Given that the Democratic base is extremely fractured into interest groups and that women represent over half of the population it is a complete failure of the DNC that the first female candidate for the Presidency in the party didn’t happen until 2016. In fact, almost everything about the party’s inner circle is counter to the interests of women because its donors are primarily from economic segments dominated by men. Had the party remained true to its roots in support of labor and the voiceless it would look a lot different today, as would America.
While that should have supported Hillary more than it did, her part in the history of the party and its move to neoliberalism prevented her from fully taking advantage of her historic position. Whether deserved or not, she had a history of opposing most of what the party once stood for and the damage done to the greater population fell disproportionately on those who the party counts as its base.
Almost any other woman with her political experience would not have been more than inconvenienced by either Bernie or Trump. It wasn’t difficult in this digital age to put together an extremely damaging montage of her making statements that should have disqualified her as the nominee. Public and private positions? Describing black youths as “predators”? Selling fracking and petroleum-based agriculture globally? Supporting, and largely authoring the much hated TPP trade agreement? I believe, while completely disingenuous, Trump beat her from her left on everything except immigration, especially on her extremely hawkish foreign policy.
The only reason she attained the nomination was the DNC handing her the keys to the party, usually reserved for the elected Dem President, in trade for her endorsement/support of Obama in ’08, which she threatened to withhold. The outing of the emails that incriminated so many DNC players that were supposed to be neutral, including superdelegates and much of the media, only confirmed the image of “crooked” Hillary that Trump used to great effect.
Her legacy and talent for remaining at the center of corruption allegations, admittedly not all deserved, set the party back, possibly lethally, as well as raised the many hurdles confronting female politicians. The only thing that will prevent decades of wandering the wilderness for the DNC is the horror of Trump. Had the RNC nominated a Jeb Bush type candidate the party would be over.
