Miami Political Review Editorial Board

As a non-partisan public policy and politics magazine, Miami Political Review members represent a diversity of perspectives, lived experiences, and academic backgrounds. In the wake of the 2024 election results, we all felt a similar call to reflect on the pressing questions and stark realities revealed by the re-election of President Donald J. Trump.

How should Democratic campaigns re-evaluate their strategy for 2028? Is there still space for moderates in national politics? What is the future of America’s climate? What will it take for America to elect a female president? Miami Political Review writers weigh in with their takes on how this election has shaped our divided nation.

America’s Election Paradigm Has Shifted — Jack Liebowitz

Donald Trump’s victory is unequivocal proof that the MAGA movement has shifted the election paradigms of this country. Trump ran an unorthodox campaign, but the gambit paid off. Eight years ago, the idea of a presidential candidate appearing on podcasts and various Twitch streams would have been a pipe dream. Yet, as social media continues to expand its presence in everyday life, and Gen-Z becomes increasingly involved in politics, a shift of this nature was inevitable.

We’re living in a different world.

Gone are the days where Americans relied on the word of mainstream media like gospel. Your morning newspaper has been replaced by a morning scroll through X, TikTok, Facebook, or Instagram. Your nightly news report has been replaced by the likes of Joe Rogan. The effects of this were felt in this election. Put simply, the Trump campaign harnessed the realm of social media to a greater extent than the Harris campaign.

While some things change, others remain the same.

This moment in American politics has felt like a microcosm of the 1970s, at least from the standpoint of economics. Yes, the economy at a macro level fares better today than it did throughout the 70s. Inflation and unemployment are nowhere near their 1970s equivalents. However, most Americans cited the economy as the most important issue in this election. The effects of a healthy economy are not felt at the micro level; thus, a mood of economic ennui is fostered among Americans. Complaints of grocery prices being among the most common epithets uttered by irked Americans whose wallets feel ever stripped to the bone. With that, take a moment to recall what followed the moody doldrums of the 1970s… 

It’s morning in America, but this time, the sun is wearing a scarlet red “Make America Great Again” cap.

A Moderate’s Take on the 2024 Election Results — Austin Strykowski

After staying awake until 3 AM and subsequently waking up for my 8:30 AM class, I have had some time to think about this election and what has occurred in the recent hours following November 5, 2024. 

As I reflect on my personal voting decision, I recall that I spent a decent amount of time deliberating my choice before I closed and sent out my mail-in ballot. I, like many other moderates, had to decide between two extreme candidates and the parties that they had been pushed away from.

For reference, my political compass is roughly .5 graphical points away from the center of the graph. Like many others, I fall in the realm of moderacy, in that I do not completely align myself with the views of one specific party. In fact, I am a registered independent on my voting record.

I am also not a person who has overreacted to this election. I weighed my choices and went with the option that I felt was best for me. I can foresee my life changing only fiscally as I exit college and I can’t think of any major changes that will likely affect me directly.

The Winners

I see the incoming governmental efficiency as there is likely to be many bills passed under a Republican congress. Subsequently, this will encourage bipartisanship as many Democrats will need to cut deals in order to get the needs of their constituents focused on. 

Next, I see the incoming administration as being a less controversial one as I believe that President Trump will have learned from the mistakes he made in the White House the first time and work toward a unification effort as opposed to polarization. 

Third, I can see American industries getting a big boost in production with lower taxes, via Trump’s tax cuts,  and, hopefully, lower production costs which lead to lower prices overall. I do miss when gas was $1.94/gallon.

The Losers

I see the environment as the biggest loser in this election. Trump reversed many environmental protection laws in his first term and has pledged to do it again. While electric vehicles have their flaws, we should begin to move away from our dependence on gas-powered cars, and this will simply not happen in a Trump presidency. I can also foresee a deregulation of companies that have been known to harm the environment and the beautiful American landscape will suffer as a result.

Next, I see the incoming power struggle and restructuring of the Democratic party as a loss. While I don’t think that they will change massively, losing this election was a crushing blow and they simply cannot carry on without exploring their flaws. I think that the party will push themselves away from radicalism, but only time will tell.

Last, I see a big blow to foreign business. Trump pledges to bring businesses back to America, but I hope that he listens to economists and knows what we are reliant on from other nations. If we completely change our system of imports, the global economy will struggle and the US will likely enter into a recession once it realizes that it doesn’t have all the materials to do everything on its own.

While this election will bring up controversy and discussion for years to come, I think it is good to continue to have civil discussions about politics. I have seen a lot of TikToks of people screaming in their cars and yelling at supporters of both sides, but we can only make it through the next 4 years if we work together and support bipartisan efforts.

Takeaways for the Democratic Party – Eli Levsky

The 2024 Presidential election confirmed that the Democratic party is declining in popularity nationwide. According to the New York Times, over 90% of US counties shifted rightward, showing that Americans across the country, including in solid blue Chicago, are disillusioned with the Democrats.

