General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: 2024 is not 2016 [View all]betsuni
(25,751 posts)From "What Happened":
"It started as something I'd occasionally mention at the end of speeches ... . It eventually became a rallying cry, 'Love trumps hate!' Partly because the race felt ugly and mean and we wanted an antidote to that. But partly it was because I've been thinking for a long time about how our country needs to become kinder and all of us need to become more connected to one another. ... It's serious to me. If I had won the election, this would have been a quiet but important part of my presidency.
"'Love and kindness' became a staple for me on the campaign trail. Never the core message ... but something I came back to again and again, and that audiences nearly always responded to, as if they were thirsty for it. ... When we started using using the phrase 'love trumps hate,' it caught on like wildfire among our supporters. There were times when I listened to huge crowds chanting those words, and for a minute I'd get swept up in the swell of positive energy and think it might really carry us all the way.
"I've spent many hours since the election wondering whether there was more we could have done to get that message through to an angry electorate in a cynical time. There's been so much said and written about the economic hardships and declining life expectancy of the working-class whites who embraced Donald Trump. But why should they be more angry and resentful than the millions of blacks and Latinos who are poorer, die younger, and have to contend every day with entrenched discrimination? ... Fundamentally, I believe that the despair we saw in so many parts of America in 2016 grew out of the same problems ... twenty-five years ago. Too many people feel alienated from one another and from any sense of belonging or higher purpose. Anger and resentment fill that void and can overwhelm everything else: tolerance, basic standards of decency, facts, and certainly the kinds of practical solutions I spent the campaign offering."