The Price of Cheerios, and the Way Forward

How Democrats Lost Touch and What It Will Take to Win Back the Working Class

Photo by John Matychuk on Unsplash

Walk down your supermarket’s cereal aisle, and you’ll see just one reason for Donald Trump’s election victory. Though inflation has cooled, grocery prices remain high with no sign of decline. A box of Cheerios costs $6, and Shredded Wheat goes for a dollar more. It’s enough to make voters support the angry candidate promising to fix all that ails the country.

Kamala Harris’s defeat didn’t surprise me (even though I thought she would win), though it did many others. In every presidential election, “the economy, stupid” matters most, as James Carville famously said, and Harris never developed a compelling response to concerns about inflation's lingering effects.

Other factors contributed to her loss, notably the COVID pandemic. Many remained angry about government restrictions on schools, businesses, and gatherings and questioned whether those sacrifices were necessary. Democrats never articulated a coherent response to the post-COVID anger and doubt, one of many mistakes that must be corrected.

One key issue for Democrats is relatability. The party often seems captive to the coastal elites, who many Americans feel look down on them—and in some cases, they’re right. Ironically, both Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, attended Ivy League schools, making them elite by most definitions. But in attitude, they aren’t, and this difference, sadly, resonated.

While Middle America worried about jobs and grocery prices, Democrats focused on issues like abortion, transgender rights, and Israel’s war with Hamas. These topics mattered to liberal voters who already supported Harris, but they didn’t resonate with the undecided, right-of-center voters who ultimately decided the election. This doesn’t mean they weren’t important, they were, but they didn’t drive numbers to the polls near as effectively as culture war issues did on the right.

Even more concerning, warnings about Trump’s threat to democracy seemed to fall on deaf ears. As I have often said, he is a fascist. He wants to prosecute his critics and dismantle checks and balances to centralize power. But millions of Americans don’t seem to appreciate our system's safeguards. How do we correct this? Do we keep preaching this fact, or move on and ignore it. Honestly, I don’t know…maybe some people have to touch the stove to see it really is hot. I will keep yelling from the rooftops, however, and I refuse to be intimidated into silence. Lock me up on false charges? Cool, Ill use that for an even bigger megaphone.

The immigration issue also hurt Harris. Most Americans believe chaos reigns at the border and that too many undocumented immigrants live here. Harris did little to differentiate herself from Biden on this front. When asked if she’d have done anything differently, she simply said she wouldn’t have. Given Biden’s low approval rating, this was political malpractice.

Harris’s answer disappointed her supporters and further fueled voter anger—a key element of Trump’s message that resonated with those who feel the country isn’t working for them. With 60 percent of Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck and millions of elderly on less than $20,000 a year, voters need to feel heard and see bold ideas for change. Harris connected on neither count.

Beyond anger, there’s fear—fear about affording healthcare, saving for retirement, and whether their children can still achieve the American dream.

Trump’s election was driven by his disdain for elites and his promise that, from Day One, things would at least feel better. But Democrats, whom I continue to support, offered no compelling alternative vision.

Those of us who hold onto hope believe that the Democratic Party of old—the one that appealed to working people—must be revived. For that matter, I hope to see the return of the old, pre-Trump Republican Party, which revered the Constitution. Meanwhile, Trump is likely to overreach: he’ll impose tariffs that hurt the economy, deport immigrants with unnecessary cruelty, and trigger a backlash as millions feel buyer’s remorse. Midterm elections could give Democrats a chance to check his administration if they win the House and Senate.

Our task is to continuously critique Trump, exposing his cruel and reckless actions. Simultaneously, we must push for a Democratic transformation, shedding the elitist image to represent the interests of the majority. In short, the party must keep an eye on the price of Cheerios.