The Clinton Machine: Hillary's Endorsements are Based on Influence Peddling, Not Her Record
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Hillary’s Record on Civil Rights
As a teenager, Hillary Clinton cut her teeth campaigning for Barry Goldwater, one of the originators of the GOP’s infamous Southern Strategy who many believed was a segregationist. Though our teenage convictions aren’t necessarily determinative of who we become, this grounding offers insight into why Hillary Clinton rose to national prominence when she did.
The 1990’s were a time of GOP narrative dominance. Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party had successfully realigned the south, and stripped the Democratic Party of its strongest voting base by way of the Southern Strategy — using coded language as racial dog whistles to appeal to white voters. Where the Civil Rights Movement (and subsequent 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act) had put the south under the microscope for the world to see, the southern realignment shifted the focus back on the black community. Crime and welfare abuse by “welfare queens” became racial dog whistles, conjuring up images of feckless and criminal black people in the minds of America’s conservative white voters. Race baiting was used to sell Milton Friedman-style, laissez-faire economic policies (or Reaganomics).
A new breed of Democrats, calling themselves “New Democrats,” rose up to restore balance to the political system by winning back those pesky southern whites. Instead of challenging the narrative, they practiced third way politics — embracing elements of the Republican platform in terms of economic and social policy. Unfortunately that meant embracing a platform tailored to win over the racist vote, as Republican strategist (and mentor to Karl Rove) Lee Atwater explained in an interview in 1981:
The New Democrats retreated from the legacy of civil rights, and distanced themselves from Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition, the New Deal, and the Great Society. The leaders of this insurgent movement were the Clintons.
“Tough On Crime”
“It’s a stark fact that the United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, yet we have almost 25 percent of the world’s total prison population. The numbers today are much higher than they were 30, 40 years ago despite the fact that crime is at historic lows.”— Hillary Clinton.
Bill Clinton campaigned on the notion that he would be “tough on crime.” Of course, this way he could tap into the Reagan legacy. This effort translated to nothing less than a complete abandonment of the black community. The infamous Sister Souljah Moment where he scorned black America for the LA riots, and specifically Sister Souljah for her reactionary remarks, captured the attitude of his administration perfectly; his was not Johnson’s Democratic Party.
More: http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/02/the-clinton-machine-hillarys-endorsements-are-base.html
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