Democrats won’t win by sacrificing one constituency for another

As Democrats struggle to process the monumental losses from the elections, Democratic Party priorities are being scrutinized. Some members suggest the party is too elitist, too left of center or not progressive enough. Some claim it’s abandoned one group at the expense of another — or should. Less openly, some hint that Democrats surrendered the well-being of white working-class men without college degrees to so-called “wokeness.”
While reckonings can be necessary and healthy aspects of dealing with the angst and addressing what needs to be done differently going forward, some fingers are being pointed in the wrong direction. There’s an unsettling strain underlying some of the talk — a willingness to trade one group’s well-being for another’s. The implication is that by embracing traditional Democratic priorities like an economy that works for all, the party should back away from focusing on other populations marginalized for their race, ethnicity, or gender orientation.
Several Democratic observers have said the campaign let “identity politics” get in the way of economic messaging. I disagree. What got in the way was Donald Trump’s signature ability to foster or stoke prejudices in people who wouldn’t normally benefit from his policies, by convincing them that other groups — immigrants, LGBT and people of color, and women — are benefiting at their expense.
To the contrary. Many are doing vital jobs, repopulating abandoned communities, including in Iowa, and keeping democracy vibrant and regenerative. But by letting his self-serving lies go unchallenged, Trump wins twice — in the election and in the public mindset.
Just consider some of what’s been happening since Nov. 5.
In some 20 states, racist threats referencing “slave catchers” and “picking cotton” have shown up as text messages, frightening Black college students, working professionals and even children. NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson said the messages “represent an alarming increase in vile and abhorrent rhetoric from racist groups across the country, who now feel emboldened to spread hate and stoke the flames of fear that many of us are feeling after Tuesday’s election results.”
He called it the unfolding reality “of electing a president who, historically, has embraced and at times encouraged hate.”
Trump’s campaign spokesperson said in a statement that the campaign  “has absolutely nothing to do with these text messages.” But it didn’t have to, at least not directly. It had already laid the groundwork. Trump’ derogatory words about Kamala Harris’ race and ethnicity and attempts to degrade her intellect and fitness for the job  gave their supporters permission to follow. His running mate, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, told a Nov. 3 Atlanta rally, “In two days, we are gonna take out the trash in Washington, D.C. And the trash’s name is Kamala Harris.”
Simultaneously, vile attacks on women are appearing in social media posts on X and elsewhere, gloating about the end of reproductive rights. Trump supporter Nick Fuentes, who heads a Christian-based white nationalist group and has 430,000 followers on X, posted, “Hey, bitch, we control your bodies! Guess what, guys win again.” And “It’s your body, my choice. Forever.”
Immigrants, both documented and without papers, took some of Trump’s vilest shaming, including in his final pitch Nov. 4 in Pennsylvania. Describing the U.S. as an “occupied country,” experiencing “military invasions without the uniforms,” he vowed to “rescue every city and town that has been invaded and conquered,” with massive deportation efforts.
Immigrant business owners began feeling the heat in Hampton, Iowa, months before the election. In August, a 38-year-old man there was arrested and charged with eight counts of second-degree harassment for making and placing signs on the doors of Latino-owned businesses saying, “Illegal immigrant hunting permit. No bag limit. Tagging not required. Trump 2024.”
And, not surprisingly considering Trump’s vitriol directed at transgender people, calls, texts and chats to the Trevor Project, which works to combat suicide among LGBTQ youth ages 23 to 24, shot up 700% immediately following the election. That’s though transgender people account for only 1 % of the U.S. population, according to the LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD. Trump’s campaign spent over $20 million on ads against them, with claims about schoolchildren coming home with their genders changed. In the final hours, Trump chatted up a bill he plans to propose to Congress declaring there are only two genders.
Someone posted on my Facebook page in response to a previous column on Harris’ poll numbers rising that Democrats wouldn’t see victory “until Liberals change their rhetoric and pay heed to the working class.”
After the election, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders put out a statement blasting “big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party,” saying the party shouldn’t be surprised after abandoning working people that “the working class has abandoned them. First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and Black workers as well.”
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, in a letter to voters, wrote of the system being rigged against working-class families while on paper, the U.S. economy is the strongest in the world: “Giant corporations get tax breaks and favorable rules while workers are gouged by higher prices. Billionaires pay paltry taxes on their wealth while families can’t afford to buy their first homes.”
All of which is true, but saving America won’t be accomplished by further abandoning some of those Trump is hurting most. Their best hope for equality and justice now rests with the Democratic Party. And its best hope lies in building the “Big tent” that Republicans once encouraged,  in what seems a lifetime ago.
The Democratic establishment needs to do more outreach, make space for other communities’ voices and needs, and work on coalition-building to the betterment of all. That, in turn, will make it grow stronger and better equipped for what lies ahead.
Rekha Basu is a longtime syndicated columnist, editorial writer, reporter and author of the book, “Finding Your Voice.” She retired in 2022 as a Des Moines Register columnist. Her column, “Rekha Shouts and Whispers,” is available at basurekha.substack.com, where this piece was originally published.