Why did Hilary lose the 2016 election?

Now I'm not asking why Trump won or how he beat her, why did she lose?

1. Sexism?
2. Elitism?
3. She lacked a positive message?
4. Personality?
5. Various Clinton scandals?
6. Other?

I don't believe sexism was an issue, I think people who objected to Hilary in the Whitehouse were probably the most avid Sarah Palin supporters. What was her message? That's more of a judgement call, her slogan was 'I'm with her', nice to have a female president but a female president whose policies were what? Personality? She seemed cool and aloof but Trump was such an ass it's hard to believe that was a factor. The various Clinton scandals? No, Bill left power with huge approval ratings.

To me it's Elitism, her denouncing Trump supporters as deplorables and telling the people of the rustbelt her environmental policies would make them unhappy then wondering why they didn't vote for her. In voting against Hilary people were voting against safe spaces, no platform university campuses, identity politics and all the other excesses of the far left.

 

Why did Hilary lose the 2016 election?
I think the reasons for Hillary's loss in the 2016 election are both complicated & not well understood. But a few items stand out to me, in retrospect. First, I think the issue over her Super Delegates developed into a major wedge within the Democratic Party, & lost her many critical Sanders votes in the final election. Second, I think the many false accusations spread by Russian sources during the campaign & reinforced by the Trump campaign, succeeded in alienating many voters against Hillary. It got to the point toward the end, where I felt many voters simply refused to listen to anything she was saying--even when she offered solid, concrete solutions to many of the issues confronting the country at the time. It appears her comment about Trump supporters being "deplorables," lost her votes, but I found it far less offensive than many of the comments made by Trump during that campaign.

 

What about Russians? The day after she lost, that's who she was blaming. Later, Democrats were here explaining how a handful of Facebook ads nobody saw or remembers made people vote against Hillary.

 

The Russians used social media to release several false, fake accusations blaming Hillary for all sorts of misdeeds & even criminal activity. The one accusing her of leading a prostitution ring was one example. I recall seeing at least one Trump supporter referring to that fake claim, and stating they totally believed it to be true. The impact of the Russian mis-information on the election could have been enough to throw victory into Trump's lap. The fact that neither Trump or the Republicans in Congress have done ANYTHING to prevent the Russians from doing it again in 2020, is a powerful statement on how they feel about American democracy & whether they value it enough to protect it or not.

 

So pizzagate came from Russian Facebook ads?

John podesta buying giant paintings of kids in their underwear chained to walls didn't factor in any?

 

Because she's Hillary Clinton.

 

The story about prostitution did not come from Russia. It was traced to an elderly attorney woman in Joplin MO.

The investigation was done by Rolling Stone.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/anatomy-of-a-fake-news-scandal-125877/

 

Scandals, all those scandals and the fact that she broke the law.

 

I don't know all the details, just that many of the really nasty accusations about Hillary during the election were planted by the Russians & were total lies.

 

I appreciate the update & research you did on this, & for sharing, but it doesn't change the fact that it was fake news & it influenced a lot of voters. The lies placed on internet by Russia were equally damaging to Hillary & helpful to Trump. American voters were influenced by all these lies, wherever & whoever they came from, and they continue to pose a threat to our democracy.

 

Why did Hilary lose the 2016 election?

The Electoral College....literally.

 

Hillary lost by attacking her opponents supporters and also because she has cankles and hairy toes that she has to shave every morning.

Hillary is all about money and power.

 

It's interesting to note that the last two Republican Presidents won the Oval Office thru the Electoral College in spite of losing the popular vote.

 

Our founding fathers weren't stupid.

 

Among MANY reasons, the primary reason is she did not perform well in the Rust Belt states because, unlike her competitor, she made no attempt to address the issues of trade imbalances, the economic plight of that region, or immigration.

She was warned by her husband not to take those states for granted, but she ignored his advice. These states were traditionally heavy union areas, and had voted Democratic in past elections.

 

Its combination. She was a bad candidate especially when voters were in an anti-establishment mood. She was seen as calculating, cold, and a bit stodgy. Voters were nervous that if they brought the Clintons back they would have to relive all those scandals like Whitewater and Filegate and the email stuff, let alone Bill's propensity to stick his privates in unprivate places. Once Comey announced that the FBI were re-opening the investigation to look at the new emails, ( thanks Putin!) and progressives learned about the 'loans' to the DNC, it dampened any enthusiasm for her candidacy and depressed turnout.

And we have her crucial tactical error of not spending any time in the rust belt or talking about issues impacting manufacturing jobs in swing states and you have enough to tip the scales in too many important states.

 

Like?

 

Except it only appeared several days ahead of the election. It could have hurt her, but her refusing to campaign in the states she lost is more plausible to me.

Stuff like that never catches my eye for example until some Democrat mentions it. They did not mention this ahead of the election.

 

Especially this plus she called millions of Americans deplorables. She took the rust belt for granted.

And we have her crucial tactical error of not spending any time in the rust belt or talking about issues impacting manufacturing jobs in swing states and you have enough to tip the scales in too many important states.

 

It is solely because the popular vote which does the wrong thing, bundles all states into one pot, is wrong. States must stand on their own. This is why the constitution provided states with each having a complete stand alone government.

Democrats are the party that wants states taken over by the Feds. We republicans fight that war.

Democrats will never and I mean NEVER get it.

But guess what my fellow posters. When they win the election, then the EC is fine and dandy for them.

