EDITOR’S NOTE: This was posted Monday and is being reposted today due to its renewed timeliness.
In the pre-2016 political world, the election was supposed to be a congenial race between the Bush’s and the Clinton’s. With Barack Obama’s juggernaut and a lackluster Republican nominee, the campaign would have some light but little heat while she glides her way into the Oval Office. One little thing got in the way of Hillary Clinton’s presumptive path to the presidency, Donald J. Trump.
When Clinton loses tomorrow night, there will be a lot of finger pointing of how she lost to a first time candidate with a ton of the types of baggage that sunk the presidential hopes of Gary Hart and Ted Kennedy. However, as a foreshadowing of what’s to come in the Wednesday morning quarterbacking, there are three reasons why Trump will win and it comes down to one word which also begins with the letters TRU and that is TRUST.
There are historically three major voting blocks of the Democratic Party base – women, African Americans and young people – all three of these groups have a strong level of distrust of Hillary Clinton.
1) Women do not TRUST Hillary for saying she is for women’s rights while attacking the women her husband preyed upon. I believe using that tactic against Trump actually had an unintended consequence of showing the number of glass windows of her own house. It was a political gamble which did not move the needle positively in her favor and may have reminded women of lingering doubts as to her motives.
2) African-Americans still remember the 2008 primary election against Barack Obama. In a lot of people’s minds, they mention they thought Hillary Clinton started the birther issue during that bruising primary. In several churches I visited, a major issue was the instigation of zero tolerance which occurred under the Clinton Administration. In Baltimore, usually a city when this time of year you will find hundreds signs supporting the Democratic nominee, this year the silence is deafening.
3) Millennials came out strongly for Bernie Sanders and are less than enthusiastic about Hillary Clinton. In my discussions with university students, the words that describe Clinton are the following: corrupt, career politician and a person who is in it for herself.
These three above groups are the margin of victory Barack Obama needed to win his two terms; they are simply not excited by Clinton’s candidacy. Sometimes in politics – it’s not about your opponent; it’s about you. Without that excitement, Hillary Clinton is in danger of turning what most experts expected to be a coronation earlier in 2016 into a stunning November defeat.
photo credit: Gage Skidmore Hillary Clinton via photopin (license)
Faculty, Department of Political Science, Towson University. Graduate from Liberty University Seminary.