Hillary Clinton Will Never Be A “True Liberal”

It was all a lie – one of the biggest and most elaborate falsehoods ever sold to the American people. .

We thought we were just letting a friend crash at the house for a few days; we ended up with a family of hillbillies who moved in forever, sleeping nine to a bed and building a meth lab on the front lawn - Matt Taibi

***

In 2014, ex-CIA official, Robert David Steele, predicted the growing unrest in Europe and in the U.S. – as embodied by the Populist movement -- would metamorphose into revolution, stating, “We are at the end of an era in which lies can be used to steal from the public…”

He added that “…revolution is inevitable, simply because the demise of the system presided over by the 1% cannot be stopped …We have no choice but to step up.”

Certainly that revolutionary spirit is resonating in Europe where leftist coalitions have recently increased their political clout, first in Greece where the leftist coalition, Syriza, assumed power, and now in Spain where the populist Podemos movement wrested control from Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative, Popular Party.

Last Sunday, while watching the launch of Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, the thought crossed my mind that I was watching the start of the U.S. populist revolution. In many ways, Sanders’ candidacy resembles the rise to power of Mayor elect, Ada Colau, the first female politician to assume control of Barcelona, Spain.

Like Sanders, Colau is a true grassroots candidate, a former activist once described as a thorn in the side of the Spanish government.

"She's transparent, she's honest, she speaks the language of the people — and she has managed to touch what Barcelona was feeling," says Antonio Roldan, a Spain analyst at the Eurasia Group in London. "The Popular Party had absolute majorities in most regions and now they have none. So it's a new period of cleaning up the corrupt establishment in some of these municipalities that have been for many years dominated by the two big parties."

Colau offers a much simpler assessment of her populist rise to power.

"I'm not particularly intelligent, I'm not powerful. I'm just a normal person and that's what worries them most. It just shows how much power normal citizens can have," she says.

When asked why a U.S. “revolution” has failed to ignite -- given the level of furor and unrest at the grass roots level -- Robert David Steele said it hasn’t happened because a flash point was needed to mobilize activists; but he said that moment is rapidly approaching. And when it happens, the end of two-party domination will come quickly and forcefully.

Colau’s rise to power is a great example of a “flash point” creating a political tidal wave.

Two years ago, she testified before parliament at a hearing about Spain's foreclosures crisis. On the panel, Colau spoke right after a representative of Spain's banking industry.

"This man is a criminal and he should be treated like one," she said at the time, her voice shaking with rage.

Lawmakers' jaws dropped. Colau got a reprimand from parliament, but her speech endeared her to millions of Spaniards hurt by layoffs and austerity. (Frayer, 2015, para. 6-8)

Almost overnight, her twitter account increased by 100,000 followers, and the newfound popularity culminated in victory last Sunday evening when she was elected mayor of Barcelona.

Ada Colau and Bernie Sanders share a political advantage, a characteristic not found in other candidates: they are true grassroots heroes motivated by convictions. They never sought office to increase personal wealth or to garner fame: they simply stepped up to the plate at a time when courageous political figures were almost non-existent.

The most common assessment of Sander’s candidacy, both in the mainstream media, and among political pundits, has been that he is unelectable because of his socialist background. But consider this: President Obama was unable to garner enough support to pass a $10.10 increase in the minimum wage, but at the same time, a movement to implement a $15 minimum wage -- created by a socialist city councilwoman in Seattle, Washington – proved to be a great success, and her efforts spawned a nationwide movement that has altered the financial landscape, as evidenced by the Los Angeles city council’s recent decision to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020.

In fact, the National Employment Law Project said this about the $15 movement:

Since November 2012, grassroots momentum generated by the $15 movement has helped to push through dozens of state and local minimum wage policies, raising wages for millions of workers. In addition, some of our nation’s biggest low-wage employers, including Walmart, McDonald’s, T.J. Maxx and the Gap, recently announced pay increases for their lowest-paid workers. While these increases are modest, their public announcement demonstrates the effect of the $15 movement in highlighting soaring corporate profits on the one hand, stagnant worker wages on the other, and growing public demand for companies to increase pay.

