Hillary is a Toyota Prius
There is an important difference between being popular and being charismatic. People often use the terms synonymously, but that doesn’t mean they are the same. Toyota Priuses are popular, but they aren’t charismatic (By the way if you’re interested in the pluralisation of Prius, there is an interesting explanation here). A Prius is safe, affordable, efficient, its not too small and not too big, it comes from a reliable brand, overall its a logical choice for consumers when it comes to cars. On the other hand, the Jaguar E-Type is old, expensive , without power steering or airbags, not particularly practical for every day driving, and now belongs to Indian tractor giant Tata. The Jaguar E-Type is not necessarily popular, but you can’t deny it has charisma.
Charisma is like humour. You can’t really learn to be funny, you either are or you aren’t. There is no real reason why some people are so un-funny or so un-charismatic, life is unfair. But you can learn to become more popular, you can change annoying habits or learn better small talk, but no matter how much Dale Carnegie you read, you’ll never be able to make yourself Barack Obama. Herein lied the problem for Hillary Clinton.
Hillary Clinton is a Toyota Prius. She is smart, hard working, competent, qualified, pragmatic, well disciplined and balanced in her world view. Prius. Donald Trump, as much as it makes me sick to say, is a Jaguar, he has a natural charisma. Now lets get a few things straight, Donald Trump is a bumbling fool, a con-artist, a fraud, a cheat, a liar, a racist, a misogynist, a luddite, a philistine and a self-confessed sexual predator. He is Jabba the Hutt with a property portfolio and charisma. The man is a slow motion car crash, every press confrence, every tweet, every snowballing fuck-up is as horrific as the last, but you can’t help but watch. That is the essence of charisma.
Personally, I understand why Hillary Clinton is so unlikeable. I find her dishonest and calculating, to me she represents the archetypal empty-pantsuit politician, pre-fab just add values. A political windsock going with the wind. I belong to the P.J. O’Rourke school of Clinton endorsement; “You’re a limousine liberal, Hillary, your heart’s an empty hole, your brain is full of Sidney Blumenthal, you have boiled kale in your soul, Hillary, I endorse you with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole!”.
My personal disdain for Clintonism and Hillary personally is really beside the point. The point is Hillary Clinton was not, and will not ever be likeable, and sadly that matters. It shouldn’t matter, but it does. Rational voters would choose HRC over DJT 99 times out of 100, but the myth of the rational voter has long been debunked. Charisma is not necessarily a good thing, Hitler was charismatic, as was Huey Long. Charismatic politicians have long gone hand in hand with extremism and populism, but for all its faults charisma does help you get elected. Predictably, attempts to make Hillary more charismatic only backfired, only making her look more of soulless product of the New-Democratic Machine. We all remember this infamous tweet;
Now on the other hand you can’t deny Clinton was popular, she won the popular vote by almost 3 millions votes, but in the Electoral College, Donald Trump’s charisma helped to get him over the line. Now I’m not saying a lack of charisma is the sole reason Clinton lost, but it is important. If the Democrats are going to win in 2020 they are going to need someone who is both popular and charismatic. They are going to need a better hybrid than a Prius.
