Friday, December 15, 2017

Exactly when did Hillary lose the election (why did Trump beat her)

Something that surprises me is that we are still debating why Hillary Clinton lost the election. Was it Russian interference? Was it sexist men? Was it Nazis? Was it fake news? Did Trump cheat? Was she simply unlikeable?


Yes, the Russians interfered. Yes, men are sexist. Yes, Nazis voted for Trump. Yes, people believed the fake news. Yes, Trump cheated (basically, he played by the new social media rulebook, not the old tradition politics version). And yes, she was unlikable.


Yet given all that we have learned about the DNC and the mess that was, I think that we can say that both sides was doing everything in their power to ensure that they were the only possible choice. Let's declare it a level playing field and move on. Both sides tried to cheat--it is what politicians do.


[Please note that I still want to see Trump's tax returns, and want to know exactly what happened between his campaign and the Russians---I want to know exactly who he is working for because it is sure not the poor people who voted for him.]


[[If you are a poor person and still think that the Trump administration cares about you beyond Trump's re-election, you need to get your eyes checked. As long as you promise to vote for him again, he will entertain you with midnight rage tweets and stories about witch-hunts while continuing to make sure that the rich get richer at your expense.]]


[[[And yes, I know--she was just as bad.]]]


[[[[That is not going to prevent me from continuing to work to draw attention to the fact that he only cares about big business and billionaires, and that his policies are really not going to help the poor.]]]]


So when did she actually lose?


In my opinion, it was during one of the debates when she followed Trump's promise to bring coal jobs back with a declaration that coal jobs were not coming back, and that she believed in green energy. Ok, she got points for telling the truth, but lost mega-points for not understanding voters in coal country. You don't tell someone that they are never going to work ever again--no, you are supposed to convince them that your plan will provide jobs to replace the ones that had been lost. I felt the ground open up beneath her at that point, and knew that my prediction of President Trump was going to come true.


What she should have said was "Green energy is going to require billions of batteries to meet our energy needs. And the people in coal country get to build these billions of batteries. Yes, that is right--green energy is going to give you good paying jobs. You get a job, and you get a job--jobs for everybody!"


But no, she did not say it this way. She was so busy calling Trump a liar that she lost sight of the fact that people vote according to their hopes and fears. And that is when she lost the election in my opinion. We can debate all the nitty-gritty bits until the cows come home, and it still will not matter as much as the fact that she shot herself in her own foot.


And if the Democrats don't figure this out...well, let's just say that 2020 will be another Trump victory, even if the Russians decide to help the Democrats instead.


Were you a bad citizen? Did you vote for the wrong person?

1 comment:

Scott Stenwick said...

IMO, Nate Silver showed pretty conclusively that it was the second Comey letter that was the final nail. Without it, Clinton probably would have won by a point or so in the close states that Trump won.

You're right, though, that the reason it was that close at the end is that the Clinton campaign spent all their time and money basically arguing that people should just vote for them because Trump was so awful. Democrats are not going to inspire people to get out and vote for them with the argument "Hey, we're less bad!" - no matter how true that may be on some issues.