The previous month has seen more finger pointing and assignment of blame for the defeat of Hillary Clinton than I can recall from any previous Presidential campaign. She had all of the advantages a candidate could ever hope for or dare to dream of: deep-pocketed donors, the Wall Street financial juggernaut and the mainstream media outlets it owns, sycophantic television and radio pundits, the entertainment industry and big-name entertainers, even prominent Republicans and neoconservative leaders were "with Her".
And she lost.
Sure, she won the popular vote by over two million at this writing. However, this popular vote advantage didn't truly manifest itself until after California was called, and the votes came in at a 2:1 margin for her. She didn't win the swing states in the Rust Belt and in Florida - the so-called "Blue Wall" that was to keep Democrats in the White House for a generation - hence, her downfall.
Here is what I think happened, and why:
--> The biggest reason why Hillary Clinton lost the election is found in her mirror every morning: Hillary Clinton. She was the consummate establishment candidate in a time when the masses were decidedly anti-establishment - the wrong candidate at the wrong time. She tried, and failed, to be something she wasn't: a candidate of the people. She is an oligarch. She associates with oligarchs, and understands the lives and needs of oligarchs. She is also a neocon war hawk who counts some of the most sordid of this bunch, like Henry Kissinger, as personal friends and confidants. To the millions who didn't drink the Dem-brand Kool-Aid, she came off as unbelievable and untrustworthy - traits which do not help in convincing people that she actually believes in the stands she took on her website, which she referenced frequently during the debates. This article in USA Today gives some additional insight into her political self-destruction.
--> I can't think of a more un-democratic (or even un-republican) feature of our political system than The Electoral College. This anachronism gives unfair weight to voters in smaller states and evenly-divided "swing states". As a result, elections can be won by the loser of the popular vote, thus, we now have Donald Trump, and had George W. Bush. The individual states should not even play a role in this decision, as the President's authority is the same no matter which state she or he happens to be in. Let's eliminate this antique.
--> The sheer arrogance and hubris demonstrated by both Hillary Clinton and the DNC was breathtaking. The evidence of rigging in the Democratic primary, as seen in New York and Arizona, as well as the uncounted votes in California, is overwhelming - and completely dismissed by the media. The easily-exposed lie that Debbie Wasserman Shultz was running the DNC "objectively", insofar as the insurgent campaign of Bernie Sanders, contributed to the lack of trust people already had in regards to Hillary. When one looks at the overall behavior and attitudes of the DNC, the Clinton campaign, and their mouthpieces, it appears that they were simply expecting Obama's voters, along with the Sanders campaign's enthusiasm, to transfer to Hillary Clinton - either out of party loyalty or fear of T-Rump. That people were shocked - shocked! I tell you - that they didn't transfer in the numbers Hillary needed to win in the swing states is itself, a shock to me.
(As a side note, party loyalty is a trait that is decidedly NOT attributable to the often-maligned Millennial generation. I actually think this is a good thing - they know that their votes cannot be taken for granted. You want them? You need to earn them.)
--> One need look no further than Youtube to find the evidence of increasingly overt racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and homophobia. A simple search, with keywords like "Trump Rally" and any of the aforementioned highlighted words, will bring these leaches out of the woodwork in all of their ugliness. The physical assault against the Black Lives Matter protester at a T-Rump rally, at the behest and encouragement of T-Rump himself, can serve as a starting point. Next, do a search on "Trump" and "Mexicans", and listen in amazement as El Benito Cheeto waxes on about building his "wall" or "fence" (whatever he decides it will be next week, next day, or next hour), and calling Mexicans "rapists". Next, type in "Trump" and "Pussy", and listen to the Ladies' Man himself, Don John, boast about being able to grab said bodily region with complete impunity. Finally, selecting Mike Pence as his running mate, given his history of homophobic legislation and statements, should tell all that one needs to know about what T-Rump thinks of the LGBTQ population. That all of these episodes are documented and/or recorded isn't even the biggest problem. The biggest problem is that none of them disqualified him at any point in the election process, whether in the primaries or in the General.
--> The lies being told about the economy are currently being laid bare by the decrease in the standard of living nationwide, and in the lives of those in the swing states - mostly in the Rust Belt - whose jobs were lost by "free trade" arrangements like NAFTA. Sure, our "official" unemployment rate is under 5%, and President Obama is making sure everybody knows about it. But one doesn't need to dig too deep to find out that the new jobs being created do not pay anywhere near the same level of compensation than the jobs they replaced. People are desperate, and desperation can do a number on a person's judgement - as Michael Moore brilliantly explains in this clip from Trumpland, as presented by Jimmy Dore. . In addition to affecting a person's judgement, desperation can also be a factor in causing problems like racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and homophobia to become more overt in their expression - which is one of the key ingredients of fascism.
I'll have a lot more to say about this in the near future. Stay tuned.
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