Americans spoke loud and clear about what they value sociopolitically and in a presidential candidate on election day

America spoke loud and clear the last 48 hours. The only winners were Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Donald Trump lost first and foremost, it looks like his presidency is all but over. The Democratic Party lost, considering a "blue wave" was expected to surge across the nation and that did not happen. This election was expected by analysts, pundits, and polls to be a runaway for Joe Biden, but it was anything but that. Joe Biden, a milquetoast centrist Democratic candidate who people like to mock, but no one actually hates, couldn't soundly defeat a candidate in Donald Trump who everyone absolutely loathes except his die-hard fans. If you're scoffing at this as a coincidence, a one-off, or purely circumstantial, then you haven't been paying attention. And if you're a Republican or Democrat, then you better hope your party of choice learns from their mistakes made during this election process, because there were many. The last year couldn't have been handled more poorly by both sides of the aisle. I'm going to break down what I think happened to each party, starting with the Democrats.

Roughly 70 million people voted for Donald Trump. He gained in every single demographic except for white males. He gained among minorities. He gained among the LGBTQ community. Donald Trump, a man considered by many to be a vile racist and bigot had the highest non-white GOP share since 1960. That is absolutely fascinating on so many levels. I saw a lot of people stating "This sadly tells us so much about the voters and how racist they are." No. If anything, this tells you much more about what the voters think of your candidate than what it tells you about the voters themselves. This tells you right off the bat that any narrative that all 70 million of his votes were obviously not from only his right wing conservative base. A lot of people voted for Donald Trump. I heard countless social commentators of all backgrounds say they are voting Republican for the first time in their lives. How could that be? Trump is the most hated president of my lifetime. There isn't a ton to hate about Biden, so shouldn't this vote have been a runaway for Biden?

The way things have played out tell me that the non die-hard conservative vote for Trump this year wasn't a vote for Trump but a vote against the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is scaring the hell out of many centrists(dead center, center-left, center-right), who always represent the majority of any electorate. There should be alarms going off in the head of every Democratic politician across the country right now about the message the American people are sending to you.

Americans are extremely pro-cop

 Credit to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, they did not promote much, if any, anti-cop rhetoric during their campaign. Joe Biden has a strong history of being tough on crime(maybe too tough) and the same applies to Harris. Joe Biden even said he wanted to increase funding for the police during one of his debates. However, they still belong to a party that are notoriously soft on crime. And right or wrong, Americans factor in not only the candidate when casting their vote, the party that candidate belongs to is also a significant factor. We saw rioters and looters destroy cities with impunity throughout 2020. We saw insurgents commandeer a section of a city in Seattle, dub it an "Autonomous Zone" and have the mayor joke about it like it was a fun little block party. Business owners were shaken down for money, drug use was rampant, people were assaulted, borders were installed to block out anybody they didn't want to enter freely in their own city, and most importantly people were murdered in its confines. Some of them teenagers.

In Portland, there has been rioting virtually every single night since May. Rioters smash businesses, set fires, beat up people who look at them wrong, and don't allow members of the press to record it so they can continue to commit these acts without repercussion. The District Attorney never presses charges and throws anyone arrested right back out on the street.

Those are just two cities. NYC, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, LA have all experienced this to some varying levels throughout 2020. It has not stopped and has showed no signs of stopping any time soon. Their local leaders are not allowing law enforcement to use the type of force and tactics necessary to put an end to this. Citizens are scared. Business owners are distraught. People want law and order and are seeing Democratic cities overrun by social unrest and have grown tired of it. I can assure you many votes for Donald Trump were a big "F U" to the Democratic Party for allowing their cities to devolve the way they have. Not to mention pushing "defund the police" rhetoric by many Democrats that the far far FAR majority of Americans don't support. You only hear "defund the police" from the left side of the aisle, you never ever hear that from Republicans. In a country that loves law enforcement, including minorities who virtually all support cops(polls and surveys show), if you or your party promote any anti-cop agenda, you're going to lose votes. Period.

Americans do not like identity politics, extreme progressive ideologies, or "wokeness"

The Democratic Party has always been considered the "Progressive Party" and while I think many Americans support some progressive values, the extreme ones turn people off completely. 

• Americans don't want to be told that there are no differences between men and women. 
• Americans don't want to be told that men can get pregnant and get periods. 
• Americans don't want the above two things taught to their children at school.
  
