Former president Donald Trump declared victory early Wednesday morning against Vice President Kamala Harris, telling a crowd in Palm Beach, Florida, that it was “the greatest political movement of all time.”
To historian and presidential biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin, it wasn’t so much a movement as an example of American democracy in action.
“It certainly was a sweeping victory, there’s no question,” she told Boston Public Radio on Wednesday. “And that’s what democracy is. Democracy gives you a chance to vote your leaders in, and then vote them out.”
Kearns Goodwin thinks Vice President Kamala Harris ran a good campaign, and said that she believed taking an optimistic tack was the right approach during the race. But in hindsight, it looks like her optimistic message of “a new way forward” did not resonate with voters on tight budgets.
Kearns Goodwin recalled lines from Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964:
“‘What the man in the street wants is not a big debate on fundamental issues. He wants a little medical care. He wants a rug on the floor. He wants a picture on the wall, a little music in the house and a place to take Molly and the grandchildren when he retires,’” Kearns Goodwin quoted. “A lot of people don’t feel that sense of security.”
Historically, winning presidential candidates have run on optimistic messages. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s campaign used the song “Happy Days Are Here Again”; John F. Kennedy talked about “High Hopes”; Ronald Reagan had an “optimistic temperament” and Barack Obama ran with the slogan “Hope,” she said.
Trump, however, used a more negative rallying cry in the last few weeks of the race, saying America is a “ nation in decline.” This messaging was successful for the Republican candidate, who easily won both the popular and electoral votes.
“I think the Democrats have lost the working-class people. That was the base of their party for a long period of time. And what it has to do with: free trade. It has to do with globalization,” Kearns Goodwin said.
Trump’s messaging reaches people emotionally in a way the Democrats haven’t. The historian argued President Joe Biden had many accomplishments, including the largest infrastructure investments in decades, but he wasn’t able to change people’s feelings about the positive role the government can play in people’s lives.
“That’s been the debate all along. What is the role of government?” she said. The vision laid out for the role of government has long flip-flopped between presidents. From large investments by Johnson, to Reagan saying government is the problem, to Bill Clinton taking a more centrist approach.
Trump’s statements about an “enemy within” and that he’d be a “dictator on day one” have left many concerned that he is a threat to democracy. Kearns Goodwin said she believes public sentiment can hold him in check, going back as far as the public moral outrage over slavery in the lead-up to the Civil War.
“It’s going to be up to the citizens right now, and I still trust the American people,” she said.
“Citizens can make a difference. And if he goes in the direction of making real all those threats toward the generals, toward the firing squads, the country, I believe the citizens will not stand for that,” Kearns Goodwin added.