The Occupy Wall Street movement illuminated the strength of the American populist movement; and its brutal demise -- orchestrated by the Obama administration, at the behest of Wall Street bankers -- demonstrated the extreme lengths the 1% would go to protect its financial interests.

But when examining the populist revolt, it is the growing schism inside the Democratic Party that is most revealing because it clearly illustrates the reason so many Americans are furious at this president and at our nation’s leaders. Our leaders simply refuse to listen to the concerns of their constituents. The DNC and the Hillary Clinton camp have exerted extreme pressure on Democrats to de-emphasize rising grassroots anger. In essence, the PR machine they have assembled is the equivalent of the Dutch boy who stuck a finger in the dike trying to ward off a catastrophe; only the crack in the dam is growing wider as the 2016 campaign season approaches.

And unfortunately for the Hillary camp -- because Bill Clinton and Barack Obama built their administrations on deceit -- the centrist faction of the Democratic Party has nothing to stand on but lies. The American public gave Obama a very clear mandate to engender change, and he used progressive speeches to promise unequivocally he would fulfill that mission; only he didn’t, and the long trail of broken campaign promises left in his wake have inflicted a scar on voters that might take generations to heal.

But betraying constituents wasn’t enough; it was the way he kept dissenters at bay that caused the most damage. If you examine the OFA’s web site, you will see the words “progressive” and “truth” mentioned a lot, but the organization’s agenda has been far more anti-progressive than liberal, and they have made very little attempt to include truth in their messages. In fact, the primary purpose of the OFA was to use any tactic available, no matter how nasty, to quash dissent. Many stalwart liberals -- activists who had the temerity to attack Obama’s policies -- were hounded and ostracized from so-called progressive websites like the Daily Kos because the OFA coordinated faux outrage attacks against them. Writers like Glenn Greenwald, Jane Hampshire, Jesselyn Radak, and Ted Rall were viciously attacked in “mock forums” that seemed eerily reminiscent of the Salem Witch Trials.

The message was loud and clear: tow the party line or pay the price. And the visceral hatred created between Obama’s followers and populist members is too deep to heal before 2016.

Progressive voters sent an equivocal message to DNC leaders during the midterm elections; we were not happy with the path they had taken, but in traditional neo-liberal fashion, Democratic leaders ignored our anger, claiming instead that Americans wanted more bi-partisanship.

And for many Progressives, that was the final straw.

On a larger scale, the same type of vicious intimidation was directed against whistle blowers and members of the press, and because Edward Snowden’s revelations illuminated how easy it was for the U.S. intelligence community to destroy the character of anyone deemed undesirable, journalism lost much of its credibility. And now, almost any writer who makes an attempt to reveal the truth feels a moment of panic before hitting the publish button.

That is not America at its best, and it reveals how far the party has gone astray. The truth is the Democratic Party has tacitly sanctioned the OFA’s intimidation campaigns even though they were launched against its own members.

Markos Moulitsas, the owner of the Daily Kos, recently published an Op-Ed titled, “Clinton A True Liberal,” on the Hill website. In the article, he stated:

"So for those hoping that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) or Sanders would push Clinton to the left, it appears it’s too late. She’s already there."

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Hillary is not a populist, and to understand how ridiculous it is to make that type of assertion just examine the way Clinton’s campaign is structured, which is a top-down political organization as opposed to a true populist movement, which is a grassroots, ground-up movement. In other words, she is the antithesis of a true populist candidate.

If Hillary was a true liberal, as Moulitsas claimed, then she would have led the fight: to kill the TPP, to stop NSA spying on innocent Americans, to end the ongoing war in Afghanistan, to stop the indiscriminate use of drones that killed innocent children, to end inequality, to see that the Wall Street criminals who caused the financial collapse were prosecuted, to oust Republicans and Wall Street insiders who crafted Obama’s Republican friendly policies, to insure that protesters – like the members of Occupy Wall Street – were allowed to practice their Constitutionally guaranteed right to express dissent, to overturn the sequestration, to restore funding to the social safety net programs that traditionally protected the most vulnerable people in our nation, to eliminate childhood hunger and to see that no child in America has to go to school hungry, to secure the future of elderly citizens who rely on Social Security and Medicare, to see that the minimum wage was raised to a sustainable level for millions of Americans who lost their jobs and homes because of the greedy actions of her campaign donors (and Obama’s)…and the list goes on and on.

