Robin Abcarian: How could voters choose both Trump and AOC? Pay attention, Democrats

Could self-flagellating Democrats and their gleeful critics please calm down for one stinkin' minute?

Before remaking an entire party based on one election loss — albeit a devastating one — let's look at some numbers.

As the final votes are tallied, it appears that President-elect Donald Trump has received 75.1 million votes while Vice President Kamala Harris received 71.9 million. That is a victory margin of just about 2 percentage points.

In 2020, when President Joe Biden beat then-President Donald Trump, he received nearly 81.3 million votes to Trump's 74.2 million, a victory margin of 4.5 percentage points.

Did Republicans call for introspection? Did they spill barrels of ink wondering where they went wrong? Did they slit their wrists in frustration and vow to start courting the college-educated "coastal elites" they'd spent years vilifying?

Oh please. We all saw what happened next.

Led by Trump, Republicans engaged in a systematic and illegal scheme attempting to overturn the results of the election. To this day, they cling to the fantasy that Trump won. I laugh when Trump tells his rally-goers that he received more votes in 2020 than any other previous presidential candidate. That was true. But he failed to add that Biden received even more votes than Trump, something Trump is pathologically unable to accept.

(And, I hate to break it to the president-elect, but to this day, Biden has received more votes than any other single presidential candidate. Oh, and in case anyone has forgotten, Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration crowd was much, much bigger than Trump's in 2017.)

Of course Democrats must engage in serious analysis about what went wrong and how to win back the young men, Latino men and so many working-class voters who deserted the party this year. But that does not mean all the fundamentals of the Democratic platform and philosophy are wrong.

Democrats were disadvantaged in a number of ways. Biden's decision to stay in the race long after he should have bowed out proved disastrous. After he handed the nomination to Harris, she had a mere 100 days to establish herself, to differentiate herself from him and his deeply unpopular policies. She failed to do so in a way that was persuasive to voters.

Her failure was also in thinking that positivity could counteract negativity. The failure was in not fully grasping the amnesia Americans were experiencing about Trump's disastrous response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The failure was in not being able to convey the successes of the Biden administration.

Trump whipped up hatred, resentment and fear, which, ugly and disingenuous as it was, helped persuade voters that he cared about their struggles. Sure, inflation is down, wages are up and the economy is humming along strong. But high prices smack you in the face every time you shop for groceries.

And if someone tells you often enough that you are in pain, or that you were better off when the pandemic was in fact killing hundreds of thousands of Americans, you might actually start to believe him.

Bill Clinton, whose move to the right in 1992 felt like a betrayal to the left wing of his party, was able to persuade voters that he felt their pain. Harris was not.

And of course, Harris' failure was in not being able to counteract the right-wing information sphere. Trump figured out how to court the bro vote. Harris did not. MAGA Republicans were immeasurably aided and abetted by social media algorithms — which trade on rage and anger for engagement — by billionaire tech bros such as Elon Musk, who turned X largely into an alt-right cesspool, and of course by the conservative-dominated media conglomerates that spout lies that rile up voters.

Fox News, guiltier than any other single outlet for spreading the 2020 big election lie, ended up agreeing to pay Dominion Voting Systems nearly $800 million for defaming the company, whose ballot machines worked perfectly well. That is three-quarters of a billion dollars, folks. Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer, spread so many vicious lies about Georgia poll workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea "Shaye" Moss that a court ruled he should pay them $148 million for defamation.

Countless other Trump believers are in jail, bankrupt or unable to practice their professions because Republicans simply could not bear the idea that they had lost.

Despite all of that, the Republican Party in its current form never, not even once, had a great public moment of introspection.

Instead, it doubled down on lies and on whipping up fear about vulnerable populations while exploiting Democrats' weaknesses.

"The people who watched Trump's television ads during sporting events had not been harmed by a transgender person, or by an immigrant, or by a woman of color," wrote the historian Timothy Snyder in the New Yorker. "The magic lies in the daring it takes to declare a weaker group to be part of an overwhelming conspiracy."

Instead of the circular firing squad Democrats have formed post-election, they should hunker down for the fight against the cruel, inhumane and potentially earth-shattering policies coming our way. And be open to learning from the voters who deserted them, or split their votes between Trump at the top and a Democrat further down the ballot.

New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose progressive politics have made her a favorite target of Republicans, asked her social media followers to explain why they cast their ballots for both her and Trump.

"I actually want to learn from you and hear what you're thinking," she said.

The responses were enlightening.

"Real simple," wrote one. "Trump and you care for the working class."

"I feel like Trump and you are both real."

"Voted Trump, but I like you and Bernie. I don't trust either party's establishment politicians."

Democrats should take these sentiments to heart and act accordingly. It's not their policies — it's their messaging.

_____