The Establishment (Republican, Democratic, business and media) all knew that Jeb Bush would be the Republican Presidential nominee and that Donald Trump was a joke and going nowhere. The Establishment knew that Bernie Sanders was a fringe candidate whose campaign would go nowhere. The financial markets knew that Great Britain would stay in the European Union and showed it when the Dow Jones Average rose to18,008 before Great Britain voted to exit the EU and the Dow dropped to 17,401.
The Establishment is completely out of touch with the reality of average people. These people are frustrated with income and wealth inequality, with the fact that they are unemployed, underemployed and/or working harder and making less than a decade ago, with the fact that the political and economic systems are controlled by big business and the ultra wealthy, with the fact that they are powerless over their destinies and with the status quo in general.
Hillary Clinton is well entrenched in the Establishment and is just as clueless about the frustration of the people as the rest of the Establishment. She is clearly not taking the advice I offered her in my blog (here). She continues to campaign on the basis that she is better than Donald Trump, that she has experience and that she is practical. She is essentially saying that she will continue to work the way that President Obama has, trying to convince the Republicans to take baby steps to solve our problems, but she will be better at it than he is.
On Tuesday, June 22, Secretary Clinton gave her much touted economic speech in Raleigh, North Carolina. It was the perfect opportunity for her to announce some bold initiatives, but she simply reiterated her five point plan. It was a rehash without any details of her plan as put forth during the primary campaign. She lacked passion and credibility. The following sentence typifies her speech:
We'll say no to bad trade deals and unfair trade practices, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which does not meet my high bar for creating good-paying jobs.She has never made any attempt to explain why she was a strong advocate of NAFTA and called the Trans-Pacific Partnership the gold standard of trade agreements, before Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and others forced her to the left. Until she acknowledges and explains away her past, she will continue to lack credibility and be unable to generate excitement.
She made this economic speech two days before the Brexit vote as the financial geniuses were pushing the Dow back to 18,000 because, of course, Britain would vote to stay in the EU. She was living in the Establishment bubble. After the Brexit vote, instead of changing her approach, she doubled down. In her official statement, she said
This time of uncertainty only underscores the need for calm, steady, experienced leadership in the White House...The Establishment believes that Donald Trump does not stand a chance to win the Presidency. So far this year the Establishment has been wrong every time. The Real Clear Politics Electoral Map (here) has Hillary Clinton with 211 electoral votes, Donald Trump with 164 electoral votes and 163 electoral votes undecided. The undecided states are pretty much the ones that always fall into that category, and the recent polls in those states are within the margin of error. There is no question that this election will be decided by which party is better at getting people to vote. While there will be people who will show up to vote to vote against Donald Trump, to ensure that Hillary Clinton wins, she needs to start to generate enthusiasm and excitement among the people who were energized by Bernie Sanders. So far she does not even appear to be trying to accomplish that result.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal
