The election is over, and to many it is a shock that Donald
Trump will be the new President of the United States. This campaign was long,
expensive and at times nasty (such as when Trump called Hillary Clinton nasty).
This article is not about what drew people to the cadency of Donald Trump, but
what made Clinton the democratic nominee, and drew people away from her.
I would state, that the election of Donald Trump had more to
do with the fault of the Democratic Party picking a damaged candidate, as it
was a vote for Trump himself. This may not be a popular view, especially
considering what the pundits are stating, but remember these political pundits
also predicted a Clinton victory.
Let us look at our future President. Pick any politician
with the background of Trump, who has an abrasive attack style, lacks any
internal control of what he says, and is by many accounts a misogynist. If this was any other election, against any
other opponent, this should have been an electoral landslide for the Democrats.
So if this is the case, we must now observe Hillary Clinton,
and why she did not have a landslide, but in fact, lost the election. There are
several factors that must be examined and answered.
In 2008, Hillary Clinton first ran for the Democratic
nominee, and was beaten by Barrack Obama. Obama was little known outside of the
democratic circles, but seemed to gain grounds with younger voters. Clinton was
then appointed as Secretary of State in the Obama Whitehouse; this position
would be a curse and a blessing in one.
In 2016, there were many Democrats who believe that it was
“Clinton’s Turn” as the nominee. This was based more on their loyalty to her,
then reflecting on her as a candidate. This attitude was that she had a “right”
to be president, overshadowed their reflection of her as a candidate and also
misreading how stable their democratic base was.
Hillary Clinton was not unopposed in this primary, as Bernie
Sanders mounted an impressive campaign of his own. With only swell of ground
support and finances, he began becoming a major candidate in the primary. Attention
to his candidacy was too little, too late, as the momentum for his candidacy
could not overcome Clinton’s victories earlier lead in the primaries.
Clinton became the Democratic nominee for president. It also
appeared that to many that the Democratic convention was more of a success then
the republicans. However, even moving up in the polls, there were past demons
waiting to sabotage her campaign. These would result in vicious attacks against
her.
One of the reasons for the attacks toward Clinton, was, in
fact, established years about by her husband, the former President Bill Clinton. To conservatives, Bill Clinton represented
the elite of liberalism in the country. Hillary was slated to heading the
revamping and restructuring health insurance in the 90’s, which now, being
political made her eligible as a target. After he outmaneuvered the impeachment
of him, and Republicans such a Newt Gingrich, lost their leadership positions
because of the political backlash, the Clintons were not in the conservatives
crosshairs.
Moving to when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State,
numerous events occurred when she was in office that would plague her. She was
blamed for Benghazi attack, even though she was cleared by congress. Her use of a private email server would then
be questioned, even though this was used in previous administrations.
One of the factors that helped defeat Clinton was
overconfidence in her electorate. Clinton did not, or rarely, visited
traditional Democratic leaning states like Wisconsin and Michigan. One the
night of the election both of these states were almost 50/50 toward each
nominee. It ended up Trump won Wisconsin, and Michigan is too close to call at
the time of this article.
Clinton also relied on celebrity endorsements too heavily.
Before the election she appeared with Beyoncé at a rally/concert. Political rallies are that, political, and
concerts are entertainment; having singing and dancing is not correct, when you
are trying to give information out to voters why they support you. This concert was held in Cleveland Oh. Clinton lost Ohio by a wide margin
All of these factors made Hillary Clinton an easy target.
She would have baggage associated with her that could be easily manipulated.
Social Media and the
internet, which seemed to help Barack Obama in his election, now seemed to work
against Clinton. This was even the case,
when Trump was mishandling his twitter account, and seemed to be thin skinned
against criticism. Many conservatives began bombarding the internet with false
stories about Hillary Clinton, which were then repeated through sites such as
Facebook, and Twitter. To understand this, look at Alex Jones, who says he can
smell brimstone and see flies around Obama and Clinton because they are
possessed with demons. His site produced outrageously erroneous fake claims,
but they were repeated over numerous sites. You would not believe how many of these fake news stories made it throughout
social media. As the father of modern Psychology William James once said "There's nothing so absurd that if you repeat it often enough, people will believe it."
Some of these stories were rehashing of the Benghazi
attacks, to her emails servers, to even ridiculous allegations that she was responsible
for numerous deaths. Opponents of her would use these stories to nickname her, “Crooked
Hilary”, and even “Killery”.
