Parker: What Happened? What's Next?

Two weeks ago, I wrote, "There seems to be only one thing about which all Americans agree ... that something is very wrong in our nation."

My point then was that all the polling data has been pointing in one direction – Americans of all persuasions are not happy with what's happening in and the direction of our country.

Now we see, despite all the pessimism about the state of American democracy, that it works.

Why be surprised about the blowout of the incumbent party when, for most of Joe Biden's presidency, the percentage of Americans saying they are satisfied with the direction of the country hovered around 20%, and when, after the early months of his presidency, his approval ratings tanked and for the remaining time, the gap between his disapproval and approval hovered between 10 to 15 points.

As former Reagan speechwriter Ken Khachigian noted in The Wall Street Journal, Vice President Kamala Harris drove a stake into her candidacy when in an appearance on "The View" she said nothing came to mind that she would have "done differently than President Biden."

Gallup started asking about satisfaction with direction of the country in 1979. The highest it's ever been was 71% in February 1999.

In Trump's first term, satisfaction reached 41%, the highest it had been in 15 years. Then, to the misfortune of the then and future President Trump, Covid hit.

So, my answer to the tsunami of commentary about what happened in this election is that Americans are not happy and are sufficiently vibrant and healthy to step up and say "enough."

As I said in my column two weeks ago, the only thing most Americans seem to agree about is that things are not good.

Now that the status quo has been rejected, where do we go?

I will repeat what I have been saying for a long time. A country that is fiscally bankrupt, culturally bankrupt and morally bankrupt is not a country with a future.

The great news that I see is that those with the great stake in the country's future — our youth, our working class and lower — and middle-income Americans, and our non-white Americans whose votes have always been disproportionately on the left, for Democrats, shifted in a meaningful way to Trump and Republicans.

Regarding the surge to the right by young men of all colors, my take is they are unhappy with a feminized culture of victimhood, wokeness and moral relativism.

I am not talking about manhood in a macho sense, but in the true sense of masculinity — to step up and take responsibility, to work, to build and to create. They are getting that the critical element of manliness is not taking control of others but of taking control of oneself.

The headline from the exit polls is decisive dissatisfaction with the economy, and all these votes went to Trump.

They will all agree with the tax cuts.

But how about spending cuts? We must shrink the long and heavy hand of government to recapture the economic growth of years gone by.

The voting shift among Americans of color is of crucial importance. The country is becoming less and less white.

Seventy-one percent of the 2024 vote was white voters. When Reagan was elected in 1980, 88% of voters were white.

Less than half the children in K-12 in America's public schools are white.

We need Americans of color to walk away from the culture of victimhood and embrace the culture of freedom and personal responsibility.

America needs these Americans of color, and these Americans of color need the values that built the country.

Regarding the Democratic Party, I would not liken it to a bankrupt company. A company in bankruptcy needs to reorganize and do its business more efficiently.

The Democratic Party is very efficient. Its problem is it's selling the wrong product.

Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and host of the weekly television show "Cure America with Star Parker."