Hillary Clinton Must Rescue America

People have wondered why Hillary Clinton wants to be president of the United States. Now it all makes sense: She has to save the country from Donald Trump.

Thank God the primary elections are over and done with in America. They were a never-ending circle of lies, humiliations and genitalia references. Now the Democrat Hillary Clinton and the occasional Republican Donald Trump take the stage. Both embody a certain privileged white upper class that is always “good to go.” On the one hand, a sobering thought. But the primaries also had their good side: The nation took a good look in the mirror – more deeply and more honestly than usual – and saw something ugly. But the important thing was that it looked.

One result of that glance in the mirror: Some citizens shudder at the sight of unbridled capitalism, the system America has always so confidently touted. The USA has always stood for free trade, for unfettered markets. Now, more and more Americans see how the United States could also be a loser in the globalization scenario. This uncomfortable fact is understood by both political parties. Bernie Sanders’ young fans are asking themselves why companies can move from one low wage country to another, while their generation can’t move out on their own because they still have to depend on their parents. Trump’s older fans, meanwhile, blissfully listen to him as he spits the word “China” out with disgust.

Clinton’s Candidacy Has Suddenly Taken On a Deeper Significance

It’s also sobering to look at the politicians involved. If the prognoses are correct, she is the first female candidate from either major party, and she won that hard-fought prize in the face of a good deal of sexist opposition. Unlike Obama, she is not a shining beacon with great visions for the nation. She is rigid and secretive and her close proximity to wealth reminds people of power and money, without which American politics cannot function. No, Clinton doesn’t represent a breakthrough, but, on the other hand, she is the most experienced person to ever seek this office, combining idealism with a solid knowledge of what is possible. Plus, she practices politics with a seriousness and an attention to detail that is unfortunately too rare in America.

What Trump reveals about America, on the other hand, is shocking in comparison. He succeeds in dragging forward the most negative characteristics of past decades, from the greed and recklessness of the 1980s to the permanent social media self-promotion of the ’90s and into the increasingly socially acceptable xenophobia of the current decade. He recently accused a federal judge, of Mexican descent, of being biased against him because of his ethnicity. A year ago, most people would have considered such open racism unacceptable from a leading politician in this tolerant nation of immigrants.

But that glance in the mirror has also revealed something else. The once so proud Republican Party is shot through with resentment – resentment against undocumented immigrants, against Muslims and against alleged parasites. Older white voters fear they’re losing control, getting too little while the others – the foreigners – are getting too much. Since the 1980s, the party itself hasn’t offered its voters much besides lower taxes and higher outlays for military defense – a combination certain to end in chaos. Now the Republicans have jettisoned “conservative principles” – the conservatives as well as their principles – and turned to Donald Trump. All they have left now is to hope Trump loses the election this fall so they can start rebuilding.

Only Hillary Can Save America from Trump

The only person who can defeat Donald Trump is Hillary Clinton. She alone can save America from his dangerous brand of machismo. That lends her candidacy a more profound purpose than was readily apparent earlier. Hillary first has to make clear to Americans just how serious the situation their country faces really is: Trump would be an authoritarian president who takes every criticism personally; someone who even in victory is incapable of being masterfully confident; a person who would disrespect his own government’s institutions as he would its foreign allies. Secondly, she must address the evils revealed by that glance in the mirror: growing inequality, the influence of big money, opaque trade agreements, the impoverishment of entire geographic regions and the broken immigration system.

America has taken a good look in the mirror and has seen an enraged creature, rapidly spinning out of control. The discovery is brutal and blunt, but Hillary Clinton still has time to help the nation come to its senses. It would be the biggest and most important success of her life.