Open to discussion, but since 2008, the Democrats have won every election where the leadership didn't "put their finger on the scale" in the primaries/picking the candidate. Obama, Obama; Clinton arguably shouldn't have been the nominee and Sanders should have; Biden was (?) properly primaries; Harris was picked
obvious pick, but still, not primaried.
Or the other reason, that the US is too sexist to elect a woman. It's depressing either way of course.
Way more than two options here.
I voted for Harris, and I encouraged others to as well. And I think the Democratic leadership royally fucked up here.
The polls kinda sucked in the end, and I think one reason is that folks were embarrassed to admit they were voting for Trump. That to me says that they voted for him not because he's a racist sexist pig, but in spite of this.
But the polls did afaik get that the economy was hugely important. And the Democrats failed here both in current policy (groceries got more expensive over the course of Biden's term), and in proposed policy messaging. No one cares about home buyer credits if you can't afford groceries. (And no, I don't think Trump has a plan to lower prices aside from shady back room deals that will ultimately cost us big
but voters want something new...)
To be clear, I voted for Biden, I voted for Harris, and I'm pretty scared about the future. But the Democrats need to learn something from this or it's same story in four years. Maybe the lesson is "we can't count on the left in this country to vote for us by default," and maybe the lesson is, "for the love of God raise hell if the cost of living goes up, and do it in a way that appeals to the lowest common denominator."