Obviously Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz lost on November 5. Walz even suffered the humiliation of losing his own county, Minnesota’s Blue Earth County, where he lived for 20 years before becoming governor.
But who else lost on that historic day?
- Legacy media: That’s ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, The Roanoke Times, Washington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic, etc. For generations they’ve controlled the flow of information. This year they went more lopsided for Democrats and against Republicans than ever…but their side still lost. The Media Research Center found that CBS, ABC, NBC were so imbalanced, they gave Kamala 78% positive coverage while Trump only got 15% positive treatment. Since the election, MSNBC viewership has plummeted by 50%. In contrast, alternative media including Twitter/X, podcasts, streamers, etc. have created an entirely independent environment. Democrat commentator Van Jones told CNN viewers: “Here’s how we got beat. We got beat because the Republicans and conservatives built a different media system that has to do with online, podcasts, streaming platforms, and they were spending their money there. We were laughing at them … We were making fun of Donald Trump for throwing away his ground game and doing some weird stuff online. We thought that they were idiots; it turned out we were the idiots. We woke up in a body bag….” Elon Musk: “Trust in the legacy media is rightfully at an all-time low and declining.”
- Pollsters: For weeks and even up till Nov. 5, many polls were showing a close race or even a Harris win. But Trump had a landslide in the Electoral College, 312-226, and Trump even won the popular vote…the first GOP president to do so since Bush Jr. in 2004. There were seven swing states, and Trump swept them all.
- Celebrities: Hollywood sides with the Democrats, and this year was no exception. But it seems most Americans were more concerned about the price of gas and groceries, not what Taylor Swift or Oprah told them what to do. Oprah denies the Harris campaign paid her one million dollars for her endorsement, but records indicate otherwise. According to Fox, the Harris campaign scheduled seven swing-state concerts in the week before the election, “including performances by Jon Bon Jovi in Detroit, Christina Aguilera in Las Vegas, Katy Perry in Pittsburgh and Lady Gaga in Philadelphia, and a 2 Chainz performance at a rally three days before the election in Atlanta.” All for naught.
- Obama: In early October former President Obama scolded “the brothers” for not falling in line and supporting Kamala. His remarks sparked much outrage for claiming people should vote based on skin color. It also elicited this headline from the satire site, Babylon Bee: “‘Now Is Not The Time For Independent Thinking,’ Obama Tells Black Trump Supporters.” Even worse, at a Milwaukee campaign rally for Harris two days before the election, Obama told the crowd two lies that have been debunked. Obama asked the crowd, “Why would you place your faith in somebody who instituted a so-called Muslim ban?” In fact, the ban only applied to travelers from six countries: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. All six had ties to terrorism. However, there are about 50 Muslim-majority countries in the world, so the “ban” did not apply to about 46 of them, including Indonesia, the biggest Muslim nation on earth. In the same breath Obama also repeated the “very fine people on both sides at Charlottesville” hoax, which even left-leaning Snopes has debunked. Notably, Trump made his remarks in August 2017, and Snopes did not debunk the hoax until June 2024!
- The Deep State (aka “the Machine,” “the Matrix,” “the Firm,” or “the Blob”): To quote free-speech advocate Michael Shellenberger: “Our Intelligence Community is supposed protect us. Instead, it persecuted us. The CIA and FBI created the Russia-gate hoax in 2016 and interfered in the 2020 elections. DHS oversaw a mass censorship effort. We still don’t know what happened on J6. It’s time for truth & accountability.” I first became alarmed by the “Deep State,” that I earlier didn’t even realize existed, when news broke about the August 2016 texting between adulterous lovers FBI attorney Lisa Page and agent Peter Strzok. Page: “Trump’s not going to become president, right? Right?!” Strzok: “No. No, he’s not. We’ll stop it.”
- The Censorship Regime: Most of us associate censorship with dictatorships, not the US, but that ugly silencing has been here too. Some of the worst offenders include Google, YouTube, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon (that used their servers to shut down free-speech Parler in early 2021.) Trump has stated, correctly, that free speech is a cornerstone of democracy and he will take steps to protect it.
- The bloated Federal Bureaucracy: With a national debt over $35 trillion, Musk has explained that we either need to cut back the size of government, or go bankrupt. Trump is starting a “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) and putting Musk in charge; he’s the man who fired 80% of Twitter’s old staff yet now X is bigger and better than ever.
- The Coup-Plotters: As explained here, some Democrat Party Bosses deposed Joe Biden, disenfranchised the 14-million-plus Democrats who voted for him in the 2024 primaries, and hand-picked Kamala to replace him. It seems ignoring your own party’s base voters is not a winning strategy.
- UVA professors Larry Sabato and Liz Cheney: Dr. Sabato posted his election predictions, which were proven to be wildly off-base, thinking she would win the White House with 276 Electoral Votes. He suggested Kamala would win four of the seven swing states, while in fact she lost all seven, including her vaunted “Blue Wall.” Sabato and Cheney also compared Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally to a Nazi rally. Many Virginians are asking, “Why are my tax dollars paying for the salaries and benefits for people like this?”
- US Sen. Tim Kaine: Yes, he won his re-election, but he will go to Washington in January as part of the minority in the Senate, meaning most of his power will be gone, for at least two years. (Likewise, we Virginians also lose because our two senators will be in the minority and outside most of the decision-making processes.)
- Democrats overall: This text and graph show areas in the US that moved rightward in the elections. In fact, the GOP improved its performance in 49 (!) states and Washington DC; the Democrats did better in Washington State only, which as some pointed out, does not require photo ID to vote, so maybe that’s a coincidence? Key demographics including Latinos, black men, and younger voters broke for Trump in waves.
- Who else would you add to this list?
–Scott Dreyer
