Stacks of Hillary Clinton’s book “What Happened” are staged outside the Warner Theatre in Washington, Monday, Sept. 18, 2017, as Clinton participates in a book tour event hosted by the Politics and Prose bookstore. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
As many of you may be aware, Hillary Clinton has recently released a book titled, “What Happened,” which details the reasons that she believes caused her to lose the election. Believe it or not, this list turns out to be very extensive, with people to blame ranging from Bernie Sanders to James Comey and organizations to blame ranging from the Democratic National Committee to the New York Times. Netflix, gullible Americans and women protestors also make the list. The list goes on and on, with some news sites totaling 41 separate people and situations she has put the blame on. I would like to look into a few of her claims.
One claim that was rather striking to me is how Secretary Clinton threw every single one of her political allies under the bus. She blasts Bernie Sanders by saying, “His attacks caused lasting damage, making it harder to unify progressives in the general election and paving the way for Trump’s ‘Crooked Hillary’ campaign.” Considering Bernie Sanders publicly endorsed Clinton after she defeated him in the primary, this seems like a pretty harsh attack on him and his supporters. She also attacks Jill Stein, claiming she took away too many votes in key states. She also focuses in on Joe Biden, claiming he didn’t direct his support of her to the working class.
If you think she left former President Obama out of her tirade, you’re wrong there. “I do wonder sometimes about what would have happened if President Obama had made a televised address to the nation in the fall of 2016 warning that our democracy was under attack. Maybe more Americans would have woken up to the threat in time. ” So Secretary Clinton is questioning the same guy who made countless campaign appearances, including a very important speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, because he didn’t have a nationally televised fire and brimstone speech to strike fear into people’s minds that “our democracy is under attack?”
As outlandish as some of these claims are, the two I resent the most are the claims that sexism and white resentment played a major role in this election. First of all, nobody truly believes we live in a world free of sexism or that racism doesn’t exist. I personally believe sexist and racist people are the scum of society and their ideals are not welcomed in America. Do I believe that the vast majority of people who voted for Donald Trump were sexist or racist? Absolutely not.
Let’s start with the claim of misogyny. On misogyny she simply stated, “Yes, I do think it played a role.” She went on to formulate her argument by saying the male figures in females’ lives played a major role in influencing their vote. “’Women will have no empathy for you because they will be under tremendous pressure – and I’m talking principally about white women – they will be under tremendous pressure from fathers, and husbands, and boyfriends and male employers, not to vote for ‘the girl.’” It sounds to me like Secretary Clinton is using a completely sexist argument here. So, according to her, women aren’t strong or smart enough to think for themselves?
The second part of her claim lays the blame on white resentment. She writes, “He was quite successful in referencing a nostalgia that would give hope, comfort, settle grievances, for millions of people who were upset about gains that were made by others … millions of white people.” I believe hardworking middle class people care far more about putting food on their tables then they do about gains being made by others. It is incredibly out of touch and disingenuous to insinuate a group of people is racist because they care about their economic prospects. A strong economy is good for everyone regardless of race, religion or gender and many people believed Secretary Clinton’s platform on the economy was weak.
Do you want to know why I didn’t vote for Secretary Clinton? I didn’t vote for her because of the four patriots who were murdered in Benghazi. I didn’t vote for her because of her illegal handling of 30,000 plus classified emails that compromised the security of our nation. I didn’t vote for her because of her total disdain for the working class people of this country. Secretary Clinton should spend far more time take blame for her own mistakes and less time deflecting the blame onto erroneous causes.
Alexander Grzelak is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at alexander.grzelak@uconn.edu.
