Would It Be a Wonderful Life?

Think we'd be better off if Hillary had won? Think again.

'History made': Clinton claims 2016 Democratic nomination | Source: Politico/AFP/Getty

I’ve watched It’s a Wonderful Life every Christmas season for as far back as I can remember. I’ve seen it so many times I can almost recite every line. I’ll probably watch it again sometime over the next couple of weeks. What I didn’t realize until recently was the film’s inauspicious beginnings:

Initial tickets sales were disappointing, and reviews mixed. Though it [It’s a Wonderful Life] received five Academy Award nominations, it did not win any Oscars. The film did not even come close to breaking even. Years later, the movie lapsed into the public domain, which allowed it to be broadcast without royalty fees.

The basis for director Frank Capra’s 1946 masterpiece is The Greatest Gift, a self-published short story by Civil War historian Philip Van Doren Stern, loosely based on Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. But it wasn’t until television audiences rediscovered the film that the holiday classic made a stunning turnaround, becoming one of the most beloved holiday movies of all time:

It’s a Wonderful Life is now considered one of the greatest films of all time. It is No. 1 on the American Film Institute’s list of most inspirational movies. In 1990, the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry.

The film stars Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up on his dreams, remaining home to help the fictional hamlet of Bedford Falls. When a series of unfortunate events push Bailey to the brink of suicide — and wishing he’d never been born — his guardian angel intervenes. In a pivotal scene, the angel reveals to George how dramatically different life would be in Bedford Falls had he never been born, not just for the Bailey family but for the community as well.

I intended to write a different approach to Capra’s nightmarish vision of a Bedford Falls without George Bailey. As our democracy teeters on the edge of fascism and authoritarianism, I wanted to write a “What if Trump never was elected?” story, illustrating how wonderful things would’ve been had Hillary Clinton won the presidency in 2016. But as I gamed out this theory, things in an alternate timeline weren’t as rosy as I anticipated.

To be sure, life in America is pretty dismal at the moment. Over the last few years, Republicans stacked the Supreme Court with right-wing judges more concerned with advancing Federalist Society priorities than protecting our rights. And I, like many Black Americans, have come to terms with the reality that my children may have more difficulty voting than my parents. Worse, my daughter may soon have less control over her bodily choices than her mother’s generation.

Indeed, the fundamental rights we’ve counted on for decades are so tenuous our enjoyment of them largely depends on the area of the country in which we reside. In all likelihood, we’re one or two elections from losing what little democracy we have left. But what if things went differently, and in 2016 Donald Trump lost the election, and Hillary Clinton won? Would we be in better shape as a country?

In the tradition of George Bailey’s guardian angel, my Christmas gift to you, the reader, is a look at an alternate world in which Hillary Clinton won the 2016 presidential election. Enjoy!

The White House

The election of President Hillary Rodham Clinton marks the country’s first female POTUS. The resulting wave of exuberance among suburban women gives Clinton a seventy-five percent approval rating upon entering office. Without the visceral reaction caused by Trump’s election, protests such as the Women’s March never occur.

The inauguration of President Hillary Rodham Clinton spawns a Republican investigatory frenzy the unseen since, well, the Republican Benghazi hearings. Back in reality, both Clinton and Trump were under investigation by the FBI during the 2016 presidential campaign. But Republicans were so sure Trump would lose, they planned to launch an impeachment investigation almost as soon as Clinton took the oath of office:

…Republicans are already using the “I” word. “Assuming she wins, and the investigation goes forward, and it looks like an indictment is, at that point in time, under the Constitution, the House of Representatives would engage in an impeachment trial,” Texas Rep. Michael McCaul said on Fox News. “They would go to the Senate and impeachment proceedings and removal would take place.” Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson declared that Clinton could be impeached for “high crime or misdemeanor.”

A Clinton White House would endure years of impeachment proceedings in an alternate timeline. Even if the investigations failed, many Democrats would suffer buyer’s remorse, causing Clinton’s approval ratings to drop precipitously. If she escaped removal for using a private email server, don’t forget —Benghazi! In an alternate timeline, Hillary Clinton would have the distinction of being the first POTUS under impeachment for the entirety of their first four years in office.

Source: Giphy

The House & Senate

In a Clinton presidency, the absence of Muslim bans and caged children at the Southern border negates the need for marches and protests. With no Trump presidency, there’d be no Democratic outrage.

But without majorities in the House or the Senate, and under continuing impeachment investigations, Clinton’s political agenda is dead on arrival. The Democratic base is significantly depressed going into the 2018 midterm elections, and candidates struggle to campaign without significant legislative accomplishments.

Due to low turnout, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib lose their races. “The Squad” never comes into existence. Republicans narrowly hang on to both the House and Senate in 2018.

The Supreme Court

In reality, Republicans blocked President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court for eight months, leaving the Court to function with eight justices instead of nine.

In an alternate reality, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell happily leaves the Garland vacant, blocking President Clinton’s right to fill the Supreme Court seat stolen during the previous administration. Justice Anthony Kennedy doesn’t retire as in our reality, but unfortunately, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg still passes on — weeks before the 2020 election.

Clinton nominates Georgia’s Stacey Abrams to replace Ginsberg, the first Black woman to receive this honor. But Senator McConnell blocks Clinton’s nominee once again, leaving two of the Court’s nine seats vacant—and giving Republicans a 4–3 conservative majority in the High Court.

The 2020 election

As in reality, the Covid-19 pandemic sweeps the globe in our alternate timeline. But President Clinton quickly deploys the pandemic playbook created during the previous administration — mitigating the number of deaths in the United States. Clinton’s performance pushes her approval rating above fifty percent.

Clinton’s re-election campaign is a rematch with Trump, who has pushed a “rigged election” lie since losing to Clinton in 2016. Throughout her term, Trump used his access to social media to distribute disinformation and anti-Clinton conspiracy theories to his malleable supporters. By the time Election Day arrives, four years of lies convince his base the upcoming election will be unfair unless Trump wins.

Ironically, years of fruitless investigations, legislative gridlock, and judicial obstructionism backfire on Republicans. President Clinton wins a second term, and Democrats win narrow majorities in the House and Senate.

Back to reality

As much as I hate to admit it, I’ve come to believe that even if Clinton won in 2016, we’d wind up in much the same situation. While it’s easy to blame the country’s sorry state of affairs on Donald Trump, the fact is he revealed what was under the surface all along. 

The willingness of Republicans to exploit rules and norms to our collective detriment is a big part of America’s problem. Unfortunately for us, Democrats excel at doing almost nothing to stand in their way. 

And that, at least in my view, is a constant, regardless of the timeline.