But during the last six years, Hillary has never led a single fight to help the needy or to uplift middle class Americans because she is part of the problem; not part of the solution. And once elected, her Wall Street donors will prevent her from reversing those injustices.

If you have read statements coming from her PR machine, then you know she has attempted to establish her liberal creds by listing the faux-liberals hired to run her campaign. Compare that to Senator Bernie Sanders’ campaign message, which is unequivocally based on his very long tract record in the House and the Senate and the platform he says he will champion if elected. Sanders not only made it clear he opposes the TPP; he has helped lead the fight to see it defeated. Hillary on the other hand, has shunned media questions, knowing that $2 billion – her present fundraising goal --prevents her from telling the truth.

Neo-liberals are incredibly predictable. When a credibility problem is encountered, they simply create an alternate reality, and then in quick succession they have paid or activist writers release articles promoting that alternate reality. That is why Markos Moulitsas penned an incredibly disingenuous article championing Hillary’s true liberal idealism, and it is why Robert Creamer posted an equally deceitful article on the front page of the Huffington Post several days ago.

Creamer stated:

There has been a flurry of recent commentary about the "battle" between the Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren wings of the Democratic Party -- a supposed contest for the party's soul.

But by and large, the battle for control for the ideological center of the Democratic Party has been settled -- and it is likely that Hilary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren were never the real protagonists.

There are still pro-Wall Street, corporatist -- and even socially conservative -- elements in the Democratic coalition. But the center of the Party has consolidated around progressive principles as never before with respect to economic, social and foreign policy.
***
There are obstacles in the road. But fundamentally, we have arrived at a potentially progressive moment in America -- a moment when a true progressive consensus has begun to form in the Democratic Party and among the voters. If we take advantage of that moment, we could look back at 2016 not as some showdown between wings of the Democratic coalition, but as a progressive tipping point in American history.

That type of article isn’t directed at populists because grassroots activists are very savvy to real political events – it simply wouldn’t work; instead it’s designed to mislead low-information voters who are willing to swallow almost any pabulum they’re fed.

While discussing the rising populist movement, former Clinton aide Bill Curry said this about the Democratic Party:

We’re in crisis because of all our broken systems; because we still let big banks prey on homeowners, students, consumers and retailers; because our infrastructure is decrepit; because our tax code breeds inefficiency and inequality; because foreign interventions bled us dry. We’re in peril because our democracy is dying.

But you will never hear an Obama or Clinton follower say that. To admit the truth on that level would indict Obama’s presidency, and the so-called centrists of the party have made it clear the truth is less important than protecting the president’s agenda.

That is one of the clearest examples of why democracy – in the hands of the Democratic Party – has been dying. Many of its members no longer recognize how corrupt and soulless the party has become. On many levels, under Obama’s leadership, the Democratic Party has become as unethical and corrupt as the Republican Party. The only difference is Republicans make no attempt to conceal their corrupt agenda because that is what their constituents want. But the only way Democrats can continue to wallow in corruption is to lie.

And that duplicity has become the defining characteristic of the current Democratic Party

As Matt Taibi said:

But the most appalling part is the lying. The public has been lied to so shamelessly and so often in the course of the past four years that the failure to tell the truth to the general populace has become a kind of baked-in, official feature of the financial rescue. Money wasn't the only thing the government gave Wall Street – it also conferred the right to hide the truth from the rest of us.

Hillary’s candidacy may seem too powerful to defeat at the moment, but if the DNC’s attempt to quash dissent fails, then her inevitability – along with her faux populist image -- will disappear overnight.

And the big loser will be the Democratic Party.

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rather than DKos speaks volumes.
I believe that he's under some delusion that he's some sort of power broker and insider in the DLC, while at the same time he realizes that he's lost control on DKos.

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Big Al's picture

That's even worse.

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Markos was so easily manipulated, his ego made him the perfect person to do the nasty work...Obama keeps his hands clean and the OFA and the Dkos get to have their egos stroked...that is how low the Democratic Party has fallen

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praenomen

snoopydawg's picture

He was very condescending to them.
I put up what he wrote about Hillary in 06, and got slammed for doing it.
Yesterday there was a thread about the many people that Obama has killed by drones and good ole Tony Situ came to his defense.
I swear, Obama could kill a baby on live TV, and many at kos would still defend him.

