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The left’s postmortem on the election included coming to terms with one go-to endorsement strategy that “reinforces this perception that we are the party of elites.”

In coming to terms with the loss of Vice President Kamala Harris, a campaign that reportedly ended $20 million in debt after raising $1 billion, the Democratic Party’s disconnect loomed large. Amid the excuses and rationalizations for the historically unlikable candidate, some strategists were working around to the reality that celebrity endorsements weren’t worth their cost.

“Somehow we think if Beyoncé is on stage, that will solve all our problems,” one Democratic strategist told The Hill. “What people don’t realize is that it actually makes it worse.”

The fact that the entertainer hadn’t performed when she’d joined Harris at Houston, Texas rally, leading to jeers, wasn’t what the strategist meant as the source went on, “It reinforces this perception that we are the party of elites, that we don’t understand what working class folks are going through.”

Having pulled such personalities as Taylor Swift, Oprah Winfrey, Robert De Niro, George Clooney and many cast members from Marvel Studios, Americans didn’t readily buy in on billionaires and multi-millionaires relating to their troubles with affording groceries for their families.

“[President-elect Donald] Trump’s stance of being against elites, and his supporters are not elitists and fighting against elitists — that messaging came out of his campaign,” said Jennifer Brubaker, author of “Celebrity and the American Political Process: Integrated Marketing Communication” and associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

“And now you have Harris’s campaign, which is tied to these celebrities who are, in fact, often thought to be elitists themselves,” she added. “So really it just reinforced much of [Trump’s] message in that regard.”

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith had driven home this point earlier in the week when he’d called out, “In the end, celebrities, who are worth hundreds of millions, if not billions, who most American citizens feel are incredibly detached from their way of life and their quality of life, were not going to get away and guilt them into doing something different than what their experience says is going on and what they should do about it.”

Similarly, independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders had said, “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.”

“While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right,” he added.

Prior to losing to Trump in what many considered an electoral landslide, where the GOP leader won each of the battleground states while earning the “mandate” distinction for also leading in the popular vote, the Harris campaign had defended the backing of celebrities as “trusted voices for millions of Americans, who listen to their music, follow them on social media, or otherwise are inspired by them.”

They argued celebrities “using their voices to lay out the stakes of this election, it will further encourage and mobilize people to go vote.”

“Celebrity engagement is an advantage for Democrats, but those endorsements don’t move votes. They just move eyeballs,” Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons told The Hill.

Another assessment saw Mark Penn, an adviser to then-Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY) 2008 presidential bid, contend “Voters don’t listen to Hollywood celebrities when it comes to voting. Most voters see Hollywood as great for entertaining but as far removed from their concerns when it comes to voting.”

He added among other points, “The working class and middle America voters are done being disrespected by college elites. They want real, merit-based opportunities not government subsidies. Identity politics is ultimately losing politics as voters care more about issues not identity when living their lives.”

Kevin Haggerty
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