Okay, so I have been talking quite a bit about the differences between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton lately, and I would like to sum up.
Bernie Sanders is a man who speaks the truth as he sees it. He saw an unfair, unjust system as a young man, and became an activist to try and bring about change. He stood up against Jim Crow segregation, and was arrested for his efforts. That was what the young version of Bernie Sanders did, while Hillary Clinton was, as she described it, a "Goldwater girl," and her future husband, Bill Clinton, got out of the Vietnam War by convincing officials of his political value.
Sanders eventually went into politics, standing out for his consistently activist viewpoints. He was a successful politician in his native state of Vermont, and eventually became the only Senator who did not belong to either the Democrats or the Republicans, standing as an independent, and a self-described Democratic Socialist.
The Clintons, of course, were Democrats, although some considered their views basically "Republican light." Bill Clinton proved that his future in politics was as bright as the letter to those Vietnam War drafter suggested, as he went on to become the young and long-term governor of Arkansas. Eventually, he gained national attention, and in 1992, he decided to run for president, even though the incumbent was popular and looked unbeatable at the time.
Clinton beat him, running a brilliant campaign that ran like a well-oiled machine when it was at it's best, despite some less than savory facts that could easily have derailed campaigns from other prominent politicians, including sex scandals and Whitewater. His presidency was much the same, as he basically sidestepped one scandal after another, to the point that some in the media suggested that he was "the real teflon president."
Of course, I do not care about his affairs, so those scandals were mostly lost on me. I did care that what he promised as a candidate, and what he delivered as a president, were nowhere near the same thing. He proudly described some mediocre achievements as a unique and triumphant sounding, seismic change in a country that was through with it's political wintertime and was forcing the spring. In the meantime, cynics suggested that his wife, Hillary, was the "real" president. Once that presidency ended, she began pursuing her own political career.
Sanders remained in Congress, and was one of the very, very few who stood for values by standing against popular actions of the day that proved, in time, to be detrimental. He took Alan Greenspan to task for ruining the economy and hurting the middle class before well before the economic collapse of 2008. He challenged the big banks, and wanted a separation between big politics and big money. He voted against the PATRIOT Act and George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, although he was one of the lonely voices in the wilderness of big American politicians at the time to do so.
Hillary, in the meantime, had no real problem with big money for her big political ambitions, and readily helped herself to her share of the pie. She put her finger to test the political winds, and voted for the bailout to help big Wall Street banks that came to be known as "too big to fail." She voted for the PATRIOT Act and for the invasion of Iraq, although she craftily remained critical of George W. Bush and his handling of each. As a Democrat, she essentially posed as serious opposition to Bush, much like many Democrats did, although when push came to shove, she empowered his actions, more than anything. It should be noted that it was politically profitable to do so at the time, even though his poll numbers would quickly drop to historical lows, and he would become politically toxic. By that point, of course, Hillary had stepped up her own criticism of the unpopular Bush administration.
Hillary ran for president in 2008, and ran a campaign that was criticized for dirty tactics in 2008, although she ultimately lost a hard fought contest against Obama. She then served as his Secretary of State but, in 2012, decided no to stay on for his second term, which many indicated was a sign that she intended to run for president in 2016. Officially, she claimed not to have made up her mind just yet.
Bernie Sanders decided to run for president in 2016, feeling that things had grown so bad, that a different voice and face proposing very different solutions than either of the two major parties was needed. He switched from an independent to a Democrat for this presidential run, knowing that his chances as an official outsider were next to none. Still, most people were dismissive, and thought that his campaign would quickly fail.
Instead, people began standing up and taking notice. They listened to his message, and it resonated with millions. What he said made sense to a lot of people, and there was a feeling of hope, a feeling that this was a man who could and would and had stood up for average American families during an era when major politicians were, as a rule, pandering to the corporations and banks and wealthy private donors who funded the big money in these big political games, setting up a de facto system of corporate supremacy in the United States.
In the meantime, to the surprise of no one, Hillary decided to run for president again in 2016. She once again helped herself to money from the big banks and big corporations, and ran a very smooth, polished campaign reminiscent of her husband in his prime.
Sanders was anything but polished. He often seemed to be shouting during his speeches and during debates. He did not talk in lofty terms about some grandiose vision for the country, but spoke in concrete language, in real terms, suggesting very specific things that could be done to help working families. Almost all of it came down to what he described as taxing the rich and making them pay their fair share. Cynics (and who could be surprised to count the Clinton family among their ranks) suggested that this was politics and economics made from fairy dust, that these policies could not possibly work, even though they do work in almost every other industrialized nation on earth, where things like universal, affordable healthcare under a single payer system, affordable childcare, and free college are realities, rather than extravagances. They not only exist, but work better than what we what presently have in the United States.
As unpolished as he was, Sanders ran an effective campaign by simply pointing to the truth. He saw the problem with the country is clear terms: big money in politics representing moneyed interests was essentially ruining the country. He did not care about many of the main criticisms of Hillary, such as Benghazi and the emails. Instead, he blasted her for taking all of that money from special moneyed interests. And unlike the Republican efforts to hammer away at Clinton for Benghazi and the emails, the criticisms of Hillary really began to stick. People began to associate her with the big money that she armed herself with, building up her war chest for the presidential run.
Yes, Sanders proved effective in this regard, while he remained principled, running a grassroots campaign to try and win back America for working Americans. It might not have been as smooth a campaign as Bill Clinton in the nineties, and people poked fun at his gruff manner and his messy hair. But his message made sense, and people were listening.
In the meantime, the smooth, well-polished campaign of Hillary Clinton was running thin. Several times, she seemed to finally emerge as the winner, much like the expectations of her as the de facto nominee suggested. Yet, she kept running into problems, and could not seem to shake Sanders. When she seemed to have won and was comfortably ahead, she proudly proclaimed herself to be a moderate. But when the race was tight again, she dropped her moderate label and proclaimed herself, once again proudly, as "the true progressive."
But more and more people have grown tired of her overly polished approach, her politically correct answers to everything. Now, after being in serious trouble with another faltering campaign, she has recruited the help of her former president husband, as well as her daughter, and they have taken to attacking Sanders. Bill Clinton has always had a strong speaking ability, and he used these to deliver scathing attacks on Sanders, and to cast a shadow of doubt about his integrity, and even about his proposed policies. These have helped turn the tide, at least for the time being, back in favor of his wife.
Maybe Sanders can rebound, maybe he can astonish once more. However, it does look like everything is leading to a win for Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee in the end. The political establishment wants it, and Goldman Sachs clearly wants it. And once again, they likely will get it, and familiar faces will, once more, dominate American politics.
The thing about the Clintons that has always bothered me, right from the 1992 presidential campaign, was that they are an exclusively political family. It is what prevents me from taking the possibility of voting for Hillary seriously. Everything - and I do mean literally every single thing - that they say or do is with political interests in mind. It is impossible to imagine any of them in an unguarded moment, when they are not thinking about their present actions and what impact it might have on their political future. Even when they pose as relaxed, you get the clear sense that they are, indeed, posing. After all, in big American politics today, it seems to be about posing as something that you are not. And no family is better at that than the Clinton family.
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