You’d think Hillary Clinton’s fans in the news and entertainment industries would’ve moved on from the 2016 election by now. But you’d be wrong.
Many reporters, singers, anchors, actors, editors, and funnymen are still in mourning over the former secretary of state’s second botched attempt at capturing the White House. Some are in greater pain than others, but even those who are trying to hide their grief show obvious signs they’re not quite ready to concede she lost to a former reality TV host.
Late-night comedian Stephen Colbert, for example, embodied this sort of gloomy wistfulness this week when he interviewed Clinton on his show.
“She was first a first lady, then a senator, then secretary of state, and I would have bet anything the next President of the United States,” Colbert said during his introduction. Toward the end of the extra glossy interview, Colbert revealed he had a very different plan for his show on election night.
“One of the things I regret the least about that night, but I do regret, is that we had a whole packet of unused Clinton victory jokes. This was a whole other script we wrote in case you won. Put that in a secure vault. No one will ever see it,” he said, to some laughs.
This sort of sad reminiscing about 2016 and what could have been is hardly a first for Colbert. Just a few days before his interview with Clinton, Colbert also hosted the Emmys, which he used to criticize the electoral college.
“Unlike the presidency, Emmys go to the winner of the popular vote!” he said to an extremely receptive audience.
The problem with that joke, aside from the fact that it reveals he still hasn’t gotten over the election, is that it’s not correct. Emmys are awarded according to votes by academy members, not the general public. A lot like the presidency, actually.
Then there’s the New Yorker, whose editors revealed this month that they had special cover artwork made up last year to run following what they were certain would be a Clinton victory.
This would have been our post-election cover if Hillary Clinton had won the Presidency. On Election Night, she expected to give a victory speech. Instead, the next morning, before hundreds of shocked, weeping staers, she made her way through a hastily drafted message of endurance and gratitude. As she and Bill Clinton were driven away in their car, she was hollowed out, unable to speak, struggling to breathe: At every step I felt that I had let everyone down. Because I had. Click the link in our bio to read David Remnick’s interview with the former Presidential candidate. Cover by @malikafavre.A post shared by The New Yorker (@newyorkermag) on Sep 13, 2017 at 1:19pm PDT
“On Election Night, she expected to give a victory speech. Instead, the next morning, before hundreds of shocked, weeping staffers, she made her way through a hastily drafted message of endurance and gratitude,” the New Yorker said on its Instagram account.
“As she and Bill Clinton were driven away in their car, she was hollowed out, unable to speak, struggling to breathe: ‘At every step I felt that I had let everyone down. Because I had,'” it added.
Come on, guys. You’re bringing me down.
And let’s not forget this Sept. 12 Marie Claire op-ed titled Hillary Clinton Is More of a President Right Now Than Donald Trump Will Ever Be.
“[W]hile critics, many of them misogynists, bash Clinton for daring to show her face after losing the election — suggesting instead that she retire from public life forever — she is leading by example and acting a whole hell of a lot more presidential than the man who currently sits in the Oval Office,” the author wrote.
Man alive.
The author added, “Sadly, though, while Clinton can influence policy makers and comfort the American people, she doesn’t have the same governmental powers that our racist-in-chief currently has. So while we consider just how un-president-like our president is, let’s not give up easily, no matter how much opponents may want us to. Like Clinton, we’re not going anywhere.”
Lastly, there’s whatever the hell this is from the Huffington Post:
What difference would Hillary Clinton as president have made? Just FRONT page images of Hillary Clinton smiling, Hillary Clinton showing up with empathy, compassion and gestures of alliance with ordinary people and people of power would have made a difference.
In a sense, a President Hillary would have been our Princess Diana: a woman of power, turning the power of compassion and focus of the media on things that matter most to us humans.
Hillary Clinton as president of the once great America would have rolled up her sleeves, put on wading boots, and waded into the middle of the roiled waters of climate change. Her very public actions would have given us the courage we needed to step into those waters too.
My goodness.
For the record, the above are just a few recent examples. There is so, so much more where this sort of thing comes from:
Post-election agony makes sense in the weeks immediately following a painful and totally unexpected defeat. But it has been almost a year now. Come on, folks. It’s about time to move on. It’s time to plot your return. Something. Anything!
