Jacobin Radio: Matt Karp and Mike Davis on the 2020 Election

Suzi talks to Matt Karp (https://history.princeton.edu/people/matthew-karp), contributing editor of Jacobin (https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/08/bernie-sanders-five-year-war), about the significance of the 2020 election in geographic and demographic terms. Biden won both the popular vote and the electoral college in an election with historic turnout, but without the kind of landslide many expected — and higher turnouts seem to have inflated totals for both parties. The Democrats may have won back the Blue Wall, taking Arizona, Georgia and Nevada from the Republicans, but Trump also secured a record vote, and the Democrats did badly in down ticket races. We get Matt's insights on the Democratic Party’s election strategy and results — as well as what they portend for the Left of the Party.  Suzi then talks to Mike Davis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Davis_(scholar)) to get his analysis of the election results, looking in particular at South Texas, as well as the exurbs. In South Texas a blue wave along the Rio Grande from El Paso to Brownsville was taken for granted, but failed to materialize, and the Republicans out-organized the Democrats. Mike helps us understand why Latinos voted for Trump, despite his horrific immigration policies — and we get Mike’s take on why the Democratic Party’s strategy — that allowed a bifurcation of Trump’s handling of the pandemic and the economy — was such a disaster.