Four More Years & the Audacity of Fear…
There are those that
look at things the way they are, and ask, “Why?” I dream of things that
never were, and ask, “Why not?”
-Robert Kennedy, by way of George Bernard Shaw
By J.M. Hamilton
(2-23-2016)
What
does it say when the majority of Democrats & Independents -voting in
Democratic primaries - trust Senator Sanders by a 75% margin, or greater, over front runner Madame Hillary Clinton?
Again and again, in poll after poll, nobody trusts Hillary. When it comes
to honesty and truth, she even falls below the GOP field.
How
low can one go? How low indeed.
But
what’s worse? Candidate Clinton, or the voters who turn out for her,
based upon the fear that they’ll never get another opportunity to vote for
another woman candidate? Or voters who turn out for Ms. Clinton based
upon the fear that she’s more electable, despite having no fewer than three
investigations swirling around her campaign (and despite the fact, Hillary
consistently fairs worse in polling against the GOP field, than Senator
Sanders)?
Trust
me, this is the just the tip of the iceberg…. Because as anybody who lived
through the 90s as a sentient adult knows, the Clintons are perennially under
investigation. Investigations will follow her, and descend upon her, IF
she enters the White House and the nation will suffer for it. By the end
of Mr. Clinton’s second term, the nation breathed a collective sigh of relief
that the Clintons were finally leaving town, but not before they attempted
to steal everything that wasn’t nailed down at the White House.
Never
mind that Ms.
Clinton has co-opted Senator Sanders’ campaign speech, and in the same
breath has the insincerity to say that the Senator is a single issue candidate
and his proposal(s) are unachievable.
Disingenuous?
Cynical? No - Clintonian politics, per the usual.
Never
mind that Mr. and Mrs. Clinton’s have done untold damages to Black Americans by
supporting NAFTA
and criminal penalties that shipped jobs offshore and incarcerated Black
Americans in record numbers, respectively. Forget that the Clintons
gutted the safety net that so many Americans depend upon. Avert your eyes
as Hillary promises to double-down on the Obama years. President
Obama, who even now, threatens to export more U.S. jobs offshore with free
trade agreements in Asia and in Europe.
What
a wonderful way to create a base for the Democratic party: Export all the jobs
offshore, and keep citizens cowed and dependent upon the state. The
audacity of hope?
No.
Wrong. This is the audacity of fear.
Despite
having co-opted Senator Sanders’ populist drive (or what Clinton insiders call
triangulation), the Clintons say the Senator is a dreamer, and that we should
preserve the establishment that has set this nation ablaze. How perfectly
self-serving, because the Clintons define the establishment. The
crony back room deals, the indentured servitude of the 99% to the
billionaire class & Wall St., and above all the politics
of fear. Here’s a candidate who depends upon the working class and
the poor to get elected, and
then acts in ways that are completely inimical to their interests; we
expect that from GOP candidates, and perhaps that’s why Ms. Clinton is
GOP-Lite.
There’s
no irony here at all folks… one of Hillary’s primary arguments against Senator
Sanders is to play the fear card, and scream that all will be lost, if she –
and only she – is not elected to the nation’s highest office: civil rights, gay
marriage, reproductive rights, and Obamacare.
All will be lost,
if we do not elect, deus ex machina, Hillary Clinton.
Who
else plays the fear card? In fact, who plays it better than anyone
else, and has in fact abused it with Southern Whites, since Richard Nixon?
That’s right, the Republican Party, the
Party of Fear. The
Clintons are tearing a page right out of the GOP machine’s playbook.
This is nothing new, the Clinton’s have been tearing pages out of the GOP
playbook for some time: pandering to the MIC and the surveillance state; cutting the social safety net; the aforementioned support for free trade and
the criminal justice industrial complex; and pandering to Wall Street, which destroyed
the U.S. economy and played no small role in bankrupting the U.S.
Hillary, on one level is correct. We should be afraid, very
afraid… of her, and her candidacy. If she is nominated, all her populist
speeches will likely end within a matter of hours, and she will pivot and turn
hard right to take on whatever Republican challenger she may face in the Fall….
Just
like Bill did in ’96, when he hired arch, right-wing, Senator Jesse Helms’
campaign advisor, Dick Morris.
