UNDERESTIMATING HILLARY: This Generation Might Not See Her Like the Last One Did
A critical underestimation of Hillary Clinton is underway. It presumes the electorate as a whole is well versed in the antics of Bill, Hill, and Chelsea.
Thing is, in 2016 the youngest voter will have been born in 1998. Voters that can drink legally will have been born in 1995. Think about it.
They have no recollection of Bill Clinton as President or adulterer-in-chief.
They never saw Hillary as First Lady. Senator and Secretary of State yes, but as Bill’s wife no.
They were barely in elementary school when 9/11 occurred.
They weren’t even in high school when Obama became President.
Their experience with economics is defined by the longest recession since the Great Depression.
They can’t remember a world without internet and they can’t imagine that AOL and Prodigy used to be the biggest providers and that Yahoo was revolutionary in being the first search engine.
Making a call on a phone with a handset connected by a cable to a box with a keypad seems ancient to them.
If they know of OJ Simpson at all, they remember him as a weird caricature and criminal and not as an NFL star.
Rap music as a fun and positive genre doesn’t equate with their calculus of pop culture. Run DMC as the biggest rap act around sounds like a story straight out of The Onion.
They don’t know that when they were born central Europe was ravaged by the Balkans Conflict and that the events of Blackhawk Down shocked a nation surprised by it’s military success in Desert Storm.
They may never have seen 55 mph speed limit signs posted throughout the Interstate highway system.
They can’t remember boarding a plane without having to remove shoes, get frisked, and be body scanned.
All that and more taken into account, their formulation of ideas about Hillary is based largely on her role as Senator and Secretary of State. Indeed, she appears as the kindly grandma who is simply trying to do good things.
Trying matters a lot as they came of age during a time in which everyone gets a trophy.
The question then is, will GOP underestimation of their perceptions of Hillary result in her winning the White House trophy?
Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/world_trade_organization/9308732600/