrev said...

Oh, you're very bright. I have zero doubt you support RDS and JD Vance because they are "Trump, but smart." In reality President Trump LOVES using the inauthentic nature of his rivals and enemies against themselves, and turns them inside out. Turns out you can't outsmart the truth.

doctrev said...

And Dixcus is quite right: maybe Obama thought he was being clever by drawing out news of his birth certificate, but the honest thing to do would have been to reveal it while fighting Hillary Clinton, whose lackeys were the first to talk about it.

Sebastian said...

It is a seismic shift and it also isn't. The House is close, swing-state Senate races were close, events drove outcome. True, Dems can't take assumed coalition for granted anymore, but majority can easily shift back to them.

Ampersand said...

I like Josh Hammer, but premature obituaries are a hallmark of American political punditry. I remember when Nixon's political career was dead, and when Donald Trump's political career had supposedly come to an end in the aftermath of January 6. The woke mind virus pushed by Obama is well established in media, the academy, entertainment, and in the world of big business. It will, like any virus, continue to mutate. Look at the Proposition in New York that just enshrined DEI and reverse racism in the NY Constitution. Look at the emergency session of the California legislature that is about to inflict comparable stupidities upon my state. Last Tuesday was a victory for sanity, but it will take many more such victories to reverse the enormous pendulum that continues to swing in the wrong direction. Obama and Obamaism continue to have a multitude of well funded allies.

narciso said...

Probably after 2016 we thought the dems were moribund

James K said...

After 1989 I thought Communism and Socialism were finally dead. But it seems every generation has to relearn the same lesson--the hard way.

Prof. M. Drout said...

After Obama had only gotten into Occidental (and done poorly there) as an American, he rebranded himself as a Kenyan exchange student in order to get into Columbia, and he leaned on that "identity" to get his first book contract. The he "wasn't born in America" stuff came from people who had found the Author Bio that his publishers had circulated that said he was born in Kenya plus wishful thinking when it became obvious that Obama was going to wipe the floor with McCain.
Obama's claim that he didn't read his OWN Bio which was used FOR HIS FIRST BOOK is one of the more risible lies we've been asked to swallow, but its being obviously ridiculous seemed to make the media MORE eager to repeat it, demonstrating, perhaps, that the shame is part of the kink for them.

Dr Weevil said...

Ampersand:
You're confusing two separate issues. Was he born in Hawaii? Almost certainly, despite the aunt who said he was born in Kenya. The newspaper stories are very strong evidence.

Was the birth certificate he eventually produced genuine? Very likely not. As I recall, people demonstrated that it had obvious artifacts of Photoshop. So why wouldn't he produce the original? People wondered if his name (or the name of his father) listed on the birth certificate was not the one we know him by. What would voters think if they found that "Barak"'s real name was Aloysius, or Willard, or George W.?

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

This , absolutely. Republicans are now in the awkward place of having to find another charismatic candidate in four short years. A no-holds-barred fighter. Vance, perhaps. But a really hard-nosed conservative woman would be a contender.

Former Illinois resident said...

Hopefully both Obamas will pack their self-righteous indignation and exit public stage, their millions intact, before full blame is assigned to them and their divisive DEI - LGBTQX agenda. We now see what significant damage two terms of overt Obama administrations, and a third term of covert Obama administration has caused to Democratic Party, and the our country at large.

Obama - the great white whale of woke sophistry.

Former Illinois resident said...

Yes, Fetterman still seemed somewhat cognitively impaired, with at minimum, an auditory-processing disorder requiring the simultaneously-producted printed text of their conversation in real-time. That's some fancy technology facilated by medical diagnosis and ADA equipment prescription. Fetterman is interesting as a 2nd-tier senator, but not sufficiently capable to be able to perform as a 2028 presidential candidate. As he stated, he's lucky to be alive.

mccullough said...

Obamaism means having 4 Mansions and no job.

mccullough said...

Obamaism means having 4 Mansions and no job.

Former Illinois resident said...

Certainly the Democrats burned $1 billion in 2024 Harris campaign donations in a mere 3 months. A lotta people got DNC checks, not just Oprah's cool $1 million fee for that pitiful infotainment show masquerading as a Harris interview. Looks like both the performers and the audiences were paid by DNC at Harris rallies, entirely fake "joyful" enthusiasm. Walz family upset their $1 million DNC check lost in mail...

