Democrats crestfallen in Atlanta – as party faces reckoning
‘Obama was like our pinnacle. It’s like we got that one historic thing. But we can’t ask for anything else.’
In Atlanta, Democrats are crestfallen.
ChiChi Khan, a 26-year-old Democrat, is stunned by how much more Kamala Harris needed to win.
“The disparity between the results is shocking for sure. I think that’s the most shocking part of it. Just how much more we needed to have gotten her elected,” she says.
For her friend, Dr Reyna Patterson, also 26, it’s a depressing sign of the limits in America for people of colour.
“Obama was like our pinnacle. It’s like we got that one historic thing. But we can’t ask for anything else. Don’t try and break more boundaries. The glass ceiling is gone,” she says.
It is the second time a woman has tried to break that glass ceiling.
Hillary Clinton put her gender and identity politics centre frame in the race in 2016. Harris often seemed to avoid it, focusing instead on issues.
But how she prioritised those risks will be poured over for months and years to come by Democratic strategists. Harris put reproductive rights at the top of her campaign agenda.
There were some wins – restrictive abortion bans were undone in seven states. But, ultimately, it didn’t pay off for Democrats and activists at the sharp end feel abandoned.
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Dazon Dixon Diallo, founder of SisterLove, which focuses on reproductive rights and health told me: “I feel let down honestly first and foremost by white women voters in this country.
“They voted at almost the exact same rate that they voted in 2016 for the same person who is a convicted felon… and is proudly telling you that he snatched away your reproductive rights.”
It’s a stark reminder of the divide in the country. But in rural and suburban areas like Acworth – north of Atlanta, it was other anxieties that dominated.
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Susan Butler, a mother-of-four, tells me over lunch: “I don’t think Harris ever talked about anything that were points that meant the most to me: the economy, immigration, the crime that came with the immigration.”
Interestingly, she is also not convinced America is ready for a woman in the White House.
“A woman who served at a high rank in the military might very well make a good president, but a woman who’s been a prosecutor in a very left state, I don’t think so!”
It is a reminder of how traditional America still is. I’ve heard that sentiment from men and women across three elections. The gender gap did play into this one.
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More women than men did back Harris. But she needed an earthquake. What she got was closer to a rumble – one eclipsed by the loud cries of young men.
The Democrats believed this was going to be the year of the woman. Instead, the young women I spoke to told me today they find it hard to imagine they will have a Madam President in their lifetime.
It was fears and deep feelings about the economy, immigration and democracy that drove the vote. And the Democrats are yet again reminded, they cannot take any issue or any group for granted.
