288 online
 
Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 84 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing Summarizing
Exclusive to OpEd News:
General News    H1'ed 11/4/16

How Hillary's Latest Email Scandal Fuels Trump's Candidacy

By       (Page 1 of 2 pages)   6 comments, 6 series
Author 79
Senior Editor

Joan Brunwasser
Follow Me on Twitter     Message Joan Brunwasser
Become a Fan
  (89 fans)

Interview with Janine Wedel, Anthropologist, Author and University Professor

My guest today is Janine Wedel, an anthropologist, author and professor in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.

Joan Brunwasser: Welcome to OpEdNews, Janine. I'd like to discuss your recent piece: "Clinton's Latest Email Scandal And Why It Deserves Scrutiny: When the public's trust is betrayed, it only fuels a demagogue like Trump." Can you get us started, please?

Janine Wedel
Janine Wedel
(Image by JanineWedel.info)
  Details   DMCA

Janine Wedel: Thank you for your kind invitation.

Let me say at the outset that just because I think the Clinton email story deserves scrutiny does not, by any stretch of the imagination, mean I support Donald Trump. But the choice by Hillary Clinton to use a private email server is the kind of decision that engenders distrust in government, and, as I write in Unaccountable: How the Establishment Corrupted Our Finances, Freedom, and Politics and Created an Outsider Class, civic trust is reaching crisis lows. Clinton is held to a higher standard than her opponent and that may be partially because of her gender. It is likely also because she is a former top-level government official and the public expects more from an official than a reality TV star. At the root of the problem, though, is the fact that she has violated standard procedure.

It is hard for me to square that the woman who ably dispensed with her opponent in the "debates" (more show than anything else) is the same woman who would blithely be unaware of the obvious questions that might arise when choosing to use a private server as secretary of State. Breach of security is, of course. a key concern. But the violation of standard procedure is, in and of itself, a major transgression, one that is now all too common among influence elites, my area of study. Her use of a private server came as her husband was busily shaking up the standards of philanthropy, mixing commercial interests and donations from foreign governments with altruism. His foundation has long encountered serious questions, and not just in the right-wing press.

How can the public be assured that her decisions are free from conflicts of interest? The public can't be, because transparency has been rendered impossible. Officials far, far down the food chain from Hillary Clinton are expected to avoid not just the conflict, but even the appearance of a conflict; low level functionaries must list nearly everything in which their spouses might have even a tangential interest. But these days influence elites of all political stripes are routinely personalizing the bureaucracy, pushing the boundaries to their own ends.

Perhaps Hillary Clinton was just using the server for convenience, but the public can never know for sure. Both Clintons share blame for injecting distrust once again into the system. I should also mention that now the FBI director, too, seems to have violated norms by reigniting suspicion in the email case so close to an election, while providing little detail. This too undermines the integrity of the investigation. Can people now trust that James Comey is not a partisan player? How will he work with Clinton should she win the White House?

Next Page  1  |  2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

Rate It | View Ratings

Joan Brunwasser Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which since 2005 existed for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election reform. Our goal: to restore fair, accurate, transparent, secure elections where votes are cast in private and counted in public. Because the problems with electronic (computerized) voting systems include a lack of (more...)
 

Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Follow Me on Twitter     Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Other Series: View All 33 Articles in "Corruption"

Other Series: View All 33 Articles in "behavior/psychology"

Other Series: View All 30 Articles in "Hillary Clinton"

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

Interview with Dr. Margaret Flowers, Arrested Tuesday at Senate Roundtable on Health Care

Renowned Stanford Psychologist Carol Dweck on "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success"

Howard Zinn on "The People Speak," the Supreme Court and Haiti

Snopes confirms danger of Straight Ticket Voting (STV)

Fed Up With Corporate Tax Dodgers? Check Out PayUpNow.org!

Literary Agent Shares Trade Secrets With New Writers

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend