The Iraq War was a debacle. Hillary supported it. So wouldn’t it be in her interest to start claiming she opposed it? Forget the morality of the idea; would it work as a campaign strategy?
Many people probably find the suggestion to be absurd. Almost ludicrous. But why?
They’d say she supported the war. There is a paper trail showing her support. She could never get away with claiming she opposed it. Maybe so, but Trump also support the Iraq War, and did so publicly. Nonetheless, Trump does in fact claim that he opposed the Iraq War, and reporters do let him get away with it. So why can’t Hillary? Why the double standard?
Hillary’s core supporters include lots of smart/idealistic people like Paul Krugman, who would be outraged by Hillary lying about her support for the war. Yes, they let her shade the truth on murky personal questions like emails, but they’d be outraged by a bald-faced lie on a key policy issue. She is seen as a competent manager of government (wrongly in my view). In contrast, Trump is never seriously seen as someone who would actually govern the country. He’s running as a sort of troll, a way for voters to show their contempt for the establishment. The American Brexit. The truth value of his claims about the Iraq War have no importance, nor do his claims about the “40%” unemployment rate, or indeed anything else. It makes no difference whether or not he favors a higher minimum wage, or infrastructure, or paying off the national debt in 8 years, or anything else. He’s a troll, and all that matters is that he annoys the (global) establishment.
I’m a member of the global establishment, if you define the term loosely enough, and so I’m annoyed. Not because his policies would hurt me, indeed they’d massively help my career. Every day after January 20th would be like Christmas, as I got to watch the look on alt-right and supply-sider faces as they found out the truth about Trump. The blogosphere would go crazy.
Rather I’m annoyed because we have a track record here, and Trump people don’t seem to know it. Throughout history, there have been lots of right-wing demagogues who engaged in the big lie. Today we see Duterte in the Philippines, Orban in Hungary, Putin in Russia, Erdogan in Turkey, etc. A few years back we had Berlusconi in Italy. In earlier decades we saw many others.
It never turns out well. That’s what Trump supporters don’t get, it never turns out well.
Maybe Trump will be a first, but I doubt it. (Of course left wing demagogues (Chavez, etc.) are usually even worse.)
PS. I can already anticipate what commenters will say, but I know that deep down you guys don’t believe it. Deep down even the most die-hard Trump supporter would be shocked if Hillary suddenly started claiming that she opposed the Iraq War. So don’t waste your time denying it. I don’t believe you.
PPS. I would LOVE to see Hillary deny that she supported the Iraq War, in tonight’s debate. As a prank, a way of making a point. Trump would take the bait and insist she was lying. But she could reply “how is that different from your lies about opposing the war”. After the debate the news media would be all over the issue, and would end up claiming that both sides were lying. It would be the big story—man bites dog. Then Hillary could say she was “just being sarcastic”, which Trump always uses as a get of of jail free card, when he is caught saying something idiotic (and that he didn’t realize at the time was idiotic.) She could say she was just trying to make a point—how ridiculous Trump’s lies are.
She won’t take my advice. And I suppose she shouldn’t. But it’s a nice daydream.
PPPS. You want double standards? Remember when Trump bragged about his sexual prowess in a GOP debate? Try to imagine a female candidate doing something comparable. It makes my head explode. I guess I have a double standard too. (Any comments on the PPPS will be deleted.)