Social Justice vs Economic Justice: the two candidate's platforms

[BrotherIvan]

There has been quite a lot of discussion on where the candidates stand on social vs economic issues. Let's look at their platforms and see just what their campaigns will focus on.

Hillary Clinton: Four Pillars

Hillary has not formally announced her campaign platform but here is some info that is coming out.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/clintons-platform-comes-focus-including-some-surprises

Clinton … articulated four pillars of her still-to-come campaign platform; four “big fights” she foresees on the horizon: building “the economy of tomorrow, not yesterday,” strengthening families and communities, fixing “our dysfunctional political system and get[ting] unaccountable money out of it once and for all, even if that takes a constitutional amendment,” and protect[ing] our country from the threats that we see, and the ones that are on the horizon.”

Summary for comparison

1. Building the economy of tomorrow
2. Strengthening families and communities
3. Campaign finance reform
4. Protecting America from threats

Sanders has released his platform on his website https://berniesanders.com/issues/ with more detail on each point

1. Rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure (jobs program)
2. Real tax reform (in order to pay for proposals)
3. Protecting the most vulnerable Americans (social safety net, childhood poverty)
4. Healthcare as a Right for All (Medicare for All)
5. Taking on Wall Street (breaking up banks)
6. Making College Affordable for All
7. Trade policies that benefit American workers
8. Pay equity for women workers
9. Raising the minimum wage
10. Growing the Trade Union Movement
11. Creating worker co-ops

So let's discuss the actual policies each candidate is putting forward. These are going to be the thrust of the campaign and are important to understand thoroughly.

[djean111]

1. Hillary's "pillars" are so vague as to be pretty much useless. Like a Miss America answer.

And "protecting America from threats" is both amorphous and scary. After all, this is what got us an MIC that gobbles up over half the budget, and the NSA.

[BrotherIvan]

2. I look forward to reading more detail when it is released

But for now, this seems to correlate with her announcement video.

[djean111]

4. Which was vague and amorphous. Could have been a Coke commercial.

Be that as it may, I am a bit surprised that someone who has been wanting to be president for so many years does not have much of a platform. And having 200 advisers to help with that seems very odd. At present, it is not anything that ANY candidate would not say. I am not going to pretend that I am just waiting to see what she says, I just think it odd that she really has no details.

I don't think being against heroin addiction as particularly compelling. No one is FOR it. I personally think ending that War on Drugs would stop people from making so much money from it, so they would stop pushing it, and then fewer people would be exposed. If her answer is increased police involvement, yikes. And feel-good stuff about counseling has been tried before. We have not made heroin less available by having a war on it. Let's stop with the war.

I would like to know her stance on marijuana legalization, though.

[sabrina 1]

3. Two big threats to the American people right now, are the Secret Trade Deal/TPP and

Climate Change.

The TPP is related to Climate Change, in that it can seriously undermine the Environmental laws we have, which are nowhere near strong enough as it is.

The TPP can also threaten Labor Laws and therefore, the American worker.

I know how Bernie has answered questions that relate to these threats.

I would like to know eg, from Hillary, first, does she support the TPP and how does she intend to accomplish her 'four pillars' especially if the TPP passes, against Predatory Multi National Corps who will sue the American people to try to weaken any laws we have never mind any that may pass in the future that interfere with their profit margins.

[BrotherIvan]

5. I think that the TPP will likely be covered in the "economy for the future" section

I don't think anyone has a clear answer of what the US will look like once every single job that can be moved has been. Besides service jobs, I doubt any sector will be unchanged once the multinationals have found their new labor force. So I'm not sure how specific Clinton will be compared to Obama who promised something entirely vague along the lines of "retraining" for displaced workers. The paltry $100 million they had earmarked for job loss from the TPP already was struck down.

And Clinton has been stubbornly silent on hot issues for a while now.

Hillary Clinton to Canada audience: 'You won't get me to talk about Keystone'
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/22/hillary-clinton-dodges-keystone-pipeline-questions-canada

I think her advisors have advised that she lay low on just about any issue that is controversial and wait till it blows over. That may or may not be a winning strategy. But what I don't see is all this social justice in her platform that everyone is assuring me is there.

[sabrina 1]

6. Well, she is free to 'lay low' if that's what she feels she has to do. It probably would have been

better if that is her strategy not to announce until she felt she didn't need to lay low anymore.

Meantime Bernie is out there ANSWERING all these questions and gaining more support every day as more people get to know who he is.

I can't understand running for office if you are not prepared to answer questions as to why you are running.

[BrotherIvan]

7. I am confused by it as well

But I wanted to address the candidate's actual stances rather than what has been assumed here. To me, it looks like they are both talking about economic issues. I don't see HRC championing civil rights in her platform, yet I have been assured that she will be a warrior for civil rights while Sanders only cares about economics. And while it is true that his platform is very focused on economic issues, so is Clinton's. That is the zeitgeist right now and for those who are economically challenged, of all ethnicities, those issues are important too. It is only the comfortable that would deny they exist.