Was not reelected. Whats your razor analysis of why it happened . Well, were going to go to the white board. Negative enthusiasm works just as good as positive enthusiasm. [laughter] for the entire tam campaign, trump voters said they were showing up to support President Trump. Just the opposite for wind, most of for biden. Most of theirs was an an moss few towards trump, but either way worked. Both men had record turnouts. Politics remains polarized. Theres no kumbaya moment available at the end of this race. Trump supporters felt aggrieved, and biden supporters are ebb you lent. So polarized paul karl, let me follow up on that. Was this a personal defeat for the president , you know . His traits of governing, or a larger ideological defeat for the Republican Party . No, more personal than ideological. I mean, if you looked at the interims, there were a lot of interims, there were a lot of people particularly in the suburbs and especially women who said i sort of like what did, but i dont like how he handled himself and, therefore, im going to either sit out or vote for the democrat. We saw this in places as distant as colin county, texas, and cobb county, georgia and, you know, walk shah county, wisconsin, and the suburbs of philadelphia. Nominal republicans who said, you know what . I just dont want four more years of him. Paul all right. Talk about the Republican Coalition because there are a lot of folks who think, you know what . Donald trump may have lost the election, but he really has are remade the Republican Party. Its now a very different coalition than when you were sitting in the white house. Do you agree . Yeah, i agree. Both parties are fragmented, is what id say about that, and the Republican Party is fragmented because while its gained support among blue collar, working class, some college or no collegeeducated people, its also lost among suburbanites and particularly in the suburbs collegeeducated. Similarly, the democrats are being fragmented because the hard left of the Democratic Party which is in ascendance at least at the house level and some of the statements levels, is not states levels, is not particularly attractive to people who have been democrats, and how they deal with that in the years ahead both parties are in trouble. Theyve got to do something about it because their coalitions are changing and unstable. You want them to constantly change. You want to be able to reach out to new groups of people. But the unstability thats inside each party has got to be dealt with by calm and confident leadership, and im not sure either party has that right now. Paul well, yeah, i see youve got a point about trust in institutions. Thats obviously deteriorated, and weve seen it in the wake of the election as well. Right. Paul thats and both parties have contributed to that by casting doubt on election after election thats right. Paul where they end up losing. Thats right. And, look, also just simply the common sense of the American People to look at institutions like the media and saying youre not really fair and then, you know, the Political Warfare around the courts has also had an impact. All of these institutions, if you look over the last 30, 40 years, only two institutions have seemed to have kept theirs or gained support, and thats the military and law enforcement, and you cant build a free and open society based on only twoaz those two institutions having the confidence of the American People. Paul republicans in particular here, are the unifying forces more cultural than economics or Foreign Policy . Because with it seems to me that thats the case, and that means that youre seeing a lot more democratic kind of tax and spending policies among republicans. Well, i think that may be the appearance, but i think its a very open question. I think a lot of traditional republicans, were so tribal at this moment in american politics. A lot of traditional republicans who are less government, lower taxes, you know with, federalist, we want more power to the states, less power to washington, have sort of said im willing to accept things that run against, that that run counter to my principles because my guy tells me to do so. I think both parties are in that situation, particularly the republicans, and thats going to be why the next two, three or four years are going to be interesting, how does each party sort it out. I think the smart people inside the Republican Party are the people that say how do we keep this blue collar emphasis without surrendering conservative principles, and well see how well everybody carries it out. Paul karl, about 40 seconds left. Look at the democrats, does joe biden have a majority governing coalition right now . No. Because, look, what was his campaign about . Im not donald trump, and he screwed up covid. And as a result, all the normal things that we would have gone through since he secured the nomination in march didnt happen. There were no big layout of his agenda, no controversies that allowed people to get a sense of what this was all about and which, by his defense, would strengthen their commitment to that agenda. Hes coming in with basically, you know, im not trump, and hes going to try to do things that people are not prepared to have done with them or two them, and thats or to them, and that thats going to be a problem for the former Vice President , soon to be president joe biden. Paul a volatile and unstable period. Thanks, karl. Much more when we come back as our panel joins us with their picks for the biggest stories of 2020. Still warm. Thanks, maggie. Oh, alice says hi. For some of us, our daily journey is a short one. Save 50 when you pay per mile with allstate. Pay less when you drive less. Youve never been in better hands. Allstate. Click or call for a quote today. To your friends. Your family. To your teachers. In that spirit of giving, chevys proud to give our employee discount to everyone. The chevy price you pay,. Is what we pay. Not a cent more. Because giving,. And giving back, is what the holidays are all about. 