Andy Bruno reviews Hillary Clinton’s new book, What Happened.
Hillary Clinton is back!
After the endless drama of 2016 and her harrowing election defeat, not many people expected to hear from her again. Like candidates before her, she was expected to crawl off quietly into the woods and let American politics move on. Instead, Hillary has surprised us all by staging a book tour less than a year after the election. She has visited Britain in recent weeks, even appearing on The Graham Norton Show. Rumours of her demise from the political scene have clearly been greatly exaggerated.
Unapologetic reflections
At the centre of Hillary’s comeback is her new book, What Happened. As you might have guessed, it is a post-mortem on the 2016 election. It runs to well over 400 pages. Much of it is devoted to a bullish defence of herself and her candidacy. It also explains in detail who is responsible for letting Trump into the White House. Russia, the media, and former FBI director James Comey top the list.
What Happened has not been well-received. Critics on both the left and the right say that Hillary is refusing to accept responsibility and is playing blame games. The title itself suggests that Hillary is mystified, rather than apologetic, about her defeat. One joke doing the rounds online points out that What Happened by Hillary Clinton has both a question and its answer on the front cover. The fact that Hillary has embarked on a sympathy tour of book signings and chat shows suggests that she would not agree.
Window into a troubled soul
In reality, Hillary’s response in What Happened is more complex, and it is fascinating from a pastoral standpoint. Reading the book makes you feel like Hillary’s therapist as she pours out her thoughts and feelings, her arguments and her anecdotes. What Happened is a window into a troubled soul struggling to come to terms with failure and rejection. As a Christian, I was struck not just by how much her attitude often resembled my own, but also how clearly her behaviour fitted the biblical picture of what sinful human hearts are like. On top of that, the gospel’s relevance to her pastoral situation is obvious. Leaving political issues aside, here are several pastoral observations about Hillary’s response.
1. Rejected
Hillary’s defeat is something she experiences as a relational rejection and a moral condemnation at the same time. She writes: ‘[A] significant number of Americans questioned my authenticity and trustworthiness. A lot of people said they just didn’t like me. I write that matter-of-factly, but believe me, it’s devastating’ (p.120). If you’ve ever failed at a job interview or an audition, you will know what she means. It is hard when someone, let alone an electorate, basically says ‘you’re not good enough and we don’t like you’. So Hillary sees the election as a moral and social rejection of herself.
2. Incensed
Hillary’s response to this has been anger. Hillary describes herself shouting at the TV, snapping at staff, fantasising about sticking pins in voodoo dolls of journalists, and suchlike. In her own words: ‘I keep going. I also stew and ruminate. I run through the tape over and over, identifying every mistake – especially those made by me. When I feel wronged, I get mad, and then I think about how to fight back’ (p.20). Clearly, being found wanting has touched a nerve in Hillary, producing an emotional response of resistance towards that verdict. She cannot stand the voters’ rejection, and that is driving her into obsession about what happened, and retaliation against those she holds responsible. There are echoes of the sullenness of Cain in her attitude.
3. Wronged
Building on the previous quotation, this anger arises because she feels wronged. The bottom line is that Hillary thinks the voters’ judgment of her was unfair, and therefore she offers qualified apologies. It is inaccurate to say that Hillary takes no responsibility in What Happened, because she owns up to mistakes several times (p.72, p.391). However, she tends to hedge these confessions with comments about how others share the blame. For example: ‘I’ve tried to learn from my own mistakes. There are plenty, as you’ll see in this book, and they are mine and mine alone. But that’s not the end of the story’ (p.xii) – cue a pivot to the Russians and Comey. The language of Romans 2.15 seems spot-on in its description of ‘conflicting thoughts’ in which we both accuse and defend ourselves. Hillary seems a classic case of a person conflicted between confessing her failures and relativising them by blaming others. Both things are happening at once. Not everyone who says sorry is truly accepting responsibility.
4. Conceited
The reason for these half-apologies is that Hillary sees herself as righteous. To use an Americanism, Hillary ‘doubles down’ on her positions and actions throughout the book. She almost entirely exonerates herself from her major scandals (her Goldman Sachs speech and her emails). She says that criticisms of her character have been ‘disproved’ (p.399). There is no acknowledgement of dishonesty. Like many in the social justice camp, she basically sees herself as a righteous champion of a righteous cause, more sinned against than sinner.
5. Defensive
Hillary also blames others. Comey, Putin’s Russia, and the media are her chief targets for blame, alongside voter suppression laws and third party candidates. This tendency to point the finger is a classic symptom of self-righteousness, since it’s a lot easier to defend yourself if you can point to someone worse. Indeed, on some occasions she relentlessly slams Trump and his base. She calls him ‘one big tumor [sic] of the American soul,’ and even half-defends her ‘basket of deplorables’ condemnation of his supporters (p.435). Whether we think she has a point or not, there is more than a little of the Pharisee looking down at the tax collector about this. She is relying on the comparative wrongs of others to cast herself in a flattering light. But of course Trump’s faults do not automatically mean she is innocent.
6. Still longing
Finally, Hillary is desperate for approval. She spends whole chapters of What Happened talking about her family, or a day in the life of Hillary, or how the values of love and kindness matter in America (no joke!). These chapters really have nothing to do with what happened. They are simply attempts at self-humanisation. Hillary is trying to show that she is likeable. She stresses how much she cares in her chapters on gun crime, coal miners, and pollution. Like many of us, Hillary is seeking to deal with her rejection by charming people, to propitiate our disapproval and win our love.
Good news for Hillary
So the gospel has a huge relevance for someone like Hillary. She needs to be freed from her hunger to acquit herself and win approval. That freedom only comes from a God who will accept her as righteous apart from her record, and who will approve of her more intensely than millions of cheering voters, if she is united to his beloved Son. But with this God, there is no room for self-righteousness, blame games and fudged apologies. We enter his kingdom on our knees, crying ‘God have mercy on me, a sinner’ (Luke 18.13). And justified sinners have no need to write long books defending themselves.
Andy Bruno is assistant pastor at Alverstoke Evangelical Church, Gosport.
