What Hillary Clinton Can Learn From Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump

As the (presumptive) Democratic nominee, she not only faces Donald Trump, she also has an extraordinary opportunity to shift our political direction. To do so, she has three bridges to cross:

She will have to tell us the story of how she became who she really is, and the values that guide her choices. Years of image management may have made this impossible, but without it, her candidacy will be seriously crippled, especially when competing against an opponent whose “self” has been at the heart of his appeal.

She will have to narrate an “us” as people who experience hurt and hope in their lives, a constituency far closer to that of Sanders—or that of Barack Obama eight years ago. When she minimizes the hope, and understates the hurt, her narrative serves only to reduce motivation, not engage it.

Finally, her story of now will have to bring alive a set of aspirations rooted in the values that animate her constituency. To do so, she must find a way to articulate an authentic response to what the country wants, needs, and expects from presidential leadership.

Fear doesn’t motivate turnout. Hope does. Anger can. It won’t be enough for her to rely on fear of Trump to motivate her constituency in the absence of an effective—and hopeful—leadership narrative of her own.

https://www.thenation.com/article/what-hillary-clinton-can-learn-from-bernie-sanders-and-donald-trump/