One of the more underappreciated aspects of the 2024 election is just how confident most Democrats were that they would win it.
It seems like an eternity ago, but there was a time when the American left was all but certain Kamala Harris would be the next president. Who can remember the months-long proclamation of “joy” being a central theme of her campaign? Or “Brat summer,” suggesting Harris had made inroads with pop culture that simply couldn’t be defeated. I still remember having to repeatedly debunk reports on election day of massive turnout in Philadelphia that had supposedly sealed the deal for the then-vice president.
That attitude was nothing new, though. Between 2021 and 2024, no action was taken by the Democratic Party that factored in the possibility that Donald Trump might be president again one day. Assuming that he’d surely be done this time, they didn’t even consider the possible alternative outcomes of their crusade.
But then he won, and like a child who angrily wonders how the hot stove burned him, the Democrats are now very unhappy that Trump is governing in light of their actions.