Clinton’s Coming Struggle with Trump Supporters
In the networks’ post-debate wrap-ups, the prevailing emotions seemed to be exhaustion, and sadness. A circus, some commentators called the debate, or a hijacking. But it was also, in ways that are more unsettling, democracy in action.
.. The campaign against Trump seems to have deepened a trait of Clinton’s: a pessimism about the possibility of political persuasion. James Carville, speaking on the Showtime campaign documentary “The Circus,” said that Bill Clinton always believed that he “could talk a dog out of a pork chop”—that, given enough time, he could change anyone’s mind. Hillary, Carville said, is “more realistic” about people.
.. When Obama, at a 2008 fund-raiser, said that he thought members of the Republican base “cling to guns and religion,” his suggestion was that conservatism was a false consciousness that might be lifted. Hillary Clinton appears to have no such optimism. Trump was right: the word “irredeemable” was the interesting one in those infamous remarks. It suggests her belief that the Trump base, the people responsible for the shape of the election, are beyond persuasion.
.. During the past few days, Republicans have been working to blame the election on Trump personally, convinced that Trumpism is a fever that has moved through their electorate but should pass quickly. If Clinton had a different disposition—Obama’s, say, or her husband’s—she might have used the question about “the basket of deplorables” as a way to cleave Trump from his supporters, to empathize with their alienation and sense of loss. She might have offered conciliation. But Clinton does not seem to think that Trumpism is a passing fever, however much elected Republicans wish it so.