This Popular Theory About Why Democrats Lost Has Some Glaring Holes

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. What's wrong with these darn institutions, and why does nobody trust them? That's the question lurking behind every postmortem about why Democrats lost the 2024 presidential election and what they could do to start winning future ones. The thinking goes like this: Donald Trump, as a political figure, represents blowing up the status quo; Trump won and the incumbent vice president lost; ergo, a majority of voters are unhappy with the people and groups responsible for the status quo. But the evidence that residents of the United States don't trust their institutions goes beyond election results.