So you ask "why it matters" that Hillary regularly has fund-raising dinners for thousands of $$$?

[Babel_17]

175. Only a few years younger than you

I remember the attitudes towards McGovern that cost him the election. He wasn't trusted, and neither was the Democratic party, by a majority of the country*.

But the biggest deciding factor was the residual loyalty for our war time President. America just wasn't ready to give up on the idea that we could salvage some kind of victory out of Viet Nam. "All those lives lost for nothing? No siree, not on my watch, I'm voting for Nixon." McGovern's grass roots primary campaign isn't what cost us the election.

Now let's look at Hubert H. Humphrey.

Humphrey was a pretty conservative Democrat in some ways, though "The Happy Warrior" was very progressive in others, same as HRC, and he lost to Nixon when Nixon was just a failed politician trying to make a comeback.

He had all the power of the administration and the party behind him but he couldn't beat the guy who had been the punchline of jokes for eight years.

Something to consider when looking at this election cycle.

*Edited to add this: The mistrust was based on how he would handle several issues, not mistrust based on his character. This was the cold war era and we were fighting in Viet Nam. That was the #1 issue for a large portion of the electorate.