Hillary Clinton campaigns on a ‘personal’ rather than a ‘political’ strategy: Daily Bullshit, June 4, 2017

Hillary Clinton

“But part of the problem [Hillary Clinton] had was she didn’t have a vision for the Democratic Party, and she needs to now take a break and let others come to the forefront.”[1]

It does indeed get annoying to hear Democrats—not just Clinton by a very long shot—talk about how they need to promote a message when, if they even have one, it is nowhere to be seen.

But [Jamal Simmons, a Democratic strategist] added that if she’s going to discuss the loss, “it would be nice to hear a little more about the things she did wrong, which I believe mattered more than what she has discussed.”[2]

Foremost among these were her allegiance to Wall Street and her inability to acknowledge that she was asking U.S. voters to trust her with classified information when she had, at the very least, grossly mishandled it on her personal server.[3] (It was not yet apparent Donald Trump would prove to be even more dangerous with classified material.) In a year when people were desperate for an alternative to the same old neoliberalism that has done nothing but widen social inequality, she essentially ran on a premise that to oppose her was to be misogynist, and she, with her supporters, continues in large part to blame alleged misogyny for her loss.[4]

Amie Parnes, “Dems want Hillary Clinton to leave spotlight,” Hill, June 4, 2017, https://parts-unknown.org/drupal7/content/hillary-clintons-inequality-rhetoric-weak-no-were-not-all-mess-together?page=8#comment-16800


Brexit

Just in time for an election that really is about much more than Brexit itself, but rather neoliberalism as an underlying cause for the Brexit vote, so-called “terrorists” strike London. It is the third attack Britain has endured this year.[5]

It’s hard for me to imagine that the election hasn’t had something to do with the attack. I believe, though I’m failing to locate the article at present, Michael Lerner has argued that such attacks tend to tilt electorates to the right. If this is indeed the case, as right-wing politicians pursue hard line, so-called “anti-terrorist” policies, they in fact exacerbate the very factors that lead to such attacks in the first place. It’s a vicious cycle that works in favor of more bloodshed.

Tom McTague, “British parties briefly suspend campaigning,” Politico, June 4, 2017, http://www.politico.eu/article/british-parties-suspend-campaigning-election-london-bridge-terror-attack-june/


  1. [1]An unnamed “former senior aide” to Barack Obama, quoted in Amie Parnes, “Dems want Hillary Clinton to leave spotlight,” Hill, June 4, 2017, https://parts-unknown.org/drupal7/content/hillary-clintons-inequality-rhetoric-weak-no-were-not-all-mess-together?page=8#comment-16800
  2. [2]Amie Parnes, “Dems want Hillary Clinton to leave spotlight,” Hill, June 4, 2017, https://parts-unknown.org/drupal7/content/hillary-clintons-inequality-rhetoric-weak-no-were-not-all-mess-together?page=8#comment-16800
  3. [3]David Benfell, “Updated (again and again and again): Damnation by faint praise: Sanders claims to be more electable than Clinton,” Not Housebroken, March 6, 2016, https://disunitedstates.org/?p=8529
  4. [4]Andrew Sullivan, “Why Do Democrats Feel Sorry for Hillary Clinton?” New York, April 14, 2017, http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/04/why-do-democrats-feel-sorry-for-hillary-clinton.html
  5. [5]Tom McTague, “British parties briefly suspend campaigning,” Politico, June 4, 2017, http://www.politico.eu/article/british-parties-suspend-campaigning-election-london-bridge-terror-attack-june/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.