Her reliance on Hollywood endorsements reflected a deeper problem in the Democratic Party: superficial progressivism packaged as real social justice.
Trump is now set to preside over a unified Republican government deeply antagonistic to abortion rights, marriage equality, and healthcare access. This will almost certainly be disastrous for women, but according to exit polls, 53 percent of white women voted for him anyway.
.. the only Democrat to win more white women than his Republican opponent was Bill Clinton in 1996.
.. White women without college degrees—an educational status
correlated to lower income—overwhelmingly
supported Trump, enough so that he won white women as a category.
.. But the Democratic Party for years has packaged superficial progressivism as real social justice, and the Clinton campaign’s simpering celebrity feminism ultimately proved tone deaf to the vital women voters who were more concerned about their pocketbook than “grab them by the pussy.”
.. Her campaign employed a candy-colored brand of female empowerment seemingly based on the assumption that white women’s political priorities are influenced by the pop culture they consume. White working-class women weren’t going to vote for Clinton just because Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Lena Dunham, and Sheryl Sandberg were.
.. And if you can’t afford HBO, how likely is it you even know who Lena Dunham is, much less care about her political opinions?
.. Breaking glass ceilings doesn’t feed families.
.. Instead, she focused on girl-power anthems and cultivated wealthy celebrity surrogates who were incapable of addressing the grievances that fueled Trump’s campaign.
.. The Podesta emails showed that the DNC is currently run by a tight-knit inner circle committed
to the very incrementalism voters rejected Tuesday night. In an anti-establishment year, it promoted a progressivism defined by social liberalism and little else.
.. Trump didn’t just split white women. He split
union voters, too.