HILLARY CLINTON NEEDS TO LISTEN TO HER HUSBAND 

Two contrasting approaches to the Presidential campaign were offered up by Hillary Clinton and her Husband, Bill Clinton last Friday. Here in Washington, Bill Clinton spoke for 20 minutes during his surprise afternoon visit to the local Clinton headquarters.  He used his folksy southern delivery to emphasis that Trump supporters are not bad people and deserve our respect as Americans, even as we vehemently disagree with their choice for President, a man living in a vacuum of principles.   In effect he was giving the assembled campaign workers a way to avoid political “road rage” and identity politics as they interact with prospective voters in the coming weeks leading up to the election.

While her husband was giving this inclusive message, Hillary was delivering the opposite pitch on Friday evening.  She blasted 20% of the electorate, Trump supporters all, by lumping them together into a big “basket of deplorables.” This unenviable basket labels a large percentage of those who have declared for Trump as racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic and Islamaphobic.

This difference in campaign tactics, not to mention differing philosophies on voters and leadership was astounding to me. Though a Hillary supporter, I agree with Bill Clinton that it is not only possible, but necessary, to attack Trump, without demonizing those who have expressed an interest in voting for him.

The winner of this election will face the herculean task of pulling the country back together again.  The new President must find a way to break down the vertical silos among interest groups and find horizontal agreement among all Americans.  Expressing the view that a vote for Trump makes one a bad person is not a good start in achieving this goal. 

Now that Hillary has apologized for her statement, she needs to carefully listen to her Husband’s stump speech and adopt his message as her own.

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