What if…
Fake News. That is not what this will be. With the one year commemoration of the Grifter-in-Chief in office, it seemed fitting to ponder what could best be described as …an Alternate Speculative Reality. What if…what if Hillary Rodham Clinton had won the 2016 presidential election? What if the Clinton campaign had allocated the necessary resources to bridge the 107,105 votes across the decrepit “Blue Wall”? What if the campaign had actually…you know, remembered that they lost both Wisconsin AND Michigan to an insurgent Sanders campaign during the primaries and prepared for those states accordingly. Perhaps former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm could have campaigned more vigorously in her home state. Perhaps Donna Brazile’s incessant pleadings for resources actually went heeded and Robbie Mook’s metric mumbo jumbo took a back seat…for a change. Perhaps between Ed Rendell, Barak Obama and Mr. Scranton(Joe Biden), they were able to make up Pennsylvania’s 70,000 vote short fall. Coulda…shoulda…woulda… The Blue Wall holds…barely. Hillary Clinton: 278 electoral votes, Donald Trump: 260 electoral votes. President Hillary Clinton. Indulge me on this, remember: we are in Alternate Speculative Reality or ASR Land. Anything is possible.
What would the last year have been like? Those ASR numbers are not a mandate by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, given the closeness of the races, there would have certainly been calls for recounts in many of them. Not wanting get bogged down in the weeds of recounts, lets just go with the scenario where Trump concedes…with suspicion. The suspicion being that there was electoral malfeasance on “Crooked Hillary’s” part and that of her campaign. Oh, let the healing begin. Also, you have to admit, this is exactly Donald wanted. He gets to lob spit balls at the Clinton administration all day long and into the early morning with his well-honed thumbs and newly minted media empire that Trump’s failed campaign produced. We’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. More on Trump’s incarnation of Fox News in a moment, but what of the legislature?
Shifting back to the real world for a moment, one of the many tragedies of the Clinton campaign and loss, is the drag that her candidacy proved to be on all of the down ballot legislative races. Let’s go back to the ASR Clinton presidency and see how legislative candidates fared after she “won.” That kind of mandateless win has no coattails. Feingold, McGinty, and Kander all lost by about 100,000 votes. We can throw her the bone of Jason Kander’s Senate seat in Missouri. He was the closet of all the races for Senate. Still, the United States Senate would be left with a 51–49 Republican majority. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McTurtlehead would still be in charge. It is reasonable speculate that the Supreme Court would have only had 8 justices for the entirety to the Clinton administration. There is, of course, the possibility that a Republican member of the world’s most exclusive club might pass on to the great beyond. Even then, that would be subject to the vagaries of special elections and appointments.
What else would be different under a Clinton presidency? It is a fairly safe assumption that the 800,000 plus individuals subject to DACA regulations would get more humane treatment from a Clinton administration, but one has to wonder. Please remember, to many, Obama was the “Deporter-in-Chief” and there is a chance that Clinton would have carried on in that same vein. Of course, back to real reality: sadly, it’s yet another area where Trump is attempting to outdo Obama.
Taxes. It is difficult to say what a President Clinton would have done with regards to revenue management of the Federal government, but one can safely say with a high degree of confidence that it would NOT have included the wholesale giveaway to this nation’s 1% that Trump orchestrated in December 2017. One can speculate on what she would have proposed based upon campaign statements, but who knows what she could possibly get passed given the composition of the House and Senate. Also, remember, Democratic leadership was operating under the delusion…or at least voiced delusion, that they could take back both houses of Congress in 2016.
As referenced above, a President Clinton would be attempting to govern with a Republican majority in both houses of Congress. You might think that you saw Republican intransigence during the Obama presidency, but a Clinton presidency would be no different. In fact, it might even be worse. Suffice to say, Clinton too would have to govern via Executive Order.
TRUMPnews. Just like that…all caps because it IS all about him. If you believe any of Michael Wolff’s book, “Fire and Fury” that’s one of the main things Trump’s campaign was about anyway. The campaign, from this observer’s perspective was a 24 month exercise in launching a successor to the aging media empire, FOXnews. Rightwing rants would be launched at the weak Clinton administration 24/7. TRUMPnews would have all the right and privilege of searing criticism, yet none of the responsibility of governance. A newly reinvigorated media force stocked with racists and nationalists, would have a Grand ole time pillorying Clinton in such an environment. Given Trump’s experience and chastisement over the last year, I have a feeling there’s one mistake he wishes he hadn’t made: he won the Presidency of the United States of America.
As we begin to contemplate leaving ASR land, we cannot leave before contemplating the fate of the #metoo movement in a Clinton presidency. By far, this cultural phenomenon has had an impact on our society in ways that we have yet to fathom. One has to ponder the question, how much righteous anger and rage would there have been to fuel this movement if Clinton had won. Full Stop: I am not saying that anyone’s tragic abuse is diminished in anyway because, in this alternate reality, Donald J Trump lost the election. I am simply asking, “What head of steam could this movement have built if Clinton, and her directly related contradictions(Bill Clinton), were in the Whitehouse? There are many variables in an equation, many ingredients in a soup. Life is about timing and context. A Clinton presidency would not have been the facilitating time or context for the flames of the #metoo movement to burn hot. So, Donald J. Trump served as the spark for the #metoo movement to set aglow the misogynistic infrastructure that permeates so much of our society. A bit of a stretch, but at least this one positive thing resulted from the Donald presidency.
I hope that people take this writing in the light style and spirit that it was intended. Perhaps, given the myriad of truly awful…devastating…discouraging things that have transpired during the last year, a little comic relief seemed in order. Forgive me.
I believe, there is something serious and profound to be gained from this speculation. A Clinton presidency would have been an inherently weak and ineffective one because of the time and context that it would have found itself. This weakness extends to the leadership that the Democratic party and their death grip on the levers of power within the party. Please remember this: the Democratic party lost 5 congressional special elections in a row during the early part of 2017. It was only when the grassroots got mobilized and organized did elections at every level of government begin to turn in the Democrats favor. All of the thousands of groups that spontaneously arose to challenge the Trump presidency were not creatures of the Democratic establishment, but of their own sense of existential crisis and need to …do something…ANYTHING.
The coming battles will not be won in a centralized way. The leadership of the Democratic party has proven over and over again during the last ten years by their failure and ineptitude that they are not up to the task. We will have to look to ourselves to win these battles, not some entity outside of our community. These are times of great existential peril, but also great possibility. Carpe Diem …futhermucker!
