The 2016 election evoked many and diverse reactions to outsider Republican candidate Donald Trump's victory over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton from fear and dismay, to disgust and even elation that change was coming for a vocal segment of the electorate that felt left behind by the whirlwind economic, political, social, and cultural changes of the 21st century. That a candidate with virtually no experience in either public service or politics was able to tap successfully into the fear and resentful anger of the "forgotten men and women" of rural areas and former booming manufacturing towns and win the presidency shocked many from ordinary citizens to the politicians, journalists, and advocates of the upper crust of society. So it's not surprising for me that Hillary Clinton, like others who shared the shock and dismay at the culmination of a vitriolic and nasty campaign and was at the center of it all with Trump, titled her latest memoir What Happened. (Even without any punctuation at the end of the title, it can read simultaneously as a serious, level-headed analysis of the 2016 presidential election cycle combined with an underlying sense of disbelief and shock at the election's outcome.)
Where to start in analyzing 2016? Clinton begins her story with a chapter titled "Perseverance," chronicling her and her husband's decision to attend President Trump's inauguration this past January along with the Bushes and Carters. Utilizing the common narrative mechanism of a flashback, Clinton rewinds from the inauguration to tell the story of the 2016 campaign, which started way back in 2015. While the 2016 campaign was undoubtedly the cornerstone of What Happened, the book feels timeless in certain parts where Hillary remembers her roots and the lessons her parents (especially her mother, the late Dorothy Howell Rodham) taught her regarding hard work, spirituality, community, and perseverance in the face of adversity and how her present relationships reinforce those lessons. While the evocation of some of these latter abstract ideals are common tropes in both fiction and non-fiction alike, evoking a semi rags-to-riches ascendancy narrative especially popular with influential politicians and others, these relationships provide a secure anchor for the story and an authentic voice for the author.
While I'm tempted to join in the chorus of those who ask why this authentic and rawer version of Hillary revealing her deepest troubles, hopes for the future, and closest relationships was not present in the election (thereby serving as a positive and humanizing influence that could have benefited her campaign), I also agree with Hillary's statement about campaigning that evokes a fine balancing act between intimacy with voters and a projection of strength on the other (Jalalzai, 2010). Damned if you do, damned if you don't. So like any other imperfect politician since the beginning of time, she leaned more towards guardedness in her campaign. This balancing act of politics is nearly impossible for women candidates to navigate successfully. The former concept of too much intimacy with voters can be construed as weak and too much guardedness as cold and off-putting (Jalalzai, 2010). Combine these double standards that most women candidates have to deal with with the national stage (and the larger degree of news coverage and scrutiny), presidential politics, partisanship, misogyny, social media, fake news, foreign meddling in democracy, resentment politics, campaign missteps (on both sides) and high-level investigations (to name a few) and you get an idea of how Clinton felt and the forces and obstacles she saw blending together into a toxic stew in 2016.
I'm not saying that she provides an un-biased portrait of the election (it is colored unsurprisingly by her own left-leaning political views and own unique experiences in her 40 year career in public service, from First Lady, Senator, Secretary of State and two-time presidential candidate that made her anguished responses to news stories like the email scandal seem somewhat dramatic or overblown), but her analysis seems grounded in fact and is thought-provoking. In other words, a kind of rational voice that voters from all sides need to see and understand. While I appreciated the analysis of the forces, both domestic and foreign (positive and negative), that shaped a campaign in the digital age, what was most important for me is that she finished her book offering clear-headed advice on how to address the national divisions that are having important reverberations here and around the world in America's foreign policy. This prevents the book from seeming too much like a rehashing of grievances instead of an insightful memoir of a contentious election in the provision of a message of hope for the future in which America confronts these issues and attempts to transcend political divisions for the common good. (Yes, that is cliché, but readers (like myself) need some positivity to counter and cope with the negative forces at work today.)
She provided a wide range of suggestions to readers to help bridge these divides (and strengthen American democracy as a whole) including the reinvigoration of public service organizations and civil society to provide opportunities for people to better empathize with each other, the renewal of grassroots activism, improved digital security for critical voting infrastructure, and the critical consumption of news. Many of these suggestions are by no means new in the national conversation and are broad strokes, but seem more urgent today in the era of alternative facts, resentment, and hyper-partisanship. Overall, in What Happened, Clinton provides an imperfect (but mostly satisfying) blend of election analysis, personal reflection, and a can-do message of perseverance that come full circle from the opening chapter chronicling the January inauguration to the closing with Hillary giving a rousing commencement speech at her alma-mater, Wellesley College. It's worth a read no matter what side of the aisle you lean towards (and if you find yourself disagreeing with Clinton on some points as I did).
Works Cited:
Clinton, H. R. (2017). What Happened. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Jalalzai, Farida. (2010). Madam President: Gender, Power, and the Comparative Presidency. Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 31(2), pp. 132-165. DOI: 10.1080/15544771003697643.
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