Perspective
After the 2024 election results, people have taken to social media to say that this is the first time The Simpsons were wrong about something.

X user @kirawontmiss wrote saying as much, and showed a side-by-side picture of Kamala Harris next to Lisa Simpson as president, both wearing purple suits and pearls.

For years, “The Simpsons” cartoon has predicted major events in the world. In 2000 the episode “Bart to the Future” seemed to predict the presidency of Donald Trump. Giving a peek into the adult lives of Bart and Lisa Simpson, Lisa also becomes the first female president of the United States, and she inherited “quite a budget crunch from President Trump.”

Because Lisa became president and because of the similarities between her and Harris, some people believed that the cartoon predicted the 2024 election would go Harris’ way. That prediction mirrored other, non-cartoon polls, that Harris would win, though that did not happen.

Not only did popular media such as “The Simpsons” convince people Harris would win the election, other sources did, as well.

Historian Allan Lichtman, known for his accurate election predictions, told The New York Times he believed Harris would become the 47th president of the United States.

Known as the “Nostradamus” of U.S. elections, Lichtman previously predicted the winner of the 2016 election, Trump. To determine his predictions, Lichtman said he uses a method known as “Keys to the White House.” He used the model to predict if Pres. Joe Biden would retain the White House this year, before he dropped out of the race.

Lichtman told an Indian news company, NDTV, that he’s been correct since 1984, or 10 elections in a row.

Do predictions ever work? This election left Harris supporters feeling a false sense of hope. As Mark McCrindle said in one of his podcast episodes on “How we can predict the future.”

“The future is not an inevitable destination. It’s not something that we just happen to head towards. Rather, it is something that can be shaped, created and influenced, when the right tools are used.”