Dr Weevil said...

Prof. M. Drout:
As I recall, Obama himself did the 'books on tape' audio version of his autobiography. If so - I'm too lazy to check - he obviously did read it at least once, out loud in front of a microphone. It's conceivable that that he didn't write it and that was the first time he became familiar with the text, but that's another question.

walter said...

"Some pundits have claimed that Harris lost because she was not a strong candidate. Others say it was because she was a woman. Some even have the unmitigated gall to say that Trump was just better.
I call bullshit on all of it.
Harris was a damn good candidate. She worked her ass off on the campaign trail. And Trump was far from excellent. Towards the end, dude was melting down. He was dancing on stage to YMCA and rambling at campaign events.
So why did she lose? I’ll give it to you in two words. Joe Biden."
....
https://www.theroot.com/opinion-trump-wiped-the-floor-with-kamala-and-its-al-1851694104

Former Illinois resident said...

Coastal Democrats still FURIOUS that 75 million stupid voters were too defiantly ignorant to vote for their unqualified, unlikeable, vapid Democratic presidential nominee, their POC AWFL of no-choice.

Former Illinois resident said...

Obama was once a virtue-signal for the white-collar professional, look I voted for the smart Black candidate, not the old white guy. But Obama's allure has dimmed, his former faux gravitas deteriorating into hectoring bully pulpit sophistry. He and Michelle are now very rich, quite overindulged, celebrities, still treading the same trite talking points which only serve their own pocketbook agendas. Both Obamas need to retire to their island retreats. Ditto for loathsome Clintons, Pelosi, and yes, recently made redundant has-beens Kamala and doggie Doug.

Jim at said...

She worked her ass off on the campaign trail.

By taking two, consecutive days off inside of two weeks to go?

Again. That's the spirit. Learn nothing.

Mikey NTH said...

This is copium on stilts, this author doesn't want to face what the hostess of this blog has been pointing out.

Butkus51 said...

worked her ass off

uh huh, sure

Christopher B said...

I recall a Sean Trende analysis from 2016 that showed the Democrats had gone 'upmarket' via Bill Clinton's DLC in the mid-1990s which dovetailed with other information I saw that indicated the Democrats were capturing the highest and lowest income quintiles starting about 1990. I agree the usual description of the 'Obama coalition' was largely a mirage based on whites who thought voting for a (half)black President would lead to a post-racial society. It was already evaporating by 2012.

Aggie said...

Not trying to inflame the controversy, but I read somewhere that the birth certificate that was eventually produced, had almost certainly manufactured to fit the requirement, and that notwithstanding Obama's clearly fabricated-for-convenience foreign birth story, that there was some prevailing information that backed up the Hawaiian birth story. But finally, I also remember a tidbit that the Social Security number that appeared on his B.C. could not be real, as these numbers are issued depending on where you are born - and this one was not reflective of Hawaii. So - there you go. Started a phony, and he's still a phony.

doctrev said...

The lawyers have four years to audition. People who haven't put any Democrats in jail aren't likely to be the first strong. If there are no such people, the Republicans will deserve to lose.

Then again, maybe the rising stars on the Hill will be wiped out along with the dead wood when the flames come closer.

Robert Cook said...

"I have no idea what Obamaism is...."

It means posing as a progressive but governing as a middle-of-the-road establishment POTUS.

(As opposed to the foaming-at-the-mouth reactionaries who compose the mainstream Republican politicians and voters of today.)

Robert Cook said...

"Republicans are now in the awkward place of having to find another charismatic candidate in four short years."

Wellll...I guess Trump's ignorance/dishonesty/bullying/amoral sourness could be considered "charisma"...to fans of Hannibal Lector and late Jerry Lewis.)

One Fine Day said...

Walter is comforted by Leftish misinformation and denialism. Even after the final votes are cast, Walter will repeat the nonsensical Dem talking points and steadfastly refuse to think for himself or consider actual evidence rather than Dem re-interpretations.

bagoh20 said...

Hope and Change didn't deliver, and in many ways made things much worse. MAGA has a chance to do something where so many modern movements have failed due to corruption and greed. The odds are not good, but the approach is novel: Make government smaller. If that fails, there may not be anything short of revolution as we were warned. Modern life provides too few distraction from politics. It's like alcoholism of the culture.