And of course, any disagreement with Obama means you're an Obama hater or a racist.
It will be the same with Hillary.
But there's hope. Many people are waking up to who Obama really is and who he represents.
But I see comments stating that they hope that Bernie wins the primary, but will vote for Hillary if he doesn't.
On one hand, they don't like what she stands for, on the other, they'll vote for her anyway.
Wrap your head around that.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

See my latest diary.

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praenomen

shaharazade's picture

and, as Hillary has, to rally for killing babies. Hunter has a dozzie FP article with the Presidents pumping the Patriot Act. sounds just like bush, including 'terrist's are gonna kill yer family'. Hillary is all in for killing babies in Africa as it's in our 'interest's' It takes killing a village, actually lot's of villages globally, to protect our interest's. Whose interest's are we talking about here? Misplaced fear from Democratic catapulted propaganda or perhaps massive Stockholm Syndrome seems to have a lot of partisan's willing to consent to voting for another round of clinton's or bush's.

When I read dkos it is apparent that many partisan Dems. are either delusional or really creepy fascist's who like the Tea Partiers do not even understand what a democracy is about and furthermore reject any thing resembling a democratic representational republic under the rule of law. Shorter version they are RW authoritarian's who like this anti-democratic fascistic shit. Cause you know it's going to win the polls of mass deception all say so.

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lotlizard's picture

What a repelling thought.

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Big Al's picture

The movements in Greece and Spain and elsewhere are driven by new political parties challenging the corrupted
status quo. So I don't see how those efforts can be compared to Sanders running with the democratic party. I also don't see how
any sort of populist movement can succeed aligning itself with Sanders and the Dem party. Just won't work. The dem party
is the establishment, one of the ruling class' parties. It's not going to be changed, especially not by a single politician from
Vermont. A real revolutionary movement could spring up partly based on Sander's campaign and the 2016 election, but it
won't be behind Sanders and the Dem party. There are way too many active and knowledgeable citizens, like myself and others
on this blog and many blogs I visit, who will have nothing to do with the Dem party any longer. It's dead. And without us, there's
no chance at a real movement. It will be coopted, shaped and manufactured by those who hold the power.

As for Moulitsas, I assume he really believes what he's saying which is just another example of his warped conservative thinking and
why Daily Kos is what it is.

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I'm just glad someone finally stepped up to the plate...

The Democratic Party needs to be taken down...and I think Bernie's candidacy might spark the revolution that will bring it to its knees. I was encouraged by the presence of OCW activists attending the rally. It's not the term liberal that matters; its the grassroots resistence. That will be the only way to stop global expansionism. That is why the elections in Europe matter.

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praenomen

The efficiencies of running in the Democratic primary are hard to dispute. A pragmatic, principled, social Democrat - of the people, for the people, by the people.

If he sticks to who he is, and I can't imagine him not, people fed up with Wall Street, corrupt politicians, the 1% and shitty trade deals can take Hillary down. Not to mention she's dirty. If the GOP can manage to stop being outrageous and insane long enough to focus of the real corruption and lies of the Clintons, Bernie's a shoe-in.

One of Clinton's many dalliances is out there now with her 2 minutes of fame insisting Hillary isn't qualified to be President because her husband is a dog and she stood by her man. This is the kind of crap that saps credibility and closes minds to facts.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

mimi's picture

if you read Markos diary from today, you may lose all your appetite to ever write again about what Markos says. I found today's diary even more appalling and regret I went there. I am not the one to judge. I might make myself a costume being an extra exclamation mark from the Bernie Sanders foot soldier's brigade, if I ever should march to his drummers.

OMG, I have to stop that.

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I was going to post this article at the Dkos, but it's official now; they won't let me log in....but they keep sending emails asking for donations...

The Democratic Party is so corrupt I enjoy attacking it as much as I do going after the Republican Party.

