If we cared to vote on such things, “deplorable” would probably win an election on this year’s favorite adjective. For Republicans, it is an example of reappropriation that demonstrates their opposition to the Hillary Clinton campaign. For Democrats, the word conjures images of a cartoon frog. Today, I plan to use it in its original sense to describe the political career of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president in 2016.
In the 90’s, it was mostly Republicans and fiscal conservatives who disliked Hillary Clinton when she took a lead during her husband’s administration to overhaul the health care system. As her career moved forward, Hillary changed positions on issues rapidly and sought to amass power for herself and for her husband with no need for principles. Even committed leftists such as the witty and acerbic Christopher Hitchens saw her as a dangerous political opportunist and published a whole book critical of Hillary Clinton. Hillary started out as an opponent of gay marriage in 1996 when her husband signed DOMA into law, only to change her opinion in 2004 when the political winds changed. She went on record in the mid 90’s as an opponent of “violent video games” and harsher penalties for recreational drug users, only to see the error of her ways in the 2008 campaign against Barack Obama. Clinton has also tried to backpedal from her hawkish support of the Iraq War during the Bush administration after it became politically important for politicians interested in getting reelected to do so.
Aside from actual voting policies, the public has from time to time gotten a taste of her penchant for telling inspirational white lies which are calculated to make her appear likable, brave, and principled. She claimed in 1995 to be named after Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to scale Mount Everest; regrettably, Hillary was born several years prior to this event. In the 2008 campaign Hillary falsely claimed that she arrived in Bosnia under sniper fire; in reality, she landed in one of the safest parts of Bosnia with not even spitballs being fired at her. The Wikileaks emails have also recently exposed that Clinton gleefully admits to being disingenuous with voters, admitting that she has “both a public and a private position” on several issues, such as the common Democratic staple of “Wall Street reform”.
What about Clinton’s experience? She was Secretary of State under President Obama, said many of her erstwhile supporters willing to excuse her mendacious nature. Perhaps the country can endure an opportunist, so long as that opportunist is competent. In answer to this, I would argue that there is substantial evidence that Clinton is an incompetent administrator because of her inability to focus on details. There was the recent email issue, where Clinton maintained several private email servers in violation of US security protocol; her actions put American national security interests at risk. There was the 2012 attack on America’s embassy in Benghazi, where Clinton downplayed the possibility of an attack; her actions led to the deaths of several American servicemen. Additionally, Clinton is too eager to intervene in foreign affairs with scant American interests present while ignoring legitimate threats to America from international bad actors. Clinton championed the interventions in both Libya and Syria, where tyrannical dictators were pitted against “freedom fighters,” many of whom are sympathizers to radical Islam. In cases such as these, America ought not choose a side since both parties are anathema to American values. On the other hand Clinton was happy to take money from Saudi Arabia via the Clinton Foundation, even after that regime had worked hard to spread radical Wahhabi ideology hostile to the American Constitution.
Finally, there is the rank corruption that has become synonymous with the Clinton name. There is evidence that Hillary colluded with the DNC to stack the deck against her opponent, Senator Bernie Sanders, in the Democratic primaries; when this became known to the public, Hillary hired Debbie Wasserman Schultz to join her campaign. Hillary took part in the perpetual war that the Democrats are wont to wage against Wall Street, only to accept thousands of dollars for political speeches given to various financial institutions behind closed doors. Wikileaks further illuminated the fact that mainstream media outlets were in the tank for Hillary. One example was CNN’s Donna Brazile, who furnished Clinton with debate questions in advance. Another is the New York Times’ John Harwood, who cozied up to John Podesta and sought what questions to ask Jeb Bush prior to an interview that he was scheduled to conduct.
Reviewing the full Clinton record is as daunting to write as it is to read. In hindsight, I think that this election was lost for the Democrats as soon as Hillary was selected as the nominee. How could things have been different? For one thing, the DNC could have acted sooner to get a younger, fresher face with less baggage involved in the process to oppose Hillary. There are many Democrats in the House and in the Senate that may have stepped forward if only the powers that be encouraged them to act. The only serious challenger that Hillary faced during the primaries was Senator Sanders, who was not even a Democrat but rather an independent that classified himself as a socialist. Rather than stand up to the Clinton political machine, the DNC and the plurality of Democratic voters decided it was best to cash in on Clinton’s brand name recognition in order to gain power. There was plenty of evidence during the primary process that Hillary had ethical problems, and yet many Democrats enthusiastically signed on to support her campaign despite this news.
Once she had secured the nomination, Democrats enjoyed the biased coverage of the mainstream media. Many newspapers, academic journals and research outlets burned the bridge of objectivity to endorse Hillary, even the conservative National Review. Polls consistently showed a pro-Hillary turnout, and Newsweek put out a cover that read “Madame President” nearly two weeks prior to the actual election. In the final days of the campaign, Trump spent hours a day giving speeches across the country to get his message out, while Hillary all but vanished from the public eye. She avoided giving interviews, mostly because it was known that she would need to confront the more unsavory news that surrounded her and her husband. Enthusiastic Clinton supporters I am familiar with here in New York City even passed around a GIF of Hillary performing what appears to be a “victory shimmy” after out-talking Donald Trump during one of the presidential debates. Fed by the echo chambers of social media, Clinton supporters thought that the election was a mere formality and that their girl had it in the bag. Even Clinton rival Bernie Sanders betrayed his constituency and drank the kool-aid when it came time to line up between Clinton. After the election, Sanders has little to show for his endorsement and has lost his integrity, which he had for decades in Congress.
Summarizing, Hillary was an ineffective candidate to run for president. The Democrats could have done better and really should have, if they cared about the future of their party. The majority of Democrats with rare exceptions decided arrogantly that the election was over and that they could pull out an easy win by going with a familiar brand without asking the right questions. The result is that the “I’m With Her” hashtags tweeted out were not successful product slogans, but inscriptions for an unsightly political tombstone.