Democrats Never Get Mandates
I have some reservations about Hillary Clinton's electoral strategy, but unlike many of the people quoted in this New York Times story, I'm not going to worry about whether the strategy is going to deprive her of a mandate. I know Democrats don't get to have mandates:
Liberal Democrats and progressive activists have grown wary of the state of the 2016 presidential race, chafing at Hillary Clinton’s big-tent courtship of Republican leaders they have long opposed and fearing the consequences of shaping the contest as a referendum on Donald J. Trump....
She may win by a mandate-level margin, they say. But what, exactly, would the mandate be for?
... “If she’s going to get anything done as president, she is going to have to have a mandate,” said Robert B. Reich, a secretary of labor in Bill Clinton’s administration who supported Bernie Sanders in the primary.
Reich wants Clinton to campaign on "a few big ideas," instead of running as the major-party candidate who isn't a dangerous lunatic. He thinks her current approach will prevent her from having a mandate after the election is over.