Thanks, mimi

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praenomen

mimi's picture

as parties don't make sense in the current US electoral scheme or system. The fact that third parties by design can't win or go into coalition with the two parties by design and feature of the electoral system, makes the attacks somewhat useless. But of course I am all for revealing obvious lies and crimes and illegality, which therefore leads to attacks of what the Democratic party (at least for a larger proportion of members) accepted to stand for.

Markos hides behind his statistics, polls and "strategic analysis". I just decided to even rec his last diary, I feel is such an insulting, painful bullshit. I don't like what it stands for as a political strategist. However smart he might sound, it's not humane and not a show of respect for anyone who just started a campaign two days ago. But he did take the effort to lay out his thoughts in acceptable manners. For that at least I won't withdraw a rec from him, though I can't stand what he stands for.

I am just tired of political activists to be frank. They are part of a corrupt electoral system and they don't see themselves as part of it and don't admit that they don't respect people, who are attacking their "insiderness" as being part of the problem and don't admit that being outside the system has to be treated with the same respect for free thinking as the insiders of the system.

So, you got banned? Or timed out? How honorable and glorious for them /s. And in the end how good for you. You still can read. And you don't get sucked in to comment threads and waste your emotions into discussions that lead to nowhere.

Don't worry. Thinking can't be stopped and can't be surpressed. What a shame for people who invested so many emotions, time and work to be part of that site's productions.

Take care.

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gulfgal98's picture

and you still have your mojo and TU status intact. If you want to post this over at dkos, there should be no reason why you would be prohibited from logging in. I suspect that what you saw was simply a pop up ad which you should be able to close to allow you to log in.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

gulfgal98's picture

For a reality site, dkos has ventured into the twilight zone with kos' latest diary on Hillary.

Your diary here is the true reality, not some sort of alternative fiction regarding HRC.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

I don't think he believes a word of anything he writes unless it has to do with immigration. I still say he's been bought and paid for. He says whatever they tell him to.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

gulfgal98's picture

When I read it, there was so much transparent BS in it, that I just felt compelled to post this comment. I seriously doubt that he or anyone there will respond. But I just could not help myself... Ha ha ha! Smile

Do you really believe this? (0+ / 0-)

We as liberals need to understand that Clinton's current campaign trajectory means we've won the war for our party's soul. When the party's standard-bearer is running an explicitly liberal campaign, it means that the establishment has realized that national victory runs through the issues we care about. Be happy!

Clinton may be running a campaign much like Obama did with a lot of left leaning rhetoric that means nothing once she is elected. All one has to do is follow the money. The Clintons became fabulously wealthy after Bill's Presidency and Hillary has raised huge amounts from the very people who destroyed our economy.

Sorry, but I do not believe that a once Goldwater girl and Third Way Democrat can suddenly become a true liberal. Her record and the money trail fails to show me how she will suddenly be anti MIC and anti corporatist.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Pluto's Republic's picture

Wonderfully written, compelling essay.

But here's the problem for me: There is no comparison:

“We are at the end of an era in which lies can be used to steal from the public…”

Ada Colau and Bernie Sanders share a political advantage, a characteristic not found in other candidates: they are true grassroots heroes motivated by convictions. They never sought office to increase personal wealth or to garner fame: they simply stepped up to the plate at a time when courageous political figures were almost non-existent.

These two realities could not be further apart.

Only one of these countries spend 50 cents of every single tax dollar roaming the world murdering people, destroying nations, and creating tens of millions of terrorists.

Spain does not do that. Spain exited the international murder business the day after the Madrid bombings.

Both Bernie and the United States are ALL about International Murder. Just like Hillary.

There will be no rising up in the United States. The brainwashed delusional USians are scared shitless that a terrorist is coming to get them. The only way to stop the murderous United States is to cut it off at the knees. And that will take the cooperation of the entire world — all working together as ONE to end it.

In 2016, the US Murder Budget will be OVER HALF of every tax dollar that the US government receives. And "Senator Bernie Murder" votes for it every single time — stealing the people's money right out of their mouths to pay for the war crimes of Empire. That makes him the biggest and most deceitful monster of them all.

I find it endlessly tragic that Americans always think they are just one election away from ending their reign of hell on earth.

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____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

I just try to remain an optimist, and I very stronly believe a flashpoint could ignite a populist revolt.

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