Throughout the Democratic Primary, Hillary Clinton has been treated as the anointed one. Her only real challenger in the primary is an aged Jewish senator who is both a lifelong independent and a self admitted socialist, and her competition for the general election would either be a sentient toupee or a greasy rat — neither of which have the support of the GOP establishment. To all appearances at the beginning of the race, she had this in the bag. So what changed?
Hillary Clinton happened to her campaign. Campaigning is a process of appealing to the people, and both Clinton and her supporters have ensured that she has as little appeal to outsiders as possible. From painful attempts at appealing to millennials to her focus on military might, Hillary Clinton is out of touch at best and dangerous at worst. Her history (and present) of pushing for USA led military inventions is out of place in the Democratic Party, and she’s absolutely unapologetic about her track record. Despite the clown car that is Donald Trump and Company, Hillary Clinton could quite possibly be worse on the international stage than Donald Trump.
This gets at the heart of what is wrong with Clinton. Every single person has flaws. However, Clinton has demonstrated time and again that she is incapable of reflection, and covers for her flaws with inane pandering. The time to pivot on a military driven foreign policy is still open to her, and would allow her to recover a number of disillusioned ex-Democratic voters (like myself). I, for one, will not vote in the presidential candidate that has promised the most in terms of military action overseas. I can deal with everything else about her, but her appetite for war is terrifying.
Furthermore, Clinton supporters are largely responsible for the turn-off of an enormous amount of people. From the beginning, Sanders supporters have been told about their “responsibility” to vote for Clinton once she inevitably won the primary from Clinton’s rabid fans. Sanders was treated as an invalid candidate, who would offer paltry resistance before going off into a quiet corner after a quick defeat. What Clinton supporters seem to lack any perspective on is the sheer number of independents who *do not* have any loyalty to the Democratic Party, many of whom are like myself ex-Democrats who left and only returned temporarily to vote for Sanders in the primary. Voters like myself have no interest in the Democratic Party proper, and therefore have nothing but scorn for those who act as if all those that vote for Sanders will automatically vote for Clinton. Clinton will have to court Sanders supporters, and as of yet all she’s done is treat said supporters with contempt for getting in the way of her inevitable coronation.
To get back to the supporters, it seems that Clinton supporters believe that they have been actually doing so. Time and again, we’re told that we must do everything to prevent a Trump presidency. Voting for Clinton has been framed by her supporters as akin to a parent persuading a child to eat their broccoli ~ you may not like it, but it’s good for you. This condescending narrative has excused Clinton from moving left on issues Sanders supporters care about — even issues she once supported. Her decision to treat universal healthcare as a pipe dream not worthy of her attention except to bash as unreal has infuriated those that believe that the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States being exclusive to the United States among developed countries is absurd. Clinton supporters, for their part, have adopted the GOP talking points to combat the issue that Clinton once championed (and hilariously forgot she did so with Sanders himself), and ensured that their talk of actually caring about the poor and downtrodden is seen as the sham that it is.
So, where do we go from here? As of yet, I’ve yet to address how Clinton and her supporters need to face reality. I’ve given an explanation of the problems, but not a fix. So, let’s talk fixes.
- First, Clinton needs to veer left. She doesn’t need to hit democratic socialist territory, but universal healthcare is not exclusively democratic socialist territory anywhere but the United States (and even here that’s changing). Support for universal healthcare won’t win her any right-wing converts, but she's not likely to get them anyway.
- She needs to first acknowledge, and then apologize for her record on war. This apology needs to be immediately followed by an about-face, and a pledge to get out of the Middle East — or at least end the drone strikes. Nothing breeds terrorism like indiscriminate killing by a foreign power.
- She needs to acknowledge that she is not guaranteed the votes of Sanders supporters. Her casual dismissal of issues like this is particularly irritating to millennials, of whom (as noted) have not been her strongest group of supporters.
- She needs to bring all of this home by bringing Sanders on board. I’m not advocating her to ask him to be VP (would actually be a poor role for Sanders), but promising to appoint him as either Secretary of Treasury or Health and Human Services where he could do a lot of good would go a long way to making amends with supporters she drastically needs.
- Last, and most certainly not least, both Clinton and supporters need to quit acting like avoiding a Trump presidency is enough to get people to support her. Aside from the likelihood that such an event would not be the apocalypse that Clinton and her supporters have made it out to be, supporters need to have reasons to be for a presidential candidate, not just against their opponent. This narrative of dutifully picking the lesser of two evils does not make a presidential candidate.
While this news may be distasteful to Clinton supporters, there are millions of Sanders supporters who are quite willing to watch the party that abandoned them burn for having done so. Considering that figures estimate around 44% of voters are currently registered independents, Hillary Clinton can’t win on establishment support alone. This is the reality that Clinton and her supporters need to face, or watch as a sentient toupee steals her predestined coronation.