So now near the election (11 days before), James Comey the
FBI director, reopens the email scandal that he cleared her in July. Before
this revelation, Clinton almost led Trump by double digits numbers. When the
information from the director was revealed, the trend began going to
Trump. Many people also did early voting
during this time and did so with the email controversy in back of their mind. It was on the weekend before the election
(weekends are used by Politian’ to disseminate unfriendly information, because
fewer people get it in the news cycle), that after reviewing the emails there
was no change in his position he made previously about not prosecuting Clinton. Many pundits think Comey’s decision did not
have an impact upon the election, however, look at the margins of Trump’s
victories by certain states. Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, all were lost by
her by 1 percentage point, these states in the Clinton columns would of meant
she would be the next president.
If you still do not believe that Clinton was a damaged
candidate going into the election, simply look at who supported Donald
Trump. Almost all the major players in
the Republican Party did not support Trump, or if they did, it was a lukewarm
support. All the former living presidents stated they could not support Trump.
Trump could basically only parade two celebrities around as supporting him, former
star Scott Baio, and right-wing conservative Ted Nugent.
So the election is now over, the Democrats now have some
soul-searching to do. They must look at what their party stands for, and also
where it is headed. Nominating someone because “it is their turn” or somehow a
right established unto them, will turn off voters. The democrats saw the
success Bernie Sanders had in the primaries and they should have realized this
would be an anti-establishment election. If anything, they can only hope that,
as in most presidential terms, the off year election will go to them.
W.A. Rusho is an author, historian and professional wrestler. You can contact him by visiting his website, or email him.
Very interesting post, William. I am a Canadian, but like most Canadians, we were highly interested in the US election as you are our closest neighbours. My own personal thoughts are that Clinton may have done better if the current admin (i.e. Obama) had not rallied so hard by her side. People wanted change, and having the current Pres say how much confidence he has in her probably made a lot of people think it would be "more of the same" vs the change they were looking for. Last fall, our Canadian federal election produced a surprise landslide win for Justin Trudeau, whose Liberal party was a stark contrast to the Conservative government that was ousted because people desperately wanted a change.
ReplyDeleteAgree with you completely that Hillary should not have been the candidate for the Democratic party. The silent majority wanted a candidate that would hit the political system with a sledgehammer. Trump was such a candidate, Hillary was not. Bernie Sanders would have been a much better bet. But high level Democrats didn't believe Bernie would favour them. What the FBI did is unacceptable in a democracy and at least contributed to Trump winning.So now you have a president that will make democracy decline world-wide and facsism rise globally. And the time of the United States as a superpower is coming to an end.
ReplyDeleteLol,what a stupid comment.The time of the United States as a super power has been declining drastically under the current administration. Other nations have laughed at Obama.
DeleteI was not going to allow this to post, but I then thought I should. First, you do not come onto my website and call other people’s comments stupid. Secondly, your ignorance on this topic shines brightly. President Obama is well respected by overseas governments; especially since he followed the debacle of the Bush presidency.
DeleteAnd her comments about Trump making democracy decline is legitimate. From his past actions, Trump thinks laws and regulations that apply to others, do not apply to him. His also is so arrogant that he believes no one else can resolve issues. This is obvious when he stated that he knew more than the generals; of course I do not know how he can make a statement since he never was in the military. He is nothing but a spoiled rich kid who was the son of a slum lord. But people like you, think he is some kind of messianic savior here to save our country regardless of what he stands for, or lack of knowledge he actually has. I often wondered what kind of idiots had voted for Hitler in Germany, thanks to you, now I know.
Very interesting observation, William. It was really hard to find the truth and what wasn't the truth. I love your quote: from William James, "There's nothing so absurd that if you repeat it often enough, people will believe it." It's really important to research any so called facts in this day of social media.
ReplyDeleteEvery independent and write-in vote also contributed to Trump coming out ahead as well. Politics will carry on as usual no matter what.
ReplyDeleteIt may of counted in Trump goin ahead of Clinton, but consider this, Trump go LESS (as did Clinton) % of the votes compared to Mitt Romney did in 2012. So if the Democrats has a better candidate, they should of won more easily than in the last election.
DeleteI think something that all Americans (republican and democrat) need to be concerned for the future is the role of cyber-hacking in out future elections. Wikileaks pulled up so much information on Hillary and left Trump alone. And that is scary when outside sources are actively reaching voters and influencing the election. I'm not sure how parties completely protect themselves against such a thing. But it becomes a scary day when our enemies potentially have the ability to influence our elections.
ReplyDeleteI've seen an interesting story going around Facebook all weekend. It shows you side by side a Republican's Facebook newsfeed vs a Democrats. And based on your inner circle, you will see a completely different spin on the stories. News didn't used to be personalized like it is today. But now the news you get is determined by the way your beliefs lean and who is in your inner circle. Kind of scary.