 

1. You mean a true democracy? We have the distinction of being the only developed "democracy" in the world where the candidate winning the minority of votes, wins the office. No other "democracy in the world does that. And you think that's superior to a real democracy where every citizen's vote counts the same, and the one who gets the most votes wins? The Constitution said every black man should count as 3/5ths of a full man for the census--to accommodate slavery. The Electoral College is equally outdated.
2. When has anybody other than a Republican ever won an election thru the Electoral College while losing the popular vote? Any system that has merit will help opposing parties at different times. The Electoral College has NEVER helped anyone other than Republicans. It should be abandoned.

 

Why? 1. Laziness - From 1 Sep 2016 through 8 Nov 2016 Hillary let Trump both out work and out campaign her by 116 campaign visit/stops/appearances/rallies to 71. That 71 looks larger than it is as it includes fund raisers in deep blue California and New York. Look at the three deciding states, Wisconsin, five visits for Trump, none for Hillary. That's right, she never stepped in Wisconsin. Michigan, six for Trump, one for Hillary. Pennsylvania, eight for Trump, five for Hillary. Even in electoral rich Florida, Hillary ceded it to Trump. Trump 13 visits, stops to Hillary's 8.

2. Inept campaign strategy - If you want to call getting more electoral votes than Obama did a campaign strategy. This caused Hillary to spend a lot of time, energy and money in trying to win Georgia, Arizona and Utah. Time, money, energy that could have been focused on her backyard, her supposedly blue wall states. Like in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

3 Jury rigging the Democratic Primaries by the DNC and Democratic state party leaders in Hillary's favor. That made Sanders supporters angry. Sure she won Sanders supporters 75-12 with 13% voting third party. But compare that to her Democratic base vote of 89-8 over Trump with only 3% voting third party. Who knows how many angry Sanders supporters stayed home?

https://www.newsweek.com/bernie-sanders-trump-2016-election-654320

4. Failure to provide energy and enthusiasm in her supporters. Hillary basically ran a ho hum campaign as her support also seemed ho hum. Trump supporters were full of energy and enthusiasm, willing to go to the four corners of the earth for him. You can add that Hillary came across as elitist and aloof to many voters. Especially independent voters.

5. Probably because of Sanders and trying to placate Sanders supporters for the jury rigged primaries, Hillary failed to follow the old political maxim. for a democrat, campaign left during the primaries, then move toward the center for the general. She stayed left. This left independents, the more or less non-partisan, non-affiliated group of voters disliking her. Not that they liked Trump that much, independents didn't. 40% of independents viewed Trump favorably, 57% unfavorably. With Hillary, independents viewed her only 27% favorably with a whopping 70% in the unfavorable column. That's a lot of disliked. Questions 10 and 11

https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/l37rosbwjp/econTabReport_lv.pdf

That total dislike for Hillary by independents enabled Trump to win the independent vote and the white house.

5 Media coverage - Trump owned the media, he was calling into every morning talk show everyday. He kept his name in front of the media everyday, he was always the story. Trump didn't care if the publicity was good or bad or indifferent. As long as he was the lead story. He ate up air time. Hillary on the other hand hid. She went over 200 days without giving a press conference and only went on shows like the View which were guaranteed to be friendly to her. that made up the huge difference in the money advantage Hillary had. Hillary had and spent 1.191 billion to Trump's 646.8 million. Money wise, Hillary had an almost a 2-1 edge over Trump and still lost.

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/graphics/2016-presidential-campaign-fundraising/

I could go on and write a book. I say this, as someone who voted against both Trump and Clinton, my disdain for both candidates was sky high. It seemed to me that Hillary didn't put forth much effort during the general election campaign. Almost like she expected to have the presidency handed to her on a silver platter without having to work for it. My impression anyway. She acted as if that fire in the belly that it takes to get elected had been extinguished. Whereas Trump kept stoking that fire higher and higher. My two cents.

 

I admit to being prejudiced because I don't like her. I don't liker her because she is preachy and condescending.

It bleeds into policy concerns. She never ran a business to my knowledge but she loves her some laws and regulations.

 

If I had to pick only ONE reason, I would say it was her personality issue - specifically, hubris. The false pride she had led her to overconfidence. I can't say as I blame her when the press, the talking heads, Hollywood, the Glitterati, and foreign money came pouring in telling her she was The Chosen One, unbeatable. It might have been started by the DNC paving the way for her; she may well have thought the country was gonna be steamrolled the same way the DNC leadership paved the way for her to win the nom. She thought herself unbeatable. And heck, just look at many of the posters here - some of which have still not returned after the election - who INDIVIDUALLY made five threads a day and in another case thousands of posts swearing Hilla would win. She's surrounded by folks just like that, her own hubris is gonna tell her hey, who needs to campaign? The NYT says Trump only has a 0.00001% chance of winning, why not stay at home and polish my cellulite?

Sexism? Ha. Near as I could see, the only reasons people voted for her were 1) She (reportedly) has a vagina and 2) She wasn't Trump. I have said this many times, any time in 2016 when I asked for reasons to vote FOR Hilla - I never got one from her own supporters. If anything, I'd say more people voted for her because she was a woman than didn't because of same. Put another way, were her name Henry Clinton and had exactly the same past and mindset, he would have gotten maybe 2/3rds of the votes Hilla did. Maybe. My point being, sexism worked FOR her, not against.

 

Why did Hillary lose?

Because Trump got more votes in the states that decided the Electoral College.

That would be my guess.