I’ve now been talking about the election for a full week. So I’m ready to stop (ish), I do have one more related (ish) post coming out this week about hanging out with Cory Booker…
But, as for my last thought for now…
Really.
What happened?
I know lots of places have tried to break it down. But none of it makes sense to me. People say she’s unlikable. I don’t understand why.
I don’t understand why the James Comey letter happened. I don’t understand anything.
Don’t we remember the debates? Don’t we remember the Al Smith dinner? The conventions? Hillary has been killing it! She’s performed at the top of her game.
What happened?
We may never know…
On the one hand, I want answers. On the other, I feel like I’m living inside of a Saturday Night Live sketch. So, how can I get answers to something when it can’t possibly be real?
(Speaking of Saturday Night Live, how wonderful was that cold open with Kate McKinnon?)
I just… I wish I had something wise to say here, but I do not…
I’m just so confused!
… What happened?
Back in 1990 in Massachusetts the was a Trump-like shock when a right-wing reactionary, anti-environment forced birther named John SIlber captured the Democratic nomination. Meanwhile, the Republican nomination went to a moderate who was progressive on the environment and social issues. (William Weld, who ironically was the Libertarian VP nominee this year.) I and many other liberals crossed party lines to vote for Weld in the general election, and he won a narrow victory.
Less than two weeks before the election, the race was neck-and-neck, was a widely-televised debate. And Silber cleaned Weld’s clock! Something like 3/4 of people thought SIlber won the debate–a higher margin than Hillary ever got. The one clue was that some folks the next day were saying “Silber won, but I like that other guy.” It turned out that people voted for who they liked more.
On other threads I discussed the thread of pre-filtered news and spread of false memes. Between that and old-fashioned sexism it’s possible the there was nothing Hillary could do. But this isn’t the first time we’ve seen evidence that “winning” debates doesn’t matter.
Yeah, that’s a very incomplete answer. Let’s also never forget that Hillary did win a convincing popular vote victory, and only lost because of the archaic, undemocratic Electoral College.
Boo to the electoral college!