The presidential election turned out to be a real shocker. Now President-Elect Donald Trump is busy putting together his cabinet, while the Democrats are still trying to wrap their minds around what happened.
It reminds me of the World Series a week earlier, when the Chicago Cubs came back from being down three games to one, and won the final game in the 10th inning, ending their 108-year World Series drought. Cubs’ fans were ecstatic. But did the Cubs win it or did Cleveland blow it? The same question can be asked of the presidential election: did Trump win it, or did Hillary lose it?
As the votes were counted, doom and gloom turned to jubilation for the Republicans, and claims of a rigged election and rigged polls were forgotten. The Republicans now control the House, the Senate and the presidency, and they are busy passing out praise and credit for their victory. Donald Trump is a great communicator who spoke for the “forgotten man.” Kellyanne Conway is a political genius — “the Trump whisperer” — who manages to keep her candidate off Twitter and on script. The Republican National Committee had an awesome ground game nobody knew about. And while Clinton spent twice as much on TV ads trashing Trump, Trump’s rallies were more effective at whipping up voter enthusiasm and getting his supporters to the polls.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are busy assigning blame for their loss. Hillary Clinton blames FBI Director James Comey for his announcement that the FBI was reopening its investigation into her emails. Clinton staffers blame sexism (that is, voter reluctance to elect a woman as President). Clinton campaign chief digital strategist Teddy Goff blames fake news shared on Facebook and unfair media coverage. Obama says Clinton failed to reach out to white, non-urban voters. Bernie Sanders blames her for ignoring the blue-collar vote. Moderate Democrats blame Bernie Sanders for pulling Clinton too far to the left. And conspiracy theorists say Vladimir Putin and Julian Assange were in cahoots to help Trump win.
There is probably some truth in all these claims, just as one could argue that every run scored and every out made in the seven-game World Series had some bearing on the outcome of that contest. But I think the single biggest factor was Trump’s vision for America, and Hillary Clinton’s lack of a clear vision.
In 2008, Barack Obama was elected to his first term as president with the slogan “Hope and Change” and his vision of a bright and wonderful future for America if he were the president. I wrote a column for Lagniappe in 2013 titled “Dreams of our President” in which I recounted Obama’s claims: he said he would create millions of new jobs in the green energy industry; heal the earth and stop the seas from rising; bring world peace (he received the Nobel Peace Prize before ever serving a day in office); create understanding and cooperation between Muslims and Christians; bring peace to the Middle East and racial harmony to the U.S.; build the middle class; provide affordable healthcare for everyone; and preside over the most transparent government in history. Yup, that’s what he said.
Forget what he delivered; the vision worked. People bought it, and he was elected president … twice.
In 2016, Donald Trump was elected president with the slogan “Make America Great Again.” He had a bright and glorious vision of an America where we would have so many wins we would get tired of winning — kind of like the Harlem Globe Trotters of global diplomacy. He promised a lot of things to a lot of people without providing many details or explaining how he would pay for it.
But most voters don’t care about the details; they are buying into the vision, the dream.
Donald Trump understood that. He is a master marketer as much as a master builder.
Hillary Clinton’s slogan was “I’m with her.” That’s not a vision for America; it’s Hillary Clinton’s personal dream of becoming the first woman president. What was her vision for America? Refer back to Obama’s promises eight years ago. At a time when 80 percent of the population says the country is headed in the wrong direction, the vision she offered was a continuation of Obama’s legacy, which many people see as one of unfulfilled promises and failures.
Some Trump supporters want to give him all the credit for his stunning win in the election. But when you have to muzzle your candidate and take his cell phone away to keep him from blowing it in the ninth inning of the campaign … I just can’t do that.
Hillary lost it, period.
She lost not because of James Comey, Vladimir Putin and Julian Assange, or the sexist attitude of American voters. She lost because it was all about her dream of becoming the first woman president, not the dreams of American voters. And her campaign was focused on trashing her opponent instead of recognizing the voters wanted more than a gender change in the White House.
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