Of course, not
everybody is afraid. The Nation’s youth aren’t afraid, who flock
to Senator Sanders in droves. Hispanics in Nevada are not afraid, who
turned out for Senator Sanders by a greater than 7% margin. And
independent voters – who absolutely love Senator Sanders – are clearly not
afraid. There’s two classes of voters, however, who are afraid, very
afraid, and are buying into Hillary’s fear campaign.
The
Elderly and Black Americans.
It
goes w/out saying that the elderly - the least educated Americans,
demographically – are clinging to their Social Security and Medicare, like
Republicans cling to their guns and Bibles. They don’t want change, and
they sure as hell don’t want a political revolution; they just want to be left
alone. As group, the elderly and older baby-boomers (aka The Me
Generation), many are huge Hillary supporters. Incremental change,
glacial change, it’s all good… just don’t screw with their AARP, Metamucil, or
government benefits. Given the Clinton’s track record in the 90s of
gutting government aid for the poorest of Americans, seniors are the ones that
should be the most worried about the entitlements that make up more than 50% of the Federal budget.
The Establishment and the wealthy have been trying to privatize and reduce these programs, Social Security & Medicare, for decades, and if anyone can do it, it’s the Clintons (who seemingly
can never do enough for their friends in high places – while giving those in
need the shaft). Clintonian policies from the 90s have played a highly
significant role in the wage and wealth inequality chasm, that gapes like the
Grand Canyon in this country today.
As for Black
Americans, the only other group that hasn’t turned out for Senator Sanders so
far, they have every reason to be afraid. This group has been
systematically beaten down in this country for centuries: slavery; Jim
Crow; segregation; voter repression laws; mass incarceration; inhuman experiments conducted by the Federal government; systemic bigotry and racism;
the CIA standing by, while crack cocaine was introduced into the black community in Southern California in the mid-eighties; gunned down by the local P.D., and on and on.
Black Americans, more than any other Americans, have every reason to be afraid.
Voting
for the Democratic candidate, who has a proven track record of discarding the
poor and underprivileged, while helping
out their rich buddies, a la the Clintons, seemingly, is not the way to
go.
And
that’s what it means to be beaten down so hard that you no longer dare to
dream, dare to hope. One puts their blinders on, forgets about their dreams and desires, and lives a pain filled existence.
Even when one of your own enters the White House, and he’s still catering to the wealthy elite, by shipping America’s jobs offshore (so that Obama’s wealthy supporters can grow richer still). Instead, presumably, one buys into
Hillary’s fear, clings to food stamps, and lives hand to mouth, with low
expectations and fewer dreams.
The
audacity of fear, served up against Black Americans daily; and cynically
manipulated by the Clintons, who have again and again acted against the
interests of Black citizens.
America can’t afford four more years of President Obama’s Administration that Hillary
Clinton is offering up. The nation is bankrupt. The Wall Street and
the financial elite bailed out on the backs of the middle class and the poor,
and the elite scream for austerity for everyone else. A
Deep State, the MIC and a Surveillance State, that is completely out of
control. A government that has been privatized, and controlled
by an Oligarchy. Endless foreign wars… a GOP Congress that is owned and
obstructs all forms of progress, as a matter of policy, and is addicted to
trickle-down economics. A
Wall Street cartel, indeed a nation of cartels, which squeezes the poor and
the middle class with monopolistic
pricing power. And a Federal Reserve that prints money to keep the
nation afloat, and finance tax cuts for the wealthy.
To be fair,
President Obama didn’t start these trends, but he hasn’t done enough to fight this
descent into hell, either.
This
nation has been eviscerated by the likes of the Clintons, their elite
supporters, and the politics of fear. President Obama, while
sometimes almost imperceptibly skewing liberal, has all too often played a role
in extending Clintonian/GOP
policies.
Senator
Sanders offers more than hope, he offers real change. His odds of getting
his proposals through Congress are no greater, and certainly no less, than
Hillary’s; but at least we know he will fight for the American people, in a
honest and truthful manner. (The Clintons will throw in w/ the GOP, and
call it progress. It says volumes when plutocrat, Charles Koch, begins to ape Senator Sanders'
campaign message.)
However,
in order to achieve the White House, and for the good of the nation, the
Senator is going to have to stop being a gentlemen and start being a
politician.
No
more soft shoe, Senator.
It’s time to tap dance on Hillary and the Democratic Establishment, Bronx
style.
Copyright JM Hamilton
Publishing 2016
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