Question: Why are we moving right as a party?
We had eight years of a good presidency by the guy that ran to Hillary Clinton’s left on just about everything but healthcare (although Hillary has quickly renounced every remaining vestige of that stance from eight years ago).
If I wanted a neoliberal (as evidenced by support of TPP) corporate-friendly (as evidenced by intimate ties with Wall Street in terms of both campaign donations and speaking fees; I’ll drop this line of critique when she drops the other foot on sending people who sink our economy to prison) warhawk (as evidenced by her “mistake” in Iraq and gung-ho attitude in deposing Qaddafi and leaving Libya to burn afterward), I would have just voted for Hillary in 2008 (er, I was 17 at the time, but you know, whatever). Barack Obama is maybe 1.5 out of those three. I was kinda hoping this time around we could get someone who was just one of those things. In fact, for a brief moment this fall I was lulled into believing that Hillary Clinton could maybe only be 1.5 of those things. Oops.
Regardless — how does one justify supporting the more progressive candidate in a less progressive national climate seven years ago, but today not only supporting but full-throatedly backing the less progressive candidate in increasingly progressive climate?
Why on earth would you do that if you were interested in moving the country leftward?
I have reflected on this a bit, and I have come to the conclusion that the Democratic Party in its current iteration is composed of two groups: those who want to continue pushing the country in a progressive direction, and those who want to keep the presidency out of Republican hands at all costs. This is a philosophical difference akin to a sports franchise gunning for the championship right now and one that is trying to build a competitive dynasty for years to come.
On Election Day 2016 I will take the day off, get liquored up, call an Uber and cast the most reluctant vote for Hillary Clinton should she win the nomination. But I will not donate a cent because I only give money to candidates who will not only represent but fight for my interests (I assume Goldman Sachs is of a similar view), I will not call a soul, I will not knock on a single door, and I will not argue with anyone who says they’re voting for Trump because they think the whole system is corrupt. Right diagnosis, insufficient prescription.
Actually, “right diagnosis, insufficient prescription” is a fantastic summation of Hillary Clinton’s platform. Wages need to go up, but not too much. Wall Street needs to be reined in, but only in a manner that is totally incomprehensible to anyone without at least an econometrics background — let alone the average Joe. Healthcare needs to be improved, but only within the context of Obamacare. Oh, and no tax increases! Because that’s what’s pinning it to the working class — those goddamn taxes. Maybe if we got some services for those tax...oops. Excuse me. That’s socialist. My b.
I volunteer my time and monies for candidates that at least bother to give the impression that they will fight for at least a couple of my interests. It is what cooled me off about Obama in the runup to 2012 — at the end of the day, he just isn’t a fighter. He is a negotiator. And another economically triangulating negotiator is not what America needs right now when the opposition is Low-Calorie Fascist.
See, when the debate is between the left and the right, then we can end up with compromise in the center or — god forbid — progressive legislation as a result of strong grassroots campaigns spearheaded by millions of people. When the debate is center versus right, we end up with watered-down Republican legislation from the time of long long ago when the party wasn’t completely insane. Every time the Affordable Care Act gets trumpeted as a progressive accomplishment I throw up in my mouth. Why? Because we took the ONE progressive element off the table (public option) before debate even began because of weak-kneed corporatist big-D democrats like Joe Lieberman and whatever spineless fossil fuel fucksticks the Dakotas and Midwest offer us.
And you know what?
That’s okay if that’s the best we can do. But for the first time since the fucking 70s we have a chance to vote for a Democrat running on an actual platform besides “I am not a literal crook, look at that Republican sociopath”.
When the debate is left versus right, we can win the day with a more convincing argument. That’s easier to do than ever before with a candidate that engages and energizes young voters at a clip that is Obama-esque in proportion — and this time we actually have concrete shit to offer them other than “please god get GW Bush out”! Given the anti-establishment climate of this election cycle so far, I’m not sure there’s anything more convincing in today’s climate than telling the billionaires “they can’t have it all”.
But here is where Hillary Clinton takes a page out of Barack Obama’s slogan book — she is more than content to tell us proles “Yes, we can”. Now Hillary supporters may say it's unfair to peg her as a member of the billionaire class. But to me, the billionaire class by itself is rather politically feckless unless it has loyal Senators and Representatives patrolling the gates to keep the hoi polloi from crashing them. Charles and David Koch didn’t wave Citizens United into existence — they needed eager lobbyists, toadying legislators and a warped bench to foist that one on us. George W. Bush didn’t unilaterally send us to war, and neither did the Republican Party. Our own representatives were complicit in that comprehensive fleecing of (most of) the American electorate.