• Americans don't want to be fired for doing an "okay sign" at their job.
• Americans don't want to be told that they're racist if they vote for a certain candidate.
• Americans don't want to be separated at work for training sessions based off skin color.
• Americans don't want to be sent to indoctrination sessions for their job to be told to disavow their ethnic identity and to atone for their skin color and write apology letters to people based on their identity.
• Americans don't want to be told if they question the teachings of certain religions or ideologies it makes them bad people.
• Americans don't want to be told that if they're straight and won't have sex with a trans person they're hateful.
• Americans don't want to have to state their name and say they're racist before entering university zoom sessions during a pandemic.
• Americans don't want to be called a traitor to their party or race if they listen to controversial figures on podcasts.
• Americans don't want to be told they aren't allowed to have opinions others find offensive.
• Americans don't want to be told they're evil for reading JK Rowling's books.
• Americans don't want to be told they're a bigot because they don't want trans men beating the pulp out of biological women in sporting events.
• Americans don't want to be told if they hold on for a second too long on a hug, they sexually harassed that person.
• Americans don't want statues of George Washington or Abraham Lincoln torn down or defaced.
  
• And Americans don't like being talked down to or preached to.

I'm an independent. I've voted Democrat more in my life than I've voted Republican, but I'm sorry, this nonsense only comes from the left these days. I don't like Donald Trump, but I gotta give him credit for one thing. He sniffed out this trend and went hardcore in on it during this election period. He wanted to become the "anti-woke" candidate, and it worked. Without that as part of his campaign, he likely would've have been routed. The Democrats have to understand that by promoting these extreme ideologies, they aren't pandering to their voters, they're pandering to a small slither of crazies on social media. Twitter and Facebook are NOT the majority. 96% of tweets come from 12% of Twitter's user base, and of that user base, that is only a tiny percentage of the American population. In future, Dems, distance yourself from wokeness and identity politics; and don't make half the country feel like they're evil "white supremacist Nazis" for believing certain things and voting certain ways, or I promise you it will cost you the election.

Don't nominate candidates older than 75 years old

Americans are foaming at the mouth for someone young and vibrant to take the presidential mantle. They don't want to have to worry about health issues, cognitive decline, archaic thinking on policy, and maybe most importantly that candidate not making it a full term and the VP becoming POTUS at some point. The Democrats have some young talent among their ranks like Tulsi Gabbard and Andrew Yang. Get behind them, and let them carry you to victory.

Now, on to the Republicans. Just like the Democrats, you have no one to blame but yourselves for coming up short for the presidency. No, Trump isn't going to lose because the Democrats "stole the election" or anything like that. Are there some ballots here or there that got through as fraudulent? Probably. But time to look in the mirror. You lost because your president couldn't shut his goddamn mouth. He told lie after lie and Americans just grew tired of it. Just like this election could've been a blowout for Biden if the Democrats played their cards right, the came could be said for your side. Joe Biden excited no one. The voters who voted for Biden I guarantee you were turned off by the lawlessness and rioting and identity politics, but they just hated your candidate so much that they still couldn't vote for him. That's saying something.

• Diatribes on Twitter at at 1 am.
• Talking about how COVID is almost over, when it wasn't, and talking about how a vaccine is right around the corner when everyone knew it wasn't.
• Threatening to fire Dr. Fauci.
• Joking about being president for life. Even if that's a joke, you don't even unintentionally threaten the American system.
• Making every issue about him rather than about the people.
• Constantly playing victim. That likely cost him some conservative votes even, conservatives don't like victimhood at any level.
• And his general lack of professionalism on so many issues, like waging war with media people.

All Trump had to do was contain himself for a year and he'd likely have been re-elected because more people than you'd think support his policies. His anti Critical Race Theory policy was very popular, the economy was doing well before COVID, and crime across the country had been down. He brought peace agreements in the Middle East, which may or may not mean much years from now, but it looks good on a resume. Yet, he couldn't do it. Even with COVID and if he handled it better, he might have still won if he just shut his mouth. He could have focused on the fact that Biden and Harris detailed no elaborate plan to contain the virus other than "mask mandates" which is a general term, but he couldn't do it, and now he's going to blame it on a big conspiracy and throw a tantrum over it.

In the end, both parties should have learned a lot from this election process. Democrats need to understand that the American people want crackdowns on crime. Americans don't just want you to say looting is bad, they want you to stop it and stop it immediately. They don't want Critical Theory, wokeness, or identity politics in their institutions or in day to day life. They don't like being talked down to and told they are racists or bigots for believing certain things or thinking a certain way. For their sake, I hope they realize this for the next election or they will lose, because they won't have Donald Trump to pick apart next go around.

And Republicans: you're lucky that the whirlwind of the last several years under Trump will be behind you. Dust yourselves off, don't fuck up healthcare or Roe vs Wade, and you will have a better shot next time too.

As an independent, I hope both parties do the right corrections and nominate the best candidates next time, so we actually have two promising people to choose as our Commander in Chief. Look at yourselves in the mirror instead of blaming the people for why you didn't reach your goals. Dems, don't blame the lack of votes on "ToO mAnY rAcIsTs!!11!" and GOP, don't blame it on "ElEcTiOn FrAuD!11!" Choose better candidates, promote better ideals, and you'll gain the favor of the people. In the areas you fell short, you have no one to blame but yourselves.