The_Nation_October_9_2017

8 The Nation. October 9, 2017

was the reverse. Comey’s interventions—especially his let-

ter to Congress, just 11 days before the election, stating that

he was reopening his investigation into whether she had

mishandled classified documents—were disastrous. With-

out that announcement, Nate Silver strongly suggests,

Clinton would have won. (I just hope I live long enough to

learn why Comey kept quiet about the FBI’s investigation

of Trump’s Russia ties.) The steady drip of hacked e-mails

from the Democratic National Committee and the cam-

paign itself, the dissemination of false stories on Facebook

through Russian bots and trolls—what Obama called “this

dust cloud of nonsense”—it adds up. An RT video called

“How 100% of the Clintons’ 2015 ‘charity’ went to...

themselves” was viewed 10 million times.

So what happened? As she acknowledges, Hillary—the

policy wonk, Girl Scout, and “lifelong fan of school sup-

plies”—never quite grasped what she was up against until it

was too late. She is constantly being surprised: that Trump is

a grotesque and ignorant bully, that people are as angry and

irrational and sexist as they are, that the media isn’t more

interested in her carefully considered, achievable policies

on every social problem under the sun, that truth doesn’t

matter. She took too much pride in refusing to promise

everyone “a pony,” whether it was Bernie’s proposal for

single-payer health insurance and free public college (not

ponies in my view) or Trump’s promise to resurrect coal

mines and factories. That let Bernie and Trump, from dif-

ferent angles, put her in the position of being Mean Mom

to their Fun Dad. Mean Mom, of course, is the one who

makes sure that the vegetables are eaten, the homework gets

done, and the bills are paid on time, while Fun Dad makes

the kids feel they have power and life is exciting. In the end,

Mom got more votes, but Dad—both dads—got more love.

We’ll be paying for that for a long, long time. Q

Contrary to

the claims of

her critics,

Clinton’s

book is one

long twinge

of remorse.

COMIX NATION