Chapter four discusses the reasons why Donald Trump gained power and held office. Hanson describes the main reasons as to why Trump became president and specifically how the Democratic party had a role in doing so. The biggest teller of why Trump won the 2016 Election was due to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Clinton focused less on her goals and views and rather tried everything she could to belittle Trump and ruin his campaign. For example, in 2016, Clinton spent 250 million dollars to negatively advertise against Trump. She wanted to expose Trump in any way possible such as making accusations that he is a sexual predator and a neo-fascist. This deterred her from being able to focus on her own campaign. This is something that Barrack Obama, who won the 2008 Election against John McCain, did not fall for. Obama paid little attention to his opponent, McCain. Obama was great at being able to pertain to the values of the majority of America. He stayed as a central Democrat, but once elected he strayed into the far left group of Democrats. Hanson focuses on how Hillary failed to brand and run her campaign. I think he is right and she was more concerned on a person who had zero political experience rather than herself. It is possible that she had a lack of confidence and was afraid of Trump’s capabilities and power. It could be true if she followed Obama’s approach to his campaign that she would have won the election.
2 replies on “ERA #7: The Case for Trump Chapter 4”
Charlie it’s interesting when you talk about how Hillary could have possibly won if she focused on the ways Obama approached his campaign. I agree with this, her focus on Trump allowed Americans to see what she cared more about, rather how Trump stood with his beliefs, even if he was aggressive. Even though politics is a corrupt and cruel atmosphere, usually it happens behind the scenes. However, Hillary brought this atmosphere into the open when trying to beat Trump for presidency. Which as you said, “deterred her from being able to focus on her own campaign.”
It would have been exciting to see if Hillary focused on her goals and visions of America in her campaign and what the impact of doing so would be especially in the Electoral College vote results because she did win the Popular vote. Possibly, if Hillary could have found a balance of focusing on her goals for America and derailing Trump, and then the election would be a whole new story. What do you think?