As the election season is shifting gears into the general, with the two presumptive nominees beginning to attack each other, there is still a glaring lack of policy or anything resembling it. Last week was plagued with attack ads from both candidates in regard to each other’s history with women. It reminds me of the Mark Twain quote, “Never argue with a fool, onlookers won’t be able to tell the difference.” One of the candidates is a master of making politicians look like fools.
Secretary Hillary Clinton must avoid the “Trump trap,” which is becoming too involved in the minor, or nonissue, attacks against her character, or else the election will turn into an insult festival with nothing actually being discussed. The “Trump trap” has brought down many of Donald Trump’s opponents who tried fighting fire with fire this primary season. Marco Rubio is probably the best example of this. Rubio attempted to give Trump a dose of his own medicine with remarks attacking him personally, but in the end, it got us a debate where Trump talked about how endowed his “hands” were, and it led to the close of Rubio’s campaign.
Clinton has to also avoid dismissing Trump’s rhetoric altogether. Although Trump says he is a counter puncher, there is no doubt he has thrown punches first and will continue to do so in the general election. Clinton will have to respond to these punches, but not in a way that would fall into the previously mentioned Trump trap.
I think the debates during the general election will be a place for Clinton to mount an offensive against Trump’s campaign strategy of talking about everything but the issues. During the more complex portions of the Republican debates, Trump was uncharacteristically silent, especially on foreign policy issues. This is a point Clinton should exploit; Trump may be a good talker, but there is no way for him to fudge foreign policy knowledge he simply does not have.
The election has a long way to go, but it will be down to the wire, whoever the winner may be. Both candidates have a lot of ground to recover with the American public in an election that cares deeply about perceptions rather than actual substance. In this environment, Clinton needs a lot of help with her unfavorability ratings: the highest only after Trump. However, this is barely a problem for Trump, as it appears his unfavorable rating is decreasing in relation with his uniting a substantial portion of the GOP behind him in some capacity.
Clinton has experience with campaigning and governing more than Trump does, but she is still facing what might be the toughest election of her political career. She is facing someone who is more distant than anyone else in political history and does not have to abide by the “normal” rules of politics. This definitely gives Trump more room to navigate and attack, which is not available to the former secretary of state.
There is still a lot of time left, and things will begin to even out when Clinton becomes the official Democratic nominee and receives some assistance from prominent and popular people in the Democratic Party, such as President Barack Obama and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I presume, on the campaign trail.
Kevin Foster is a UF political science senior. His column appears on Tuesdays.
