Hillary Clinton continues to blame everyone and everything but herself for her landslide loss in 2016 and her growing unfavorability. This time, the former Democratic nominee for president claims that her adversaries fear her.
Following a less-than-inspiring commencement speech at her alma mater, Wellesley College, in which she compared President Trump’s investigations to the Watergate scandal, Clinton discussed her detractors’ fear of her in an interview with New York Magazine:
"You know, these guys on the other side are not just interested in my losing, they want to keep coming after me...What are they so afraid of? Me, to some extent. Because I don't die, despite their best efforts.”
No, Hillary, your critics do not fear you.
Clinton opponents saw through her vanilla, status quo campaign message, use of her gender as leverage to win votes and ingenuine attempt to identify with the average American. Her sentiment is further proof that Hillary Clinton is out of touch with reality, and that her message does not resonate with the American people. Her opponents’ distaste for her does not come from a place of fear. Clinton’s lack of likability and 2016 loss can both be attributed to a broad distrust that the American people have towards her, and a frustration with the miserable status quo that was Barack Obama’s 8 year term as president. Despite having the media as her number one ally throughout the election, twice the donor funds and campaign spending than that of Donald Trump, the endorsement of popular political players and a party that was much more unified than the Grand Old Party, Hillary still did not resonate with the American people.
The former secretary of state did not make herself appear any more trustworthy to voters, which was already an uphill battle given the laundry list of Clinton scandals. During the election, Clinton refused to admit any real fault for any of the aforementioned scandals, particularly her own email misconduct and the Benghazi attack, where four American lives were lost.
Clinton had the wrong attitude ahead of election day, particularly in the final weeks, and this was no secret to voters. The Democratic campaign popped victory champagne before voting had even started. The Huffington Post reported that the campaign as a whole developed an attitude of arrogance:
“It was arrogance, arrogance that they were going to win. That this was all wrapped up,”
Most notably, Donald Trump outshined Hillary Clinton with his message of change, similar to that of then-candidate Barack Obama, a message which Clinton did not even attempt to match. Clinton preached a theme that foreshadowed another four years of Barack Obama’s policies, rather than framing herself as the change candidate. This strategy was effective in turning out a portion of the traditional Democratic party, and perhaps some of the previous core voter-base, but not the majority of Americans. Clinton also neglected states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, while banking on winning their votes. Blue collar, middle class voters in those states were not on Clinton’s radar, and they knew it. She did not attempt to identify with the average American who had been faced economic turmoil under President Obama, and the election results showed that.
Donald Trump’s unexpected win in the 2016 general election cannot be credited to fear, sexism, James Comey, Russian involvement, the media, misogyny or anything else that Hillary can come up with other than Hillary Clinton herself.
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