The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Making the right moves - Clinton takes steps to the White House

    By HSG on Fri, 05/13/2016 - 11:29pm |

    Hillary Clinton is the odds-on favorite to succeed Barack Obama as President. Despite historically high unfavorable ratings and being the ultimate insider in the year of the outsider, the prize remains hers for the taking. The electorate dislikes Donald Trump even more and the vagaries of the electoral college in recent years bespeak a pro-Democratic bias.

    But the road to the White House will not be smooth for Clinton. Trump the Insult Reality Show Politician ran roughshod over the Republican field and is now training all his fire on "Crooked Hillary." Meanwhile, she has yet to dispatch the still-dangerous, albeit mortally wounded, Bernie Sanders.

    Wednesday, MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell suggested to Bernie that Clinton's approval ratings are down because she is "fighting a war on two fronts."  An unimpressed Sanders retorted "please don't moan to me about Hillary's problems."  Simply put, it doesn't appear that Clinton's ankle-biter will be going away any time soon.

    So what can Clinton do?  Ironically, she should employ the same weapon - a truly populist platform - to slay both dragons.  As I wrote here a couple of weeks ago, Clinton "should emphasiz[e] her support for broad-based social programs and call for a massive jobs bill."  I added "she could argue in favor of a public option and allowing the government to negotiate directly with drug companies."  I also urged her to "eschew nuance" in favor of plain speaking and "to embrace a true progressive as a running mate."

    Moving left may seem counter-intuitive to those raised on the notion that November winners run to the base during the primaries and the center after clinching the nomination.  But the prevailing sentiment among the left and right is that Wall Street and Washington have rigged the game against the little guy and gal.  Clinton must demonstrate clearly and forcefully that she gets this message and will break ranks with the D.C. fixers and Wall Street insiders with whom she has been cozy.

    To her credit, she appears to be listening to my advice.  Over the past week Clinton has announced support for three progressive initiatives and floated picking a very progressive vice-Presidential running mate.

    Monday, Clinton proposed amending Obamacare to include a public option, as I recommended, allowing people to buy in to medicare when they reach the age of 50 or 55 years old.  Tuesday, Clinton called for childcare costs to be capped at no more than 10% of family earnings and higher wages to childcare workers.

    Thursday, Clinton signaled support for a letter that Elizabeth Warren, John Conyers, and Bernie Sanders among many other Congress members sent to Fed Chair Janet Yellen.  The signatories urged Yellen to seek diversity in the makeup of regional fed boards.

    Through a spokesperson Clinton went even further, however, in calling for an end to the practice of appointing bankers to regional boards of directors.  In this regard, Clinton adopted the position Bernie Sanders laid out late last year when he wrote for the New York Times "we should not allow big bank executives to serve on the boards of the main agency in charge of regulating financial institutions."

    Beyond these welcome moves left, the Huffington Post is reporting Clinton's campaign team is considering asking Elizabeth Warren to join the ticket.  Warren's selection would be problematic because the Republican governor of Massachusetts Charlie Baker would appoint her temporary replacement in the Senate.  But except for Bernie Sanders, no Vice Presidential choice would demonstrate as strong a commitment to populist governance.

    Democrats should react with optimism to Clinton's announced support for progressive domestic initiatives this week coupled with an indication that Elizabeth Warren may run as her Vice President.  These actions signify the former Secretary's recognition that victory in November will come if she can persuade a majority of voters that her administration will consistently fight for poor, working, and middle-class Americans.

    Comments

    I support many of these policy ideas from Hillary. Some are long term goals of the democratic party that centrist and conservative dems have stymied. The medicare buy in was proposed by Bill Clinton in 1988

      this idea was floated way back in Bill Clinton's 1998 State of the Union address, in which he said that "millions of Americans between the ages of 55 and 65 have lost their health insurance … after a lifetime of work, they are left with nowhere to turn. So I ask the Congress, let these hardworking Americans buy into the Medicare system."


    by ocean-kat on Sat, 05/14/2016 - 3:32pm

    I am still for Al Franken.

    But two women would make bigger history I guess.

    Workin on the night moves

     


    by Richard Day on Sat, 05/14/2016 - 7:57pm

    So, I guess you're surprised that Hillary is taking the right steps because, deep down, you don't think she wants to do things like remake the Fed, raise capital gains taxes (by changing the timing rules) or give Elizabeth Warren a voice in government as either Veep, cabinet member or valued Senate ally.

    This is funny to me, because I think she's more liberal than Bill and plenty liberal as a person and though she is too ambitious to really like the challenge Bernie gave her, my prediction is that when she is president, his elevated profile as a result of giving her a good and honest race will make him a strong and effective ally when she needs it the most.  

    I think you know how much I respect Bernie (I said as much on your radio show) and I'm happy to report to you that, as promised, I gave him my vote in the NY primary (and I voted for his delegates, too, an odd choice they let you make here) but I believe, as I always have, that this is all for the good.  A strong challenge removed the notion that Clinton was coronated and an honest challenge made her think and make some of what you call the "right steps" leftward.

    She's an actual progressive.

    But you will always have issues with her on foreign policy and I understand why, because I've also had these issues.  She's an interventionist.  I get annoyed when you say neocon because, to me, motives matter.  Her motives are to prevent humanitarian atrocities such as genocide.  She learned her statecraft watching Rwanda unfold in the 90s.  She is not the only Obama foreign policy adviser so influenced. Hillary Clinton, Samantha Power, Anne Marie Slaughter... They all took Rwanda (and later the conflict in what was Yugoslavia) as reasons why my personal preference for armchair pacifism doesn't work in a brutal world.  Years ago, I wrote here and in a column for the now defunct "The Daily" why our intervention in Libya was a disaster leading us into a quagmire like Iraq and I was... wrong, wrong, wrong.  People hate on Christopher Hitchens for supporting the Iraq war but he was more liberal than you or I up until his very end, he just couldn't stomach Saddam hurting his own people any longer.  It's understandable, even if you or I might have had a better sense of what American military power can actually accomplish than even Hitchens did.

    My point is... there are lefty reasons to go to war.  Some day, ask Hemingway or Dorothy Parker about Franco and they'll tell you. The neocons were out for American hegemony.  The liberal interventionists want to save lives and prevent war crimes.  They sometimes reach the same ends and share the same disasters, but motives matter and they differentiate actors.

    I know you'll vote for Hillary in the general, but I hope you don't have to pinch your nose so hard that you wind up with gin blossoms.  It's really not necessary. She's better than you think.  It's time to start enjoying that.  And, bright side -- I think Bernie will enjoy it, too.  Bookmark this post.  A year and then another into Hillary Clinton's first term, let's talk about how she and Bernie have worked together to accomplish things we want.  I believe we'll have a lot to talk about.


    by Michael Maiello on Sat, 05/14/2016 - 8:58pm