Timid Liberals Blew the Election by Flinching at Hillary Clinton's Email Server

[DonViejo]

KEVIN DRUMDEC. 21, 2016 9:15 AM

A couple of recent conversations about Hillary Clinton's email server have prompted me to think that I should write about it one more time. Maybe for the last time. You might wonder why. After all, the damage is done, it's in the past, and no cares anymore. But I continue to think there's a lesson here that we haven't all come to grips with yet.

Here it is: As near as I can tell, Hillary Clinton did nothing wrong. Period. No shilly-shallying, no caveats. It's true that the optics were sometimes bad, and the whole affair showed off Clinton's political instincts at their worst. But that's it. Both legally and ethically, she did nothing wrong. And liberals should have been willing to say so.

But a lot of them weren't. Both in print and on TV, our defense of Clinton was often tepid and full of qualifications. I noticed the same thing after the Benghazi attack. Conservatives went on the attack literally within a few hours. Some liberals fought back, but an awful lot either said nothing or else mounted half-hearted defenses. Why? Were they worried about looking like hacks even though the plain truth was all they needed to defend? Were they worried that some future revelation might make them look stupid? I'm not sure. But I don't think anyone will argue when I say that this kind of attitude doesn't work well in contemporary America.

So here's a timeline of the email server affair. FAIR WARNING: It's not a complete timeline. Google has plenty of those for you. It's a timeline that highlights a few very specific things that I think even a lot of liberals never quite understood. Let's start:

March 2009: Two months after being confirmed as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton makes the fateful decision to host her unclassified email on a private server.

more
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/12/timid-liberals-flinching-hillary-clintons-email-server

[Ohioblue22]

1. Or as said in another thread

We lose because ultimately too many Democrats or progressives care more about getting their way than the well-being of the country.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028383201

[YoungDemCA]

2. The buck stops with the candidate. (nt)

[shawn703]

3. Well really, she didn't do herself any favors

She already knew she was a long time target of the right wing and that they were going to throw anything and everything they could at her. Why would anyone with an eye toward the presidency want to provide more ammunition by using a private email server which on its surface is going to look bad? This required her core supporters to defend her actions rather than allow them to simply dismiss the accusations as just more of the usual right-wing garbage. Same deal with the paid speeches and secret transcripts. She didn't stop to think that wouldn't play well with the general public? Really, I can't blame Hillary for any of that - she had staff who should have been responsible for protecting her image, which would have also included protecting her from needless self-inflicted damage.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

4. Maybe Hillary's staff were intimidated by her and were afraid to speak up... I think that could be a legitimate explanation.

[JHan]

6. We also know the Right amplifies the flaws of our candidates every election cycle.

It was our job to do exactly what they do with their candidates - our candidate was light years ahead and superior to Trump in every metric - we needed to solidly defend and vote as a block.

We had a responsibility to focus on the strengths of our candidate.

Instead, I saw a lot of hand wringing and limp-wristed endorsements in a year where her opponent was Trump. Sometimes I think we need a kick up our rears to be reminded of what our priorities should be during elections.

(None of this absolves the Clinton Campaign or the DNC or our leadership in general of their failures and hubris btw)

[Exilednight]

9. Trump was never considered a serious candidate.

Sure, he didn't have a clean background, but he didn't have decades of political pundits beating him down either.

Experience is great, but it's also harmful.

[Exilednight]

10. There's a lot of truth in that statement.

[Kotya]

11. The private email server was a disaster

Legal, ethical, doesn't matter.

It opened up her opponents to make plausible accusations that her private email server was a necessary requirement to facilitate business dealings for the Clinton Foundation away from the public eye. And when she claimed that 30,000 deleted emails were about yoga routines and wedding plans, even her supporters cringed. Even worse, once this seed of impropriety was placed in the heads of Joe Public, it became easier for her opponents to insinuate that the CFF was a slush fund making the Clintons rich and that's why everything had to be kept hush hush. For crying out loud, there was a New York Times best-seller making this very case!

Bad optics? That's an understatement. It paved the way for the whole "Crooked Hillary" meme that Trump was able to use quite effectively.

[benld74]

5. This one didn't

[uponit7771]

7. +1, conservatives would've been like "yeah... fuck you... now what?!"

[Kotya]

12. That's exactly what Trump did with his tax returns.

People not voting for Trump: "Show us your tax returns."

Trump: "Fuck off. Only stupid people pay taxes."

People voting for Trump: "Yeah, what he said."

[uponit7771]

13. +1

[baldguy]

14. If not for the server, the GOPRussian propaganda machine would have conjured up something else.

And Clinton haters of all stripes would have glommed onto whatever America's enemies came up with to hang their irrational fears on.

[Lil Missy]

15. One big nothing burger, again.

[jfern]

16. Mother Jones should quit pretending to be a liberal site

[Takket]

17. and we've let the GOP get away with it...........

As soon as the email server was no longer of use (election day), the Dems just let the GOP make the whole issue "go away". Trump said they weren't going to prosecute and that was the end of it........

I'm sorry but... as much as it makes me sick to think of Hillary being "kicked when she's down". This case being prosecuted is something that the country NEEDS to happen.

First of all, Trump is not the justice department. It shouldn't be up to him to decide when criminal charges are pressed and not pressed. The fact that he just gets to say "no prosecution" and everyone just accepts that? Wrong.

Second of all, the reason I want Dems to actually push for prosecution is we all know NOTHING IS THERE. Bring the truth out from the realm of fake news and innuendo and make her accusers actually present what they have in court. The case would never even go to a trial because they have NOTHING. The judge would dismiss for lack of evidence. I want to MAKE the FBI investigators have to present their "evidence" in court for all to see. And when they stand there fumbling for words I want the world to know that this entire thing was a scam.