Watch out for the Clintons…
Readers of this blog know me as a progressive, so I usually lean toward Dems. Unlike some, though, I cherry pick ideas because reasoned conservatism has a place in American society (Tea Party candidates and Donald Trump are excluded from any discussion about reasoned conservatism, of course). Moreover, I can’t stand any politician who has the arrogance to think that her/his electability is her/his right. Readers of the blog also know I find political dynasties despicable. With Jeb! out of the way, we’re halfway there, but we still have to get rid of the Clintons. Hillary is the nation’s shingles to Bill as chicken pox. Remember Bernie’s gracious apology on the debate stage? That was doubly gracious considering that Debbie Wasserman Schultz as DNC chairperson had gone overboard to punish the Sanders campaign. Hillary agreed to open up her records in response to the apology but still hasn’t. The reason? First, I can only suspect that Hillary’s team did what Bernie’s did, only earlier, as Sanders said. Second, things are tighter in Iowa and Bernie is leading in New Hampshire, so the Clintons don’t want a replay of 2008.
The Clintons play dirty politics, and they have the DNC in their stable. Bernie doesn’t have a chance with their sycophant Wasserman Schultz and the DNC biasing the primary process in Hillary’s favor. The GOP doesn’t have a monopoly on sleazy politics—the Clintons have been doing that for years. Hillary already lost to one grassroots candidate—Obama came out of nowhere to stop the dynasty in 2008. She and Bill are doing everything they can to go after any new threat they see threatening the continuation of their dynasty. It’s old politics as usual for them. They’re arrogant enough to move their agenda forward, but it’s an agenda many people want nothing to do with, and those people aren’t just Republicans!
But the Sanders campaign needs more help from all progressives because it looks like the Clintons might pull it off. Big money controls the DNC as much as the RNC. Wall Street is bipartisan. Insurance companies and banks are bipartisan. Gun companies and Big Pharma are bipartisan. But they’re only bipartisan as long as they get a president and Congress that guarantee the exploitation of the poor and middle class and the continuing transfer of any wealth they might have to the one-percenters. Even Obama caved to that pressure, making a deal with insurance and drug companies to get Obamacare passed, for example.
Hillary has a lot of baggage. Not the obsequious First Lady and full of enough ambition to match hubby’s, she failed miserably in her attempts at promoting national healthcare. I wouldn’t call her an enabler like Trump, but any woman who doesn’t throw a philandering husband out is either too weak to become president or so politically motivated she can overlook his egregious behavior (those aren’t exclusive, of course). And what about Vincent Foster? Do you think he arrived in DC and became so depressed he committed suicide? That case was never resolved to my satisfaction. The Clinton administration was quick to put it behind them, and the media willingly collaborated.
And then there’s Benghazi and the email fiasco. She finally admitted her mistake about the latter, but never admitted to any wrongdoing about the former. If she had energetically pushed for more security in foreign embassies and consulates in dangerous areas, I’d feel better about Benghazi—at least I could blame the GOP for not funding additional security (for the last seven years, they didn’t fund much of anything reasonable the Obama administration asked for). Moreover, any other government employee dealing with critical correspondence and embroiled in that email snafu would have ended up in jail, but the Clintons, in their arrogance, think they’re above all that, and I guess they’re right—she’s getting a pass.
Is Bill Hillary’s secret weapon? Maybe for some. Forget Monica Lewinski—Trump’s original impression was correct: an attempted impeachment for sleazy behavior is simply political gamesmanship (Trump, now a politician, has now waffled on that statement, of course—and they called Bill a waffler!). We’ll write Monica off with Vince Foster (but not Hillary’s reaction to Monica). Bill isn’t my favorite person for many other reasons, but all of them are political. Here are two important ones. First, he let the first attack on the WTC slide. As a consequence, bin Laden and associates went on to murder and maim thousands, starting with 9/11. Bill Clinton set the war on terror back ten years. (OK, eight, if you measure between 1993 and 2001, but Bush didn’t myopically invade Iraq until 2003. Given that the Iraq War “ended” in 2011 and bin Laden was sent to his virgins only a short time later, the Clinton/Bush combo set us back eighteen years!)
Second, Bill Clinton caved to Wall Street during his administration and colluded with the GOP to remove all constraints enacted after the Great Depression that would have protected us against exactly what happened in 2008-2009. Everyone who took a financial ice bath (for example, many 401(k) contributors) should have Bill in their sights. Remember, the Clintons are friends with Wall Street and one-percenters everywhere; they’ve become one-percenters. Bernie is right—big corporations hate Sanders. But they love the Clintons. Hillary and Bill are sycophants to big money in America just like most GOP members. They have no real love for the downtrodden and struggling masses of America—they only go through the motions because that gets them votes. That’s what most politicians do, except for Sanders, whose entire campaign is built on grassroots support.
Bernie is right. With the Clintons in the White House and a continuing GOP Congress, we will have to endure business as usual in the nation’s capital. The poor and middle class won’t have a chance. Hillary might throw a few chicken bones to make people forget about Bill’s chicken-pox policies and her shingles-shenanigans, but she’ll basically be saying, “Let them eat cake.” I don’t buy her argument that she’s the most electable—recent polls show only Bernie beating the GOP. I don’t buy her argument we need a woman in the White House either; that appeal clashes with her decision to keep Bill the philanderer around (if this alienates all her female fans, I apologize, but…what are you thinking, ladies!). And I don’t see why progressives have to settle for a proven loser. I want a true progressive in the White House, not the Clintons. Bernie, I’m with you!
And so it goes….
