Before anyone jumps all over me, I voted for Hillary in the primaries and GE. I had reservations about Bernie too that prevented me from voting for him. I’ve never thought Hillary was a good campaigner but I had hoped she had learned from loss in 2008. There’s no such thing as “inevitability” in politics. Voters want candidates to earn their votes and I’m not sure Hillary did that.
There’s a good amount of voter-blaming going around and I get it. Despite Hillary’s flaws, I never thought so many people would decide to take their chances with Trump as President.
It’s difficult to understand why Trump won, but it’s not too difficult to understand why Hillary lost.
- She had no bumper sticker campaign message identifying why she wanted to be President. Bernie and Trump had simple messages that resonated with the voters they targeted. As Liberals and Wonks, we may look down on candidates dumbing down this sort of thing but it works with the low info and low propensity voters that candidates need to capture in General Election campaigning
- She couldn't shake the Email and Clinton Foundation controversies. Legally, nothing is likely to come of these issues but there's no doubt that they weakened Hillary's ability to improve her Favorability ratings and stay on message. The "she's a crook" and "lock her up" narrative was given credibility by the News media and Jim Comey. Ultimately, the blame for these problems is Clinton herself. While she may not have broken any laws, the way she handled her emails and relationships between the State Dept and CF during her time as SoS showed bad judgement
- She was a boring candidate. Again, I know it seems condescending, but the question of "which candidate you'd rather have a beer with?" always comes up during Presidential campaigns. Far more low-information and low propensity voters participate in Presidential elections. Sometimes superficial things like likability or which candidate gives a more entertaining speech moves votes. An uninspiring candidate could also have the effect of not inspiring people to wait in line for hours to vote.
- She was perceived as anti-2nd Amendment. Let’s face it, many people in Middle America, including Dem voters, own guns and are pro-2nd Amendment. Some of the rhetoric on guns coming from Democrats turns off these voters. Prohibitions against people on Terror watch lists and allowing people to sue gun manufacturers is perceived as “Overreach”. We need to reevaluate the way we address gun safety and gun control so we can shake the narrative that Dems are too tough on law-abiding citizens who own guns.
- She is a “She”. It’s impossible to know what extent sexism or gender bias played in voter decisions but there’s no doubt that she had been judged differently and criticized more than male politicians for her “judgement” and “dishonesty”. The narrative that Hillary’s a “Bitch” or a Witch reared it’s ugly head from time to time throughout the campaign
I live in Maryland and the 2014 governors election here is in some ways a microcosm of what happened nationally. We had a very bad and polarizing Dem primary and the candidate who won the Dem primary, Anthony Brown, was very uninspiring and lost a winnable election to a Republican who out-campaigned him and responded to the desire for Change. Most outside of MD were shocked that Brown lost because polls a month before the election showed him with a comfortable lead.
The lessons for Dems is to choose good candidates and listen to the concerns of voters. Even democrat voters get turned off by Tone-Deaf campaigns.