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And joining our panel this week, columnist and deputy Editorial Page Editor dan henninger, columnist kim strassel, board member Kyle Peterson and columnist Mary Anastasia ogrady. Kim, start us off here. So my biggest story is the biggest election losers. And while a lot of people have focused on the results of the president ial race, the biggest losers in my mind were actually nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer and democrats who lost a lot of seats in the house and who failed to make new real gains in the senate. And i think the reason for this is democrats think it had to do with their messaging, but actually it was an american response to their policies which have become increasingly progressive; defund the police, radical environmentalism, medicare for all and also a failure of governance in the house where they did practically nothing but investigate donald trump. Paul its all the more remarkable, kim, when you think about it, because the republican candidates in the house and even some in the senate were outspent 2, 3, 3 to 1, and the business community, chamber of commerce and others really moved to the democrats. Yeah. No, its a reminder that money is not all and that you can spend a fortune on it, but you cant necessarily sell a bad product x. We see that time and again in elections. You know, you look at someone like Michael Bloomberg and that extraordinary millions he spent in a place, you know, trying to win florida for democrats, just didnt work in the end. And, again, it came down to their policies. Theyve moved left, expect country wanted a check against and the country wanted a check against that. Paul dan, what about the other element of this which is republicans made some gains among hispanic voters in particular in florida, texas and other parts of the country and even among young black men. Yeah, they did. And i think you have to give President Trump credit for that, indeed, because what happened in the first three years of his presidency when the economy grew so strongly is that it created a lot of jobs for minorities. And so the issue of Economic Opportunity became real and tangible for them, and i believe they recognized that they were getting real jobs with real incomes. And so the result was that he did make significant gains among hispanics and some among blacks, and it will remain to be seen whether the republicans can capitalize on those gains going forward. Paul yeah. And, kyle, this does put the republicans in a position in the house, certainly, to be able to retalk it because retake it in 2022, because new mexico city Pelosi Nancy Pelosi only has about a 10seat majority which doesnt give her much room to maneuver in the house. Right. And it definitely puts them in a position as well this coming year, this next two years to push the legislation in the house in a better direction. You know, a 10vote majority by nancy pelosi is a whole different ball game than if its 20 or 30 votes. Gives her a lot more room to maneuver. Paul all right. Lets turn to dan. Youve got your own big with story, what is it . Well, my big story, paul, are the protests that ensued after the death of george floyd while he was being arrested in minneapolis on may 25th. After that we had extraordinary protests across the country, cities, scores of cities, and it was accompanied, indeed, in many cities by looting and violence. Stores, businesses were ransacked. The protests, by and large, were led by the activist group black lives matter, and they more or less justified the protests saying that the United States was guilty of system you can racism. Systemic racism. Monuments to u. S. President s were torn down across the country on that basis. And, ultimately, there was very little criticism of it by the Democratic Party. We ended up at the Democratic National convention in july, and there was no mention, zero mention of any of this violence and looting, paul, which had gone on for a long time. And im convinced that that silence did cost the democrats support across the country in the house and senate races, you know . The republicans doing much better than anyone expected as we were just discussing, and i think a lot of that had to do with their inability to come to grips with the extraordinary violence that happened after may 25th. Paul so, mary, i wonder if you think what dan describes and i agree with that, but did the blm movement and the protesters achieve a lot of what they wanted ls where elsewhere . Im thinking about the new woke ethic in americas newsrooms, the new woke ethic in american corporations where they have moved to decidedly left on the culture . What do you think . Well, i think that the elites i dont particularly like that term, but, you