Clinton Deja Vu?

Flashback to the 1990’s for a moment and remember the presidency of democratic nominee Bill Clinton. His campaign and presidency was one that focused on several things. One was addressing income differences. Another would be how he assured the American people that each generation would fare better than those past financially wise. Along with both of those things, President Clinton also focused the majority of his attention to reconstructing the middle class. Now, do any of these things sound familiar with our current presidential race? Hillary Clinton is using the same tactics as former husband Bill did to gain votes to win the race. But what exactly did she use out of her husbands playbook in order to manipulate the middle class into voting for her?

How Has She Copied Bill?

In her speech in 2008, Hillary deemed the middle class, “Invisible American’s.” Very much similar to how ex-husband Bill said in his 1992 speech that he is, “fighting for the forgotten middle class.” Both nearly identical in word choice, Bill and Hillary both used this to try to bring a sense of ethos into the middle class to show that they recognize them, they appreciate their hard work, and that they think the middle class plays an integral part in America’s success. Another instance where they both shared nearly identical thoughts occurred in 1992 when Bill said he was, “tired of the dignity being stripped from blue collar work in America.” Hillary followed this up in October of 2014 when she said that, “there is nothing but dignity in hard work.” She made this claim shortly after talking about her middle class upbringing. By creating a sense of good will with her audience she is effectively gaining the attention and votes of the middle class voters. If she continues to use this rhetorical strategy, it will be nothing but beneficial to increasing her chances of winning the presidency, especially if it has already worked once before.