Materialism in 2024

The discussion of why Kamala Harris and Democratic candidates at large lost in 2024 has gripped the Democrats. Some pundits suggested that the problem with the Democratic campaign was that it was too left-wing or too “woke.” In my opinion, this is misguided, and the real reasons Democrats have lost twice to Trump are because of their abandonment of the principles of materialism.

Karl Marx defines materialism as people’s ideas, views, and conceptions being shaped by changes in their material conditions, meaning their daily lives. The Democrats’ moving right on issues and not changing their economic policy violates materialism because it shows a key misunderstanding of why these conservative views have become more mainstream and part of the national conversation.

The reason Trump has won and been such an effective political force is that he unconsciously uses materialism. This strategy has been used by the extreme far-right many times in history. It’s a two-fold strategy: first, left-wing materialist economic promises, like bringing manufacturing back to the U.S., appeal to working-class voters. Second, Trump directs voters’ anger about economic pain at scapegoated groups like immigrants, Muslims, or transgender Americans. This allows him to keep very few of his economic promises, as he has led his voters to believe that once he defeats these groups, supposedly causing their misfortune, everything will get better. This strategy has allowed him to take complete control of the Republican Party and caused many outside of his base to buy into some of his lies.

The thing is, I think many in the Democratic Party didn’t realize this, because their strategy in 2024 seemed to critically misunderstand it. As I see it, the major parts of the Harris campaign were built around the right to abortion and anti-Trump messaging, which drew some voters but failed to excite others. Harris and Democrats running for Congress also took a harder stance on immigration. For example, the bipartisan immigration bill under Biden was not very popular among their pro-immigrant base. They also tried to appeal to moderate Republicans by highlighting Harris’ gun ownership and avoiding the topic of trans rights at the DNC. All of this gave the impression that Democrats were trying to be Republicans without the baggage. These are problems with the campaign, but not why Harris lost; the crucial issue—and really the reason that Harris lost—was her economic policy. I remember clearly Harris stating how she would create an “opportunity economy” in her speech at the DNC, and that sounds kind of nice and very in line with the American Dream. There’s just one problem with it—it doesn’t mean anything. The line about creating “opportunity” is something Democrats have been using at least as far back as the 1992 presidential election of Bill Clinton. And it might have worked then, but that was during a completely different economic era, and it’s just a really ambiguous promise. It also reflects another major issue for Democrats: they have the same problems every election because they can’t get anything done, or they just put a Band-Aid on problems instead of fixing them. This also violates the principles of materialism, as when people don’t see their lives or community change, they feel—rightly so—like their vote was wasted.

Democrats lost in 2024 because they tried to attract moderate Republicans by becoming more conservative on certain issues while missing the economic hardships that drove people to vote for those issues in the first place. Luckily, these trends are changing, with Democrats winning in recent elections—mainly due to a focus on affordability from both moderate candidates in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races and the left wing’s victory in the New York mayoral race. Democrats now need to prove that they can make things more affordable, and if they can do this, then they’ll be using materialist principles, hopefully leading to people’s social opinions reorienting. The Democrats will need to tackle the causes of the problems in our unequal and corrupt system and not just try to Band-Aid the problem, because that is what could actually defeat Trumpism.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the newspaper, its staff, or the school itself.