The Real Reason The Democrats Lost

No matter what pundits you listen to, one thing becomes very clear from the start - Democrats have no idea how they lost the election to Trump, or why. It simply does not seem logical or even possible.

But it did happen. Republicans hold all three parts of the legislative and executive power in Washington. They hold most state legislatures and Governorships. And Democrats need to learn the right lesson from this if they are to have any chance of making a comeback anytime soon.

Here is what really happened, and why...

Setting aside personalities, honesty issues and nasty campaigning, Democrats should simply look at the county-by-county vote. Republicans won over 96% of ALL counties across the country. The only counties they won are the population-rich metropolitan areas, primarily around New York and California. What message this sends is that Democrats are only reaching their fellow elitists with their message, and that message rings sour to the folks in 96% of the country.

Winning the coastal epicenters of the elites will win them the popular vote almost every time, simply due to the vast populations in those areas (which is why the Founders invented the Electoral College, so a few cities don't run everything). But that does not get you the electoral college. That is won county-by-county and state-by-state, and Democrats lost most of those because their message is one that elitists such as Hollywood celebrities and D.C politicians can relate to, but most ordinary Americans cannot. Basically, then, the Democrats lost because of Maslov's Hierarchy of Needs, depicted as a pyramid, where the first need is the wide base, and the highest need is the pinnacle.

Elitists living in the metro areas have much different needs than other Americans. According to Maslov's Hierarchy of Needs, every person is on one of six levels of need, and normally strive to rise to the top. Those six levels, in order, are:

Physiological needs (food & water, clothing, shelter, sex)
Safety needs (personal & financial security, health & well-being, safety net against adverse impacts like accidents, unemployment)
Love and belonging (friendship, intimacy, family)
Esteem (respect from others as well as self; recognition; fame etc)
Self-actualization (achieving success in many things, such as parenting, athletics, art, creating/building)
Self-transcendance  (giving to a higher goal outside oneself; altruism, charity, spirituality)

Individuals just trying to survive, physically, have little or no interest in the same things that appeal to those in the self-actualization stage, for example. Too busy surviving. But once their physiological needs have been secured, they move toward ensuring their safety needs. And once those needs are met, they give greater importance to love and belonging. And so it goes, until they hit the wall (personal limitations) or reach the top.

Liberal elitists like celebrities and politicians are at or near the pinnacle, and as such their "needs" are more idealistic, and do not translate well in the real world that most people have to live in. While they float idealistic ideas and policies that are altruistic, those things do not put food on the table for every day Americans.

And the real problem for liberal Democrats lies in the simple fact that they actually believe that most Americans want and need the same things they, themselves want.

They don't. They are not "there" yet, and most will never be there, because there is just so much room at the top (remember, it really is a pyramid - the vast majority of people are at stage one).

Until Democrats come to terms with the simple fact that the majority of Americans outside the elitist epicenters are not on their level and do not find value in what they want, Democrats will keep losing.

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