Judging by the stance of the leadership of the Democratic Party and much of the media, Hillary Clinton’s devastating loss in the presidential election of November 2016 was all the fault of pernicious Russian leaks, unwarranted FBI investigations and a skewed electoral college. Rarely blamed was the party’s decision to run a deeply unpopular candidate on an uninspiring platform.
At a time of widespread dissatisfaction with business-as-usual politics, the Democrats chose to field a quintessential insider. Her campaign dwelt little on policies, focusing overwhelmingly on the personality of her opponent.
That this strategy was a failure is an understatement. Losing an election to someone with as little competence or support from his own party as Donald Trump marked an extraordinary fiasco.
The refusal of the Democratic leadership to identify the real reasons for their defeat is not just a problem of history. If Democrats persevere with a politics that prioritizes well-off professionals rather than ordinary Americans, they will leave the field open to right wing populism for many years to come.
Drawing on the WikiLeaks releases of Clinton’s talks at Goldman Sachs and the e mails of her campaign chief John Podesta, as well as key passages from her public speeches, How I Lost By Hillary Clinton also includes extensive commentary by award-winning journalist Joe Lauria, and a foreword by Julian Assange, editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks.
It provides, in the words of the Democratic candidate and her close associates, a riveting, unsparing picture of the disastrous campaign that delivered America to President Trump, and a stark warning of a mistake that must not be repeated.
“Politics is like sausage being made. It is unsavory, and it always has been that way … So, you need both a public and a private position.” —Hillary Clinton speaking privately to a conference of apartment developers
“Clinton lost the 2016 election, Trump didn't win it. How I Lost by Hillary Clinton is a vital rallying call against the type of triangulating politics that may defeat Trump in 2020, but will never defeat Trumpism.” —Bhaskar Sunkara, editor, Jacobin
“Unreconstructed Hillaryites like to greet every outrage from Trump with ‘but her emails, amirite?,’ as if they didn’t matter. Joe Lauria expertly shows why they do—how they reveal what an awful candidate she was, and how we ended up with this dismal regime.” —Doug Henwood, author of My Turn: Hillary Clinton Targets the Presidency
“Joe Lauria has written an exciting eye-opener, involving the doings of perpetrators and self-serving manipulators—compelling true stories far more gripping than anything that has been fabricated” —Michael Parenti, author of Profit Pathology and Other Indecencies
“Joe Lauria’s book on the perfidy of Hillary Clinton’s public and private career exposes the arrogance of a public figure beyond comprehension and shows her disdain for the majority of the American electorate. Lauria lets Hillary make his case, letting her own words reveal the crassness of the Hillary and Bill Clinton machine.” —Mike Gravel, former U.S. Senator and 2008 Democratic presidential candidate
