As the blame game continues, I submit two reasons why I think we Democrats lost the presidential election. As someone over 70, I have witnessed decades of the Democratic Party ignoring the interests of the middle class. It is to their great credit that they have devoted enormous amounts of time and effort in attempting to uplift marginalized peoples, a worthy and just cause. However, this has alienated the backbone of America, the middle class. They are now understandably angry and in trouble. The rise of the MAGA movement has responded to their anger with promises they may not be able to keep. It is unclear whether the party will be able to reclaim this electoral bloc.

The second reason I offer is the maxim that to solve any given mystery or problem, we must first look at who benefits most from the “crime.” So who benefits most from a divided America? This would be our greatest adversary: ​​Russia.

As they flood our news networks with false and outrageous conspiracy theories, our population is bombarded with contradictory and dangerous rhetoric. We now have a president-elect who has fueled this distrust with his version of events.

Given these two reasons, was the election result so surprising?

Unfortunately, I don’t know if these truths are as obvious as they should be. Worse still, I don’t know how we can reverse the trend.

Rev. Kathie Teeter, Lebanon Pa.