Badass in black
by Tom Sullivan
Photo by Diana Walker for TIME, 2011.
The New Republic’s Rebecca Nelson points out that working-class millennials show up to vote at about half the rate of college-educated peers. This is an opportunity for Hillary Clinton, she writes. Or perhaps a missed one. Because, Nelson points out, Clinton tends to use the word millennials interchangeably with college students. Non-college-educated millennials are not the low-hanging fruit to be found concentrated on college campuses. Nelson takes a stab at how Clinton might inspire them to turn out. But:
There is one part of Obama’s playbook, however, that Clinton should not try to emulate. It’s inherently harder to make Clinton cool, thanks to her stodgy political persona and her 25 years in the spotlight. But her distinctly uncool nature could actually help her connect with non-college millennials more effectively than Obama did. They’re not looking for a pop-culture icon; they want someone who hears their concerns and gets the job done for them.
Political Animal’s Martin Longman thinks some of Nelson’s prescriptions for attracting these millennials are a little weak. Plus, referencing the 2012 Texts from Hillary meme, Longman writes:
She didn’t seem to reflect a “distinctly uncool … stodgy political persona” to me. Maybe it was a little strained but it was funny and it kind of fit. I don’t see why she should attempt to make a virtue out of being boring nor why she should avoid the kind of slick marketing that could humanize her for young people. Of course, it has to work. It can’t be ridiculous.
No, it would have to be authentic. From Politico in June:
“She doesn’t need to be cool. She just needs to be who she is,” said Sarah Audelo, the Clinton campaign’s youth vote director. “That’s what young people are interested in. Young people want authenticity.”
In his post, Longman uses the photo at the top of Clinton in dark glasses texting on a military plane that helped spark meme.
It is just coincidence that I used a song by Johnny Cash yesterday to describe what Hillary Clinton did to the Donald Trump campaign in Reno, Nevada. But “Folsom Prison Blues” wasn’t the only inspiration. The Man in Black was on my mind for another reason. That Clinton texting photo had come up in conversation earlier in the week. My wife remarked in passing that Clinton looks pretty “badass in black.”
Maybe she should work that.