It is not easy to be a Hillary Clinton supporter. From the time Bill and Hill embarked on a campaign for the White House in 1991, they were a team, two for the price of one. This meant of course that Bill’s accomplishments were Hillary’s and the often unsavory ways these accomplishments came about were hers too. This means that the blood of Ricky Ray Rector is on her hands too.
The eight years of Bill and Hill were a whirlwind of economic growth but also the destruction of the manufacturing sector post NAFTA, adoring African-Americans but also the continuing and mass incarceration of African-Americans, the mass impoverishment of those already impoverished, and of course the ridiculous spectacle of Bill facing impeachment for lying about getting a blow job from a girl young enough to be his daughter. The impeachment was pushed by a house speaker who is also a serial child molester. On their way out the door, after eight years on a six figure annual salary, Hillary noted that the couple was "dead broke." (This must be why they stole the White House television.)
Their adventures kindled in Hillary a desire to serve her nation. No not by building houses for poor people like Jimmy Carter. Hillary wanted to be in government again. After much vacillation about whether she was a lifelong Cubs or Yankees fan, Hillary moved to suburban Westchester County and wasted no time at all running for the U.S. Senate. Ensconced in a two million dollar mansion, Hillary proceeded to be elected with 55% of the vote. She carried only fifteen of the sixty-two counties in the state. Sixteen years later, in defeating Bernie Sanders, she did worse, carrying only thirteen counties. However, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Hillary’s Achilles heel- the perception that she was using the people of New York for her own purposes- hounded her the entire time she was in the U.S. Senate. In 2006, running for a second term, The New York Times reported that “neither she nor her advisers want to do anything that might suggest that she has ambitions beyond the state, where Republicans once pilloried her as a carpetbagger intent on using the state as a stepping stone for national office.” Perception is everything in Clinton politics- truth is nothing. So, congruent with her lack of character and integrity, Clinton’s team re-assured voters about her dedication, Clinton was re-elected and promptly vacated her seat to seek the Democratic nomination for the presidency. It was, as it is now, inevitable that she’d be the Democratic nominee- until it turned out that she wasn't inevitable after all.
Once the facade of inevitability faded, Hillary- the wife of the first Black president — turned nasty and racist. She wasn’t even shy about it, noting that Barack Obama lacked the support of "hard working Americans, white Americans". Her hubby turned up in West Virginia- a state 94% white- to helpfully remind them that they weren't like Barack Obama. Depressingly, Black lawmakers like Ohio’s Stephanie Tubbs-Jones piled on. The denouement of Hillary’s 2008 campaign was stating that she was staying in the primaries in case Senator Obama was assassinated, which would have meant leaving Sasha and Malia Obama as half-orphans.
Race and the Clintons was always a complicated, touchy subject. While many have talked about Bill’s common touch and ability to woo Black Americans, there was always a hint that this was not a two way street. Bill was a nimble fellow- he was able to appeal to a wide swath of people. Yet he was never burdened by principle: As a fellow diarist here bluntly notes, Bill Clinton "killed a Black man to become president". It was a pitiable sacrifice, choosing a mentally impaired, lobotomized victim who had no idea that he was about to die. Bill’s behavior was ghoulish, interrupting his New Hampshire campaign to fly down to Arkansas and gloat in a manner not out of place at a Klan rally.
Hillary lacks Bill’s finesse and racial dexterity, and as chronicled above, has always been seen as a weather vane- an impression she has done nothing to counter as she poached Bernie’s position on the minimum wage and tried to claim it as her own, or tried new positions on the Trans-Pacific Partnership or the Keystone Pipeline.
Race and trust however remain her hurdles and she showed why during her recent foray into racist comedy and her immediate disavowal of her partner in shtick. This incident tells me everything- absolutely everything- I need to know about her. She is careless at best, racist at worst and has no loyalty, no beliefs, no allies and no moral code- and she is not shy about it. Asked at one point if she is pandering to black voters, she replied "ok, is it working?"
These are difficult things to say. I am mindful of the historic nature of Hillary Clinton’s candidacy. I am mindful of the fact that she has endured a lot of humiliation and disgrace in her decades in public life and that many were not her doing. I am mindful of the fact that somewhere in the distance lurks Donald Trump, a man who conclusively proves that being rich and white can get you anywhere even when your daddy is rioting with his Klan buddies. However, this is no excuse for her myriad failures, including moral failures [and I include Bill in this since I doubt he will simply fade into the woodwork if allowed to return to the White House.] Some of her supporters try to provide succor by saying that liberals can force Hillary to be liberal, as if the prospect of spending four years of subjecting her to a collective mistrustful glare, ready to pounce at the first sign of being sold out, is supposed to be appealing: It is not.
As of this writing, Bernie Sanders won 8 of the last 10 contests. There are two exceptions: Arizona, which is presently under investigation by the Justice Department and New York which is also under investigation for many reasons, including the fact that in Brooklyn alone, 126,000 Democrats were removed from election rolls and couldn't vote. While neither investigation involves Hillary directly, her campaign has provided plenty of proof for those who see her as disinterested in fair elections- the where is waldo like serial appearances of Bill Clinton in polling places where he shouldn't be among them.
Voting rights are a crucial issue and Hillary has a plan. She wants 3 things: Automatic voter registration, expanded early voting and the restoration of the voting rights act. How’s this project coming along in the Democratic primary? Well, Arizona and New York are both under investigation for, among other things, claims that voter registrations were not honored and registered democrats couldn't vote. As mentioned in the prior paragraph, Arizona and New York are also the only states out of the last 10 where Sanders lost. I have this notion that how a party treats their voters has predictive value when it comes to how that party’s nominee will treat voting rights.
For many years, voting rights was a key Democratic party issue. The Republicans are honest about their aims, noting that they don't want to expand D.C. voting rights because they don't want any more Democrats. And the Democrats themselves? Well, they don’t want too many troublesome voters either. When pressed on the loss of 126,000 registered Brooklyn democrats, Hillary supporters reached for their inner Bull Connor and declared that they are "shedding no tears for people who decided like a month ago that they want to have a say in the Democratic primary process."
This sentiment did not go unnoticed but it had plenty of company including this gem: "learn the rules...southern blacks learned that decades ago. You have stop complaining and learn how the system works." Defending voter suppression by telling people to suck it up because that’s what people had to do during Jim Crow? Yes please. This dialogue and the incidents preceding it expose the moral vacuum at the heart of the Hillary Clinton candidacy. She is not a Democrat or a Republican- she is a Clintoncrat. Her goal is the accumulation of wealth and power. Along the way she will say what she needs to get what she wants. It’s just being realistic kids. Grow up and get with the program- people more important than you have a candidate to support and income to launder. It’s just how life is.