Sadly, Hillary Clinton is part of the elite vanguard for the billionaire class and as such will not take up that fight for the working man. There is a difference between the “working man” who is getting bloody rogered and the “middle class” who are concerned about depreciating home values and stock market indices for their retirement funds. Hillary will give lip service to the latter and a shit sandwich to the former. She has proven that with her votes, with her record, with her rhetoric and with her approach of running out the clock in the primary on every issue possible so that she can tack right of center to win 50%+1 nationwide. Actually, that may be optimistic — independents neither trust nor like her and Republicans will trade every last one of their beaten-up bibles for one last chance to keep a Clinton away from the White House.
Meanwhile the nihilist Republican jackwagons who at least have a platform to run on — however Islamophobic or racist toward immigrants it may be — will continue to cornhole us into oblivion downballot because Hillary Clinton’s platform inspires no person without a retirement account into getting up on a rainy Tuesday and voting for her. Oh, and she’s not exactly Barack Obama in terms of charisma. Look for a skintight race against Rubio in 2016, then a wave house election in 2018, then a dogfight against Rubio II/whomever in 2020 — and hey! Look! It’s census time and 60% of the governor’s houses are still Republican. Gerrymandering problem: solved! Progressive legislation and platform: ignored once again!
It needs to be reiterated that I will gag myself and vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016 in the general should that come to pass. That will be a vote that I hate myself for. I had a chance to get a candidate with a comprehensive racial justice platform and instead I get “thugs” and “superpredators”. I had a chance to get Medicare for all and instead I get increasing premiums and a tidy $5000 deductible. I had a chance for federally decriminalized cannabis but I should never have gotten my hopes up for ending the tyranny of cannabis-related arrests and unlawful seizures of property. I had a chance for free public education for my graduate aspirations and my brother as a senior in HS but instead we just made sure that Donald Trump’s kids aren’t going to college for free (in the black community we call that “crab mentality”).
And speaking of crab mentality — I will mollywop the next person who insists Hillary is better for African-Americans after she gave us the finger by sending a video and a spin doctor to the BET forum. If I want a video and a professional spinner I’ll just take a cruise around Pornhub, thank you very much. Juxtaposed against Bernie’s fiery hour-long indictment of institutionalized racism, her video seemed like the cigarette after sex. Who in the world looks forward to that cigarette more than the sex?
Not young voters; that’s for sure.
I realized this evening that I was probably being a little bit selfish about the whole BET thing. Hillary Clinton was probably busy. I’ll grant that once. But now she’s spurning the MoveOn.org debate, in which they’ll discuss trite shit:
In the MoveOn 2016 Presidential Forum, Sen. Sanders and Gov. O'Malley tackle money in politics, climate change, gun violence, racism, Social Security, the Syrian refugee crisis, and more. They're bringing much-needed attention to the real problems facing our country and the kinds of solutions that grassroots movements have been pressing for
I will actually applaud Hillary Clinton for the BET-MoveOn double-whammy here. For Hillary Clinton, grassroots solutions don’t poll well or win elections. She learned her lesson from 2008 for sure. But I pour one out for Martin O’Malley and his 3% of the vote because goddamn it, that man is trying. Anyone anywhere who will listen to Martin O’Malley defend progressive values and accomplishments #cangetit. He’ll take every forum he can get. Meanwhile Hillary Clinton either doesn’t give a shit about explaining herself further or courting more voters with platform initiatives or she thinks she has the primary locked up already. Both of those are veritable death knells for anything resembling progressive economic legislation in the next decade (unless there’s a Wall Street collapse again, in which case Hillary Clinton will tell the banks to REALLY “cut it out”).
I’ll never be Ready for Hillary in the same way that I’ll never be ready for a prostate exam. It’s something that I’ll reluctantly do out of a desire to make sure something really fucked up doesn’t manifest itself. I will stay engaged in politics, I will fight at the local level, and I will continue to labor day in and day out for depressed wages in an economy that tells me to go fuck myself daily.
Ah well. So it goes. Now I’m getting #ReadyforWork.
Footnotes:
No, this isn’t a “hit piece”; Hillary Clinton is the least progressive candidate in a three-way primary and I was under the impression that this was a progressive website. Then again, I cut my teeth lurking here in 2006. Times have changed. Just my opinion, nothing else.
No, I don’t hate Hillary Clinton, I just don’t think she values the progressive base enough. Just my opinion, nothing else.
Yes, I am a Bernie Sanders supporter, but please do not complain overmuch in the comments about a diary in which the author states “I will vote for Hillary Clinton” twice. I will carry as much water for her as my conscience will allow. I believe that’s reasonable. I am not quite Frank Underwood.