Hillary Clinton: A Deeply Compromised Candidate
Hillary and Henry
W.J. Astore
Hillary Clinton is a deeply compromised candidate. She and her husband have made over $125 million in paid speeches since 2001, including $30 million in 16 months. There's nothing wrong with making lots of money: this is America, after all. But there's something wrong about accepting big checks from powerful banks and investment houses and then positioning yourself as the champion of "everyday people" in your run for the presidency.
Along with her close alliance with Wall Street, Hillary is essentially a neo-conservative on foreign policy who admires the Real Politik of men like Henry Kissinger. She promises more interventionism overseas and doubtless more wars. She is especially close to Israel and advertises herself as a loyal ally to Benjamin Netanyahu.
The person she most closely resembles in recent U.S. politics is Richard Nixon. Like Nixon, she's aggressive in foreign policy (recall her infamous quip about the fall of Qaddafi in Libya: "We came, we saw, he died"). Like Nixon, she is secretive and economical with the truth, despite her truth-telling vows. Like Nixon, she is a complex person, not without talent, but a person who often doesn't appear fully comfortable, especially when pressed about her record. Like Nixon, she leaves very little to chance; there's calculation to nearly everything she does.
A Hillary Clinton administration promises to be even less transparent than Obama's. It would be more in service to the powers that be (big money donors such as the health care industry will come calling for their payback, and they'll get it). Despite protestations of being "progressive," a Clinton administration promises to be regressive in terms of peace, social progress, and fairness for the working classes.
Despite this, her path to the presidency seems remarkably clear. Bernie Sanders, an honest man of conviction, lacks establishment support. Hillary's Republican opponent of the moment, Donald Trump, is an opportunistic business tycoon who apparently says whatever pops into his head. Trump may be the one candidate with more negative baggage than Hillary.
A Hillary/Trump matchup this fall promises lots of drama, but it's a lose/lose scenario for anyone looking for real progressive change.