Why Hillary Clinton really lost is not something that liberals would like to hear about - not because they would have to acknowledge the strength of their opponents but because they would need to recognize their own immaturity in the face of an existential choice. As Ben-Shahar points out:
"This story is mostly wrong. Trump did not win because he was more attractive to this base of white voters. He won because Hillary Clinton was less attractive to the traditional Democratic base of urban, minorities, and more educated voters. This is a profound fact, because Democratic voters were so extraordinarily repelled by Trump that they were supposed to have the extra motivation to turn out. Running against Trump, any Democratic candidate should have ridden a wave of anti-Trump sentiment among these voters. It therefore took a strong distaste for Hillary Clinton among the Democratic base to not only undo this wave, but to lose many additional liberal votes."
A significant number of liberals who would have voted Democratic could not sufficiently overcome their childish (and mostly Right wing-fueled) dislike of Clinton to vote for her, and ended up electing Trump. An equally important factor, in my opinion, was the complacency created by the media narrative of Clinton's inevitability, which allowed lazy Democrats in a few big urban areas like Philadelphia, Detroit and Milwaukee to take a voting holiday. And a lot of blame must go to the Clinton campaign for not anticipating these problems and addressing them.
This also highlights the huge significance of Comey's first letter, which came just in time to tank Clinton's numbers without giving her a chance to recover.
"This story is mostly wrong. Trump did not win because he was more attractive to this base of white voters. He won because Hillary Clinton was less attractive to the traditional Democratic base of urban, minorities, and more educated voters. This is a profound fact, because Democratic voters were so extraordinarily repelled by Trump that they were supposed to have the extra motivation to turn out. Running against Trump, any Democratic candidate should have ridden a wave of anti-Trump sentiment among these voters. It therefore took a strong distaste for Hillary Clinton among the Democratic base to not only undo this wave, but to lose many additional liberal votes."
A significant number of liberals who would have voted Democratic could not sufficiently overcome their childish (and mostly Right wing-fueled) dislike of Clinton to vote for her, and ended up electing Trump. An equally important factor, in my opinion, was the complacency created by the media narrative of Clinton's inevitability, which allowed lazy Democrats in a few big urban areas like Philadelphia, Detroit and Milwaukee to take a voting holiday. And a lot of blame must go to the Clinton campaign for not anticipating these problems and addressing them.
This also highlights the huge significance of Comey's first letter, which came just in time to tank Clinton's numbers without giving her a chance to recover.
No comments:
Post a Comment