Bill Clinton had a huge and negative impact on the Democratic party, and the following excoriation from Ralph Nader is quite pointed and thorough. Notice how much depends on Clinton's huge ego and ambition. Is that perhaps a reflection of baby-boomer self-indulgence? And read the Hitchens article below to be reminded how ruthless the 'first black president' was to blacks in the 1992 campaign. It seems rather clear to me that Hillary as president would be very similar: she would sell America to Big Business for the sake of her ambition and pursue an aggressive and even ruthless foreign policy.
What does it say that so many Democrats, especially women, are blind to this? Much of it must be simple ignorance, as our mainstream media is deplorable. However, many of the more intelligent feminists must care more about their petty identity politics than about the mass death of innocent foreigners (read the NOW article). It is truly appalling how money has corrupted the supposed people's party, the only potential opposition to Big Business. It is equally remarkable how little outrage or even understanding there is among the general population, as the election revolves largely around petty personal sniping. Would Obama be any better? Hard to say, but he represents a glimmer of hope. Maybe. (Unfortunately, John Pilger provides a depressing reminder of how Robert Kennedy did not live up to his glowing image. Obama has often been compared to RFK.)
NADER BLASTS BILL CLINTON'S LEGACY
Email to supporters, 28 January 2008
There are changes both the Clinton Administration actively championed that further entrenched corporate power over our economy and government during the decade. He pushed through Congress the NAFTA and the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements that represented the greatest surrender in our history of local, state and national sovereignty to an autocratic, secretive system of transnational governance. This system subordinated workers, consumers and the environment to the supremacy of globalized commerce.
That was just for starters. Between 1996 and 2000, he drove legislation through Congress that concentrated more power in the hands of giant agribusiness, large telecommunications companies and the biggest jackpot — opening the doors to gigantic mergers in the financial industry. The latter so-called 'financial modernization law' sowed the permissive seeds for taking vast financial risks with other peoples' money (ie. pensioners and investors) that is now shaking the economy to recession.
The man who pulled off this demolition of regulatory experience from the lessons of the Great Depression was Clinton's Treasury Secretary, Robert Rubin, who went to work for Citigroup — the main pusher of this oligopolistic coup — just before the bill passed and made himself $40 million for a few months of consulting in that same year.
Bill Clinton's presidential resume was full of favors for the rich and powerful. Corporate welfare subsidies, handouts and giveaways flourished, including subsidizing the Big Three Auto companies for a phony research partnership while indicating there would be no new fuel efficiency regulations while he was President.
His regulatory agencies were anesthetized. The veteran watchdog for Public Citizen of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Sidney Wolfe, said that safety was the worst under Clinton in his twenty nine years of oversight.
The auto safety agency (NHTSA) abandoned its regulatory oath of office and became a consulting firm to the auto industry. Other agencies were similarly asleep — in job safety (OSHA) railroads, household product safety, antitrust, and corporate crime law enforcement.
By reappointing avid Republican Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, Mr. Clinton assured no attention would be paid to the visible precursors of what is now the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Mr. Greenspan, declined to use his regulatory authority and repeatedly showed that he almost never saw a risky financial instrument he couldn't justify.
. . .
To justify his invasion of Iraq, Bush regularly referred in 2002-2003 to Clinton's bombing of Iraq and making 'regime change' explicit U.S. policy.
But it was Clinton's insistence on UN-backed economic sanctions in contrast to just military embargos, against Iraq, during his term in office. These sanctions on civilians, a task force of leading American physicians estimated, took half a million Iraqi children's lives.
. . .
Bill Clinton is generally viewed as one smart politician, having been twice elected the President, helped by lackluster Robert Dole, having survived the Lewinsky sex scandal, lying under oath about sex, and impeachment. When is it all about himself, he is cunningly smart. But during his two-term triangulating Presidency, he wasn't smart enough to avoid losing his Party's control over Congress, or many state legislatures and Governorships.
It has always been all about him, Now he sees another admission ticket to the White House through his wife, Hillary Clinton. EIGHT MORE YEARS without a mobilized, demanding participating citizenry is just that — EIGHT MORE YEARS. It's small wonder that the editors of Fortune Magazine headlined an article last June with the title, Who Business is Betting On? Their answer, of course, was Hillary Clinton.
