“It’s the economy, stupid.” It’s always the economy. If voters tell you that something else is the issue then you didn’t ask the question correctly. What is Hillary Clinton’s economic program? I honestly don’t know. I suspect, that as an experienced politician she has one. All I know about it right now is that she opposes single payer.
The fact that I don’t know about her economic program is the problem. The Obama administration has existed in a media blackout almost since day 1. At one point simply hearing the president speak was considered so controversial that many schools refused to let their students watch a relatively innocuous Presidential address on youth and civics designed to be aired during the school day. Democratic ideas, even middle of the road Democratic ideas, have become seen as so controversial that the media will not talk about them.
Hillary Clinton has the benefit of a campaign warchest, connections and years to prepare for the race — yet she cannot pierce the media blackout. If Democrats cannot get their economic ideas before the public then they lose, up and down the ticket. We cannot afford to nominate a candidate that will allow the media blackout to continue.
Sanders, on the other hand, has broken the media blackout. People are talking about his economic programs. Hillary Clinton is talking about his economic programs, not her own! Sanders ideas might be radical but people know that he has ideas. If this campaign season should have taught us anything, it’s that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Nominating an economic radical is better than nominating a candidate that does not have an economic platform. The unfortunate truth is that if the media refuses to report on Clinton’s economic ideas then they don’t exist for voters.
If Clinton wants to win the nomination and have any chance of carrying the general election she needs to break the media blackout. What we cannot afford to have happen is for the general election to turn into wall to wall coverage of the Trump show where the Democratic candidate is neither heard nor reported on. With Sanders, at least, any avenue of attack must focus on economics. With Hillary we are going to be hearing about the emails, her husband’s faithfulness and what have you, but not the pocketbook issues that matter to voters. Hillary might still be able to pull this off, but if she’s going to she needs to start making some headway quickly.