Jones: Clinton won't win without wooing minorities, Bernie Sanders backers
HILLARY CLINTON has made history by winning the Democratic nomination for president of the United States. She is the first woman to achieve that feat for a major American political party.
HILLARY CLINTON has made history by winning the Democratic nomination for president of the United States. She is the first woman to achieve that feat for a major American political party.
In my view, it's no surprise. I've long seen her as the most qualified candidate from either party. She's served as a senator and secretary of state. She was a first lady actively involved in policy. She has risen to the top, despite scandals and mistakes.
Still, Clinton is in a precarious position. If she fails to ignite the passions of African-Americans, Latinos, religious minorities and women who've been insulted by the hateful words of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, turnout could suffer tremendously. And if she doesn't capture a portion of the angry, young liberal voters who lifted Bernie Sanders from obscurity, the Bernie-or-bust voters could make good on their threat to stay home in November. If she fails to do both, Clinton could very well lose.
That would mean handing the presidency to a man whose racist rhetoric and scattershot policy ideas could tear this country apart.
If Clinton wants to complete her historic run to the White House, solid policy ideas might not be enough. She might have to learn the game the outsiders mastered this election cycle. It is a game built on blame.
Take the Sanders supporters, for example. When the Associated Press engaged in what Sanders called a "rush to judgment" by reporting on Monday that Clinton had secured enough delegates to win the nomination, his supporters went nuts.
They said the AP count was wrong because it included super delegates - Democratic officials who can vote any way they want at the Democratic National Convention. Sanders' supporters thought the count was premature because the super delegates whom Sanders publicly accused of cronyism and corruption might still decide to switch their allegiance to Sanders in November.
Fat chance.
But Sanders' supporters didn't stop there. They said the AP engaged in shoddy, irresponsible journalism because it reported the facts when it received them.
That, dear reader, is hogwash.
The AP interviewed super delegates and counted their votes. It also counted the votes of millions of ordinary people and the delegates who represent them. It found that millions of voters had put Clinton in the catbird seat.
That's not a scam. That's just math.
But rather than acknowledging that the first rule of journalism is to seek the truth and report it, Sanders' supporters sought to paint the AP as if it were some fly-by-night website reporting fabrications as facts. In truth, the AP is a legitimate news organization with reporters all over the world. Does that mean the AP is perfect? No. But it does mean it probably wouldn't report such a huge story if it wasn't right.
Of course, Sanders' supporters have made allegations before. They accused DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of rigging the system against their candidate. They posted Twitter videos suggesting that Philadelphia's voting machines wouldn't allow votes for Sanders. They even resorted to violence when things didn't go their way in the Nevada caucuses.
As a result, Sanders nearly won the Democratic nomination.
Of course, Sanders supporters weren't the only ones who benefited from campaign drama. Trump and his followers did so, as well. Trump has blamed America's problems on Muslims, trade deals and Mexicans. Last week, in keeping with that theme, Trump went into full accusation mode when a federal judge named Gonzalo Curiel unsealed court documents in a fraud lawsuit filed against the now-defunct Trump University.
Trump said the judge, who was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants, had a conflict of interest in the case because of his Mexican heritage. Trump claimed the judge's heritage was relevant because of Trump's focus on illegal immigration and his promise to build a wall to seal the southern U.S. border.
Republicans went crazy, falling all over themselves to denounce. House Speaker Paul Ryan said Trump had made a textbook racist statement about the judge.
Be that as it may, Trump has said his words were misconstrued, but he has not apologized. He's simply said he won't talk about it anymore. And, given the trajectory of the campaign so far, Trump's poll numbers could very well go up as a result of his offensive statements.
We've seen it before.
The point is, this election cycle has shown us that being a qualified candidate might not be enough. Voters are angry. They want drama.
If Clinton is to complete her historic run to the White House, she just might have to give it to them.
Solomon Jones is the author of 10 books. Listen to him mornings from 7 to 10 on WURD (900-AM).
Join Solomon Jones on June 29th for "MAD AS HELL? Voter Anger in the 2016 Election," a special panel discussion at Independence Visitor Center. For details and tickets: philly.com/electionpanel.
@solomonjones1