In the post-election blame game, many Democrats are pointing fingers at various reasons ranging from Biden not dropping out sooner to Harris not taking riskier moves to Arab-Americans in Michigan voting for Trump to the gender gap (which actually turned out not to be accurate). These reasons might explain why the Demoncrats lost this election cycle but do not explain the party’s decline; they were unique to 2024 and can be tackled in the next election.

While it is crucial to recognize those mistakes, placing the crux of the blame on them distracts from the real issues facing the Democrats. Many Americans feel disenfranchised, economically powerless, or scared of migrants. These are the issues that actually decided this election, and not abortion or fascism like Harris campaigned on. Despite this, during his address to the nation, Biden doubled down on his economic successes, which might be accurate, but it’s also one of the reasons Trump won.

The party leadership was too optimistic to admit its faults and failures, especially with the economy and immigration, and effectively ignored them as real problems. However, some of the Democrats who did the best this election, such as Washington Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, were willing to openly criticize the party and say that people were hurting. Trump’s policies contain the possibility of hurting everyday Americans, but he promised change and solutions and understood how people were feeling; if Democrats want to have a change in 2028, they need to accept the reality and offer a pragmatic view of the nation.

One of the major narrative crises facing the party is how the Republicans paint them as “woke” and “socialist,” which scares many centrist voters and even some minorities. Minorities don’t vote as a monolith, and while some Hispanics voted against Trump for racism, many others voted for him to tighten the border. The same goes for a range of issues, including transgender rights, social welfare net, and abortion.

One of the interesting statistics is how both religious Jews and Arab-Americans voted for Trump because of the Israel-Hamas War. If Democrats want to rebuild their blocks among minority voters, they need to understand they all don’t like the same thing and might even oppose particular policies that, at first glance, one might think they would support.

While Democrats don’t need to abandon their policies per se, they need to do a better job at countering Republican claims of “wokeism” and “socialism” that turn off many voters and actually address the concerns of disparate groups and not assume they will vote for them.

Allowing the post-election would-licking to confine itself to factors unique to this election means Democrats don’t focus on addressing the party’s real long-term issue, which is that perception is stronger than reality. Regardless of whether Democratic policies are better or not, Trump’s popularism made people from very different backgrounds feel as if their concerns would be addressed.

If Democrats want to have a change in the next presidential election, they need to offer real, pragmatic solutions to voters, and not just rhetoric. The true reason why the Democrats lost was not because of Harris but because the party has not been addressing the needs of Americans.

The Misplayed Candidate Switch – Eliza Sullivan

When Joe Biden announced his candidacy for a second term, many Democrats were less than enthused. There were worries that he was too old for another term, and discontent with his handling of the Israel-Gaza war. But regardless, he remained the presumptive Democratic nominee. 

In June, Biden and Trump had a debate, during which concerns about Biden’s ability to complete a second term–or even win an election–increased. In the weeks following the debate, Democrats began calling for Biden to drop out of the race. Yet he continued to campaign for almost three weeks. 

When Biden did drop out, there were calls for an open primary to select a new Democratic presidential nominee. Instead, the party quickly rallied around Kamala Harris, the Vice President in a relatively unpopular administration, despite the fact that polling for her presidential campaign in 2020 peaked at 15%. Concerns were also raised about her complicity to the Biden administration’s support of Israel, but these were pushed aside. 

Harris’s campaign strategy was to “widen the tent,” but in practice she shifted to the right, at the expense of young voters and leftists. She took our votes for granted, assuming that we would vote for her out of fear of a Trump presidency. And when millions of voters abandoned her this November, they became villains. 

The Democratic Party cannot continue to force a candidate on its base, shout at them to vote, and become upset when they refuse. A candidate is meant to answer to their constituents. Voters should not have to swallow their true desires and vote for a candidate who has abandoned them.

The Future of Government Climate Change Initiatives – Annabel DeChant

Following Trump’s win in the 2024 presidential election, people are raising questions about implications for many different policy areas. For me, one of the most concerning is that of what the US will be doing, or not doing, to address climate change in the second Trump administration. Already, at COP 29, we’re seeing fears of a US who chooses not to engage in crucial international climate policy-making. 

Additionally, given the massive environmental deregulation of his last term, the EPA now faces renewed threats under this second term, potentially imperiling their ability to regulate important issues like air pollution. There is also concern that the Trump administration may neglect to defend important EPA regulations and instead choose to allow challengers to succeed. 

States may now have to shoulder much of the policy-making on climate change, and some have expressed their desire to keep pushing for progress in their states despite the Trump administration’s antagonistic stance on climate change. 

Meanwhile, the Biden administration has been hurriedly trying to save what they can of Biden’s climate actions. As part of this, “aides are racing to award hundreds of millions of dollars in grants and finalize environmental regulations in an effort to lock in President Biden’s climate agenda before Donald J. Trump enters the White House.” 

With climate change becoming an increasingly severe threat, I think it’s reasonable to be concerned about the Trump administration, which is likely to not only stall, but also reverse, the progress we’ve made so far.