Does Hillary need to pivot *left* after the primaries?

[Marr]

The conventional wisdom is that candidates pivot to the center after primaries, but I wonder in this case if the opposite is true. It seems highly unlikely that Hillary will be able to recruit many Republican votes, and she's had the conservative Democrat vote locked up solid since before she even announced.

Sanders has demonstrated that there's a huge swath of voters to recruit from her political left, and all the 'Bernie or Bust' talk makes me think she can't take their votes for granted.

So would Hillary Clinton be better off bucking tradition and pivoting left after the primaries?

[arcane1]

1. The problem with constantly pivoting is that eventually people see right through it.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much

I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better. Plutarch A.D. 100

[arcane1]

9. Exactly. If we're wondering which specific way she'll fool people, we have already lost.

[floriduck]

2. I think she tends to be a creature of habit(no pun intended). I expect her to move to center-right

immediately after Bernie concedes. She represents those who think more conservative in nature. Things like TPP, XL Keystone pipeline, lowering the minimum wage back to 10-12 dollars an hour are representative of her big donors. None of these shifts will surprise me.

[Silver_Witch]

4. Agree! I expect a shift to center and right!

[TwilightZone]

3. "It seems highly unlikely that Hillary will be able to recruit many Republican votes"

I'm not sure why that would be unlikely at all. There's a significant anti-Trump contingent, many of whom are already talking about voting for her over Trump. Susan Collins, for one. If a sitting GOP Senator is openly contemplating it, then it would seem likely that there will be plenty of crossover votes.

"Bernie or Bust" is a small fraction of the total. 70% of his supporters are already on board. That number will increase when he concedes and endorses Clinton, and it'll go up further as the rest have some time to contemplate the idea of President Donald Trump. Some of the holdouts wouldn't have voted for her, regardless of what she does between now and November.

[Marr]

6. You could be right.

I don't know how the Republican vote will break down with Trump, but I never thought he'd last through half the primary, either.

It seems to me like Hillary is absolutely despised on the right, generally-- and not in a policy-based, logical way. She's one of their perennial villains. Not to their elite, of course, but they're increasingly insignificant. When I hear Republicans talk about Hillary, it's like they're talking about Hitler, seriously. It's an unhinged, irrational hatred. I think the vast majority of Republicans would vote for Satan himself if he was running against Hillary.

[arely staircase]

11. If allI knew about her is what Rush Limbaugh says I would hate her too. nt

[TwilightZone]

12. Eh, I don't think the publicly-visible ones represent the average voter, even on the right.

There are a lot of reasonable people out there that vote and don't make a big deal out of it. I think there are a lot of right-leaning and moderate independents and a lot of moderate Republicans who simply won't vote for Trump, because they believe, like the rest of us, that he's abhorrent. They'll either stay home or vote for Hillary.

As for shifting, there's little reason for Hillary to do so. She won the nomination pretty convincingly and then essentially kicked off her general election campaign at Planned Parenthood. That's a pretty direct shot at the GOP and a likely sign of how she plans to proceed.

[George Eliot]

5. pivoting...pivoting...pivoting. I want an authentic candidate who will speak her truth.

Is that asking for too much?

[randome]

7. Yes, it is. That's not how politics works.

Part of the problem, imo, is that we have too many representatives, all of them jockeying for position.

[arely staircase]

10. no pivot either direction

she has a great platform. stay the course.

[Lucinda]

15. Exactly.

[HumanityExperiment]

13. republican light

HRC was pulled left during this primary by Bernie, held there throughout... her history is and always will be republican light in policy

she's angling back to right, just listen to her recent speeches.... using verbiage of a war hawk as one example

[Ash_F]

14. 63% of Americans believe minimum wage should be $15 by 2020

[Nye Bevan]

16. If anything she will pivot rightward, given that Trump is the Republican candidate.

There are huge swathes of moderate Republican voters who can't stand Trump and whose votes are there for the taking. I think Hillary using the phrase "Islamic extremism", taking this issue away from Trump, presages her strategy on this front.

[bigwillq]

17. I want Hillary to be Hillary

Whatever that may be. I just wish she would figure it out.

I really don't know what she believes in; it seems to change daily.