Reprinted from www.credomobilize.com
Hillary Clinton is too corporatist and hawkish to be the Democratic nominee for president. Oppose her nomination to prevent a continuation of the disappointing political outcomes of the past twenty years.
In 2008, after eight years of the terrifying administration George W. Bush, Americans were eager for real change. Candidate Barack Obama ran on a platform of changing business as usual in Washington, D.C. Instead, he surrounded himself with Wall Street cronies, continued the hawkish military policies of his predecessor, and promoted a health care plan tested by Mitt Romney and designed by the Heritage Foundation to promote the interests of the insurance industry. Instead of prosecuting war criminals, torturers, and Wall Street crooks, President Obama went after whistle blowers.
As President Obama recently said of himself, "My policies are so mainstream that if I had set the same policies back in the 1980s, I would be considered a moderate Republican."
The reason this is relevant is that in 2016 Democratic voters won't be so easily taken in as they were in 2008. They will demand and expect a real Democrat, not a Wall Street-loving, neoconservative Democrat.
But Hillary Clinton is likely to be even more corporatist and militarist than Barack Obama.
During the administration of her husband, she supported NAFTA and the repeal of Glass-Steagall. As Secretary of State she supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership. She has close ties to Goldman Sachs, Bob Rubin and the financial industry.
She supported the war in Iraq, and has never recanted her support for that disastrous war. As Secretary of State she strongly supported the escalation of the war in Afghanistan, despite the doubts of doves such as Vice-President Joe Biden. She supported the invasion of Libya and the bombing of Syria. Recently she compared Putin to Hitler.
In the words of Guy Saperstein, Hillary "is not simply a hawk at a time when the Democratic base (and the country) is sick of expensive and counter-productive foreign adventures, she is a superhawk, consistently trying to outflank Republicans on foreign policy issues. "
She's probably better than any candidate the Republican party is likely to nominate. But must we set the bar so low?
Furthermore, despite her 20 years in the political spotlight -- as First Lady, as U.S. Senator, and as Secretary of State -- Hillary Clinton has little to show in the way of accomplishments. Her polling shows vulnerabilities. Tea Party Republicans on the right will attack her for her ties to Wall Street and for her support for military waste and destruction.
The Democratic Party and America can do better than Hillary Clinton.
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