know, the people that youre describing who have gone woke are very much in conflict with the greater part of the country. And i think that that was reflected we talked in the first segment in the poor showing of Many Democrats in local races and in, you know, congressional a races. I mean, when you look at what happened in West Philadelphia where it wasnt, you know, some suburban, rich entrepreneur whose business was destroyed, these were immigrant and minority businesses in a working class neighborhood. And i think that was a huge turnoff not only to people who lived there, but to the rest of the country which watched horrified to see that no one would speak up for these people. I just dont think that the woke movement gained new ground by doing that any ground by doing that. I think, in fact, they lost ground. People wont say it publicly because its politically incorrect, but its pretty scary. Paul kim, i want do can you about a contrary data point, and that is the remarkable election in california which is a leftleaning state, and yet the voters there overwhelmingly rejected an attempt on the ballot to restore racial preferences in government hiring and college admissions. I think only four or five counties actually voted in support. What does that tell you about the mindset of the country on these issues . Yeah. I think it goes to what mary was just saying, that its very disconnected from what youre hearing in newspapers and what youre hearing coming out of higher education. Americans want, one, sense of equality, they want opportunity, but they dont want the deck to be stacked, and they dont particularly like the identity politics that is now at the forefront of all democratic politics. And i think youll see that reaction play out in more ways in the coming year. Paul all right, thank you. When we come back, from the economys covid collapse and comeback to the Supreme Courts conservative transformation, with continue with our look at the biggest stories of 2020. Or ten. Then easily and automatically pay your team and file payroll taxes. That means. World domination or just the west side. Run payroll in less than five minutes with intuit quickbooks. Werewelcome to a wbetter way to live. S. Welcome to my house the croods are coming home. Kinda big, isnt it . Thats the mirror. Sorry. And the world will never be the same. What is this . Uh, we call that a window. Window. Dun, dun, dun. Make it a croods family movie night with the croods a new age. Go to watchcroods. Com. Paul welcome back to the journal editorial report and our look back at the biggest source of the year. Mary, you chose the economy. Why . Well, the economy collapsed in march and april because of the government shutdown, but by the end of the year, it is going to be a lot less weak than anybody anticipated. You know, there was a projection of down 6. 5 for the year, and now its projected to be down about 2. 4 for the year. So basically what happened, i think, is that the analysts looking at this underestimated the impact of monetary and fiscal support to the economy but also underestimated the inknow vegas and creativity innovation and creativity of the markets to basically keep going despite the pandemic. Paul well, mary, how important was the basis that had been laid before the pandemic by what was seemed to be what was going into the pandemic a quite strong economy, you know, after two years, three years of tax reform and deregulation . Well, Economic Freedom is central to economic growth. So with a freer economy, i think that allowed entrepreneurs and Business People to be, to benefit from the flexibility of the economy, and that made a big difference. The other thing i think that made a big difference was technology. I mean, thats why you see Technology Stock doing so well. But technology was central to the flexibility that the economy was able to adapt and to make use of things like online buying and delivery and a lot of the logistics red red related to bay satisfying the consumer were very important components in 2020. Paul dan, the public, i mean, a lot of our friends in the media on the left are, they say, oh, you know, the government is the big driver here because they were the story, they filled the gap in incomes that were left by the pandemic. I guess my response to that is, one, they should have, because their the ones theyre the ones who forced people out of business. They said you have to shut down, so they had to do something particularly with the small businesses. But i think that they also underestimated the ingenuity of people, as mary suggests. There just was an awful lot of people who found ways to make money despite it. Yeah. As mary was suggesting, i think People Democrats virtual dont understand anymore how sophisticated the private sector has become. I mean, its an extraordinary mechanism. Millions upon millions of men and women operating out there in intricate ways to keep the economy going. You know, starting out we in the pandemic we had, indeed, real shortages of things like paper towels and toilet paperer, frozen food. And very quickly those niches were filled by secondary suppliers. You may not have been able to get bounty paper towels, but you were automobile to get them from wakemans and other supermarkets, and i think democrats do not give it enough credit. They think you have to spend trillions and trillions of dollars and, you know, u. S. Debt n