Summary: It requires an extraordinary blindness, willful blindness, to believe Hillary’s promises and not the expectations of her billionaire backers. Yet the enthusiasm for her among the 90% shows that we have learned nothing during the past 8 years. Stand by for her coronation and, if elected, disappointment. {1st of 2 posts today.}
“I’ve got to ask those supporters of {Obama}: How’s that hopey-changey stuff working out for you?”
— Sara Palin’s speech to the 2010 Tea Party Convention. Much of what she said was correct. “Out of the mouths of…“
True. She is, after all, running unopposed in the primaries.
Americans trusted Obama and his campaign. Now we’re going to do the same with Hillary.
Obama promised “hope and change”. He gave us more of the same. He embedded Bush Jr’s policies (and expansion of some): massive increase in government surveillance, unprecedented use of the Espionage Act to persecute whistleblowers, massive expansion of the US military interventions (e.g., 674 military activities in Africa during 2014), assassination of US citizens, post-WWII record high in military spending (despite the Iraq and Afghanistan withdrawals), only a partial rollback of Bush’s tax cuts for the rich (and so perpetuating Bush’s deficits), etc.
Obama implemented a few social reforms (the 1% don’t care about the proles mating habits). He implemented ObamaCare so to relieve the pressure on corporations like Walmart and McDonalds to provide health care to the growing legions of working poor.
Here we go again
We get bold promises from Hillary in this speech at Kirkwood Community College in Iowa City on April 14.
“There’s something wrong when CEOs make 300 times more than the typical worker. There’s something wrong when American workers keep getting more productive, as they have, and as I just saw a few minutes ago is very possible because of education and skills training, but that productivity is not matched in their paychecks. And there’s something wrong when hedge fund managers pay lower tax rates than nurses or the truckers that I saw on I-80 as I was driving here over the last two days.”
So what do her stakeholders think of this? That is, the people in the 1% who donated almost $2 billion to the Clinton’s foundation, and will donate an estimated $2.5 billion to her campaign? Listen to them, for they have the knowledge to accurately predict what Hillary will do as President. Politico asked them: “Hillary Clinton’s Wall Street backers: We get it” (a follow-up to the effusions of love from Wall Street they recorded in November). Excerpt:
It’s “just politics,” said one major Democratic donor on Wall Street, explaining that some of her Wall Street supporters doubt she would push hard for closing the carried interest loophole as president, a policy she promoted when she last ran in 2008.
… Far from creating genuine waves on Wall Street, Clinton’s comments were met with a resounding “meh.” … In the words of Democratic strategist Chris Lehane, a veteran of Bill Clinton’s White House who now advises billionaire environmentalist hedge fund manager and donor Tom Steyer, “The fact is that any Democrat running for president would talk about this. It’s as surprising as the sun rising in the East.”
You got to love people on the Left hoping for better results from Hillary than Obama, especially after repeatedly proving themselves powerless. For example, consider a particularly egregious issue: reform of the carried interest tax loophole (a gift to Wall Street giving a lower tax rate to hedge fund managers). Obama promised do so in the 2008 campaign, but made only weak attempts to do so (details here). It’s still there. The Wall Street moguls funding Hillary expect it remain on the books during the Hillary years.
Money speaks the truth
“Follow the money.”
— Advice by “Deep Throat” (FBI Assoc Director Mark Felt) to Woodward and Bernstein.
Open Secrets lists Hillary’s top donors in 2008. This lists the organizations who’s PACs, members, owners, and employees (and their immediate families) donated. Note that bankers, brokers, and lawyers dominate the list. These are not people funding social justice or any changes that hurt the 1%.
For More Information
Recommended: “Stop Hillary!” By Doug Henwood in Harper’s, November 2014 — “Vote no to a Clinton dynasty.”
If you liked this post, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. See all posts about politics in America; especially see these:
- Tom explains what it costs to run for public office.
- The sky darkens over America, as we (the little people) are made smaller than we were last week.
- Destroying campaign finance laws, another win for the 1%. Another step to a New America.
See these posts about our mad presidential campaigns:
- About campaigns for high office in America – we always expect a better result from the same process.
- Why do awesome people – like us – have such inadequate leaders? — Because we vote.
- The presidential debates are performance art. They’re Kabuki.
- A reminder that debates are fun, not politics: Reagan had Alzheimer’s in 1984 and we didn’t notice.
