Maybe It Was The Misogyny

 Martin Longman relates the experience of a guy who called people up trying to convince them to vote for Kamala Harris. A sizable number of male voters simply can't see a woman president. This is weird, given that Mexico - a supposedly "machismo" culture - just elected a female president in a landslide. Yet Latino voters in the US felt that she wasn't a leader, because women can't be leaders.

Of course, it wasn't just the misogyny. She was seen as too liberal and too conservative, depending on who the guy talked to. Longman also lands where I landed:

The reality is was it is, and too many Americans felt worse off financially and were worse off financially. Taming inflation, producing robust, historic job growth, and a booming stock market didn’t change that enough, and many people found arguments in support of the administration to be insulting and out-of-touch. Another factor was the focus on student debt relief. It was a godsend to many people, including some of my closest friends, but I always knew it was a political albatross to relieve debt for the college-educated and not for people who borrowed to buy a home or truck. It definitely contributed to the continuing trend of Democrats losing support in rural and small-town America, which was once again deadly for the Democratic nominee for president.

The disconnect between the macroeconomic conditions, the economic conditions of people with existing household wealth and those low information voters who are inexplicably drawn to Trump was not something that Harris likely could have ever adequately resolved. Biden was terribly unpopular for reasons that were not strictly rational but were also not strictly false. Of course, there is the disconnect with the Consumer Confidence Index, but...whatever. 

After Hillary Clinton lost, I felt that Democrats should not nominate a woman in 2020. Trump's persona feeds directly into that misogynistic strain in America. For various understandable reasons, Harris was the only plausible nominee and likely kept losses to a minimum. Still, if the next four years unfold the way they very well could, Democratic control of the White House will be critical, and taking a gamble on someone like Gretchen Whitmer could be a huge gamble.