The Hillary Clinton Campaign's Risky Premise

PHILADELPHIA In the City of Brotherly Love, Hillary Clinton ’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, summarized her central pitch to a group of reporters as this: “She will bring us together.” 

Clinton’s promise of unity is not just directed at recalcitrant Bernie Sanders delegates and supporters. It is the organizing positive principle of her campaign and, indeed, of her whole career.

You know: It takes a village.

There is only one problem with this theme and this strategy, and the signs of that problem are everywhere.

Americans are so corrosively distrustful of leaders, institutions, political parties, candidates, Washington, government, corporations and each other that they may not even want to be brought together.  

Clinton’s argument that she has the bipartisan key to end the gridlock in Washington is viewed with suspicion, not because voters distrust her personally (though they do ), but because they have lost faith that the system can be fixed.

Leave-us-alone distrust is of course what powered the rise of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump , but there are plenty of other signs.

Rather than pitch in to ameliorate the effects of Trump’s candidacy, other Republican leaders led by two former presidents named Bush took their ball and stayed far away from Cleveland.

Here in Philadelphia, Sanders delegates and supporters roamed the streets of Center City today in a pointless but to them, satisfying show of defiance at the roll call that will make Clinton the nominee.

They are taking THEIR ball and going home, and that will require the Clinton campaign to spend money and time it cannot afford in a never-ending effort to woo the Sanders vote.

White middle-class voters have resented the federal government (even though they depend on it) for decades, but that resentment has new fuel and fire after years of stagnant wages.

They focus their rage on Washington, bankers, the media and any other centralizing influence.

They want to be left alone to live a way of life that perhaps is gone forever, but if it is, they don’t know why they can’t somehow get it back.

So far, the only public figure who seems genuinely capable of a truly unifying speech is Michelle Obama . Her powerful and gracious address  on Monday was a triumph.

But the first lady is liked  and, to the extent any public figure is, trusted. Clinton, on the other hand, is regarded by all too many with suspicion, which makes her togetherness theme a tougher sell this fall. The thought of bridging such gaps this year seems naive at best.