Ring of Fire: Hillary Clinton - The Perfect Republican Candidate

[GoLeft TV]

The “Ready for Hillary” wing of the Democratic Party thinks that Hillary Clinton is going to be the next Democratic nominee for President. They conveniently overlook her corporatist ways, her war mongering, and her track record while out there trying to convince the rest of us that she is the party’s only choice for 2016. A Clinton presidency would be just as corporate-friendly as Bush and Obama, and America simply cannot afford another four years of corporate rule.

Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins discusses this.

More at Ring of Fire.

[Faux pas]

1. ABH!!!!

Been saying that since the whisper of her candidacy wafted across the airwaves. Might as well vote for all the teabags that will be running.

[cui bono]

2. As obvious as this is...

it doesn't seem to matter. The media will push her, the Dem Party will push her and a bunch of people will push her. Some out of greed, some out of self-preservation and some out of fear.

[A Simple Game]

6. And many will support her out of ignorance. n/t

[L0oniX]

19. Dem zombie voters will vote for her.

[A Simple Game]

20. Exactly, but no more lesser of two evils for me.

With the exception of Carter I think every Democratic vote I have made was for a lesser evil. I of course have never voted for the greater (Republican) evil.

[antigop]

21. many will support her simply because she is female. nt

[KoKo]

23. That is true.......

Unless there is a split...but, I think many just vote now for an Issue...and forget the rest...

Its hard to know how it will turn out. She may peak too soon. With all the Crap Hitting the Fan these days...things might look much different in the next year than they do now..and we might have folks looking deeper into multiple issues rather than single issue...Identity politics. Hope so, anyway.

[antigop]

38. those who support her will then wonder wtf happened when their job gets outsourced or replaced by an

h-1b visaholder

[Dragonfli]

3. She would certainly make a very good Republican President

A good republican is no different that a bad (or should I say typical) Republican save that they are pro choice and liberal on some other social issues, there once were Republicans in the not too distant past that were exactly that way.

[roguevalley]

4. I agree to all above. how can we the majority be so helpless to stop crap from

assuming power and destroying what's left. I think this is the last chance we have to change something.

[Plucketeer]

7. The vote is our ONLY deterrent

The vote and our ability to convince others to vote like we do. That's it - short of taking to the streets.

[Dragonfli]

8. Unless all money is taken out of the process, I fear we are completely powerless

to be able to elect representatives that actually represent US.

Without millions to spend, our voices are not even heard no matter how many of us may speak in unison on various issues, let alone headed and represented.

I of course hope I am mistaken about this, but I do not think I am.

[HooptieWagon]

5. Once, many republicans were social liberals.

Some were even more liberal than today's Dems. Now, although the country remains fairly liberal, corporate control over polititians has moved the political landscape well to the right. The DLC/Third Way is a little further right than a mainstream republican of 50 or so years ago.

[Dragonfli]

9. I agree with the exception that I would say thirty years rather than 50. /nt

[Enthusiast]

10. The policies of the DLC-Third Way are what will do the harm.

I wouldn't support a Third Way candidate even if they were a dope smoking lesbian. Nearly everyone is socially liberal now, except for some insane fundamentalists.

[KoKo]

24. Hillary as the Republican President? Been there and done that now with Clinton/Obama....

The Good Republicans are no better than the Bad Republicans.

Something else has to come along. We shall see.....

[Dragonfli]

26. I have been longing for a return of actual Democrats in the WH and congress for decades now.

I must confess I have given up hope, it appears that the once Republican ideals of trickle down economics and permanent war have become completely bipartisan and quite permanent.

The only difference remaining are some social issues and I suspect those are merely kept to prop up the illusion of a two party system.
I only vote Democratic now so that woman may retain the right to choose and sexual orientation becomes as free a choice as it should be.

[supercats]

11. Agree 100%

I have said that no matter what I will not vote for her....my only exception is if she picks Warren, Sanders or Sherrod Brown as her VP, but we know that will never happen.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

12. Every time I hear something about Hillary

(daily) that gets my knickers in a twist, I remember one thing:
Obama defeated her in the 2008 primary. She lost big one time to an African American man.
So there's that.

K&R

[dawn frenzy adams]

13. I NEVER GOT IT!

I have yet to understand why Hillary Clinton is seen as anything progressive. When did she exhibit any signs of being progressive? They say she is a feminist. Okay. But she appears to be a feminist for herself, not other women. The Republican Party has been attacking women's rights since Bill Clinton was in office. I have never heard Hillary Clinton make a declarative speech about women losing their reproductive rights. Furthermore, she appears to be acting on the same awful advice she was getting during her primary with Barack Obama. She lost because of it. Yet, today she still feels it is a winning strategy to attack the President. This after he revived the Democratic Party she and Bill killed. The Clinton Democrats are obstructionist like the Right-Wing. That whole top tier of Democrats that has jelled in the Congress for 20 and 30 years need to go. That includes the Clinton's.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

16. The Millennials want to leave the Clintons to the last century.

[KoKo]

25. Feminist for herself and other women of her "Class" it seems...and mouth praise for other women.

She and Bill became what dogged them from the time Bill was elected. After they were dragged through the muck they became it...imho.

I can't believe I defended them for so long... I had the hope for them that so many younger ones had for Obama. I was young when I voted for Bill and Hillary and expected so much better for them and from them. They came into power when we were losing jobs and the Crash of 87 and huge job losses of 1990 were still on everyone's minds (then it was Japan that was stealing our jobs and ahead of us). We knew the country needed a change and Bill had as much charisma as Obama and he talked as well or better. He grew up without a father in Arkansas...he was really "down to earth," and refreshing and the DLC had the "Plan for the Future." Turned out the DLC's "Plan for the Future" was for THEIR FUTURE! I think I'm now into "Fool Me Twice" territory.

No Hillary for me. Hopefully she will implode on her own power.

[cheapdate]

27. Well, if you've never seen Hillary Clinton talking about reprodutive rights,

there was a powerful CSPAN video posted here at DU around six months ago. I don't have the link. But I watched the video in amazement. It was impressive enough that I watched it twice. Hillary was testifying as Secretary of State in front of a congressional committee. A GOP member asked her a loaded question about the State Department's policies toward reproductive health issues in foreign countries. Her answer was very impressive. She took it head on without any equivocation or apologies and said clearly and directly that the State Department supported reproductive health, including reproductive choice, and would continue to do so. It was an impressive exchange.

[Thinkingabout]

28. The chatter is loud sometimes but Hillary has been for woman's choice for a long time.

She is right on many issues and contrary to many who believe she is a big friend of corporations her voting records does not indicate they are correct. I have ask where their candidate is on the issues but they don't come up with the evidence.

[ReRe]

14. K&R

If HRC is the Democratic nominee in the 2016 election, she will win by a landslide... because she will get a majority of the Republican vote. This is why she must be primaried out.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. My biggest concern is all the gains we made shifting the party to the left will be undone.

[cheapdate]

30. The gains would be nearly completely undone by a Republican president.

Recall eight years of George W. Bush. His overt policies and decisions were bad enough, but the damage that you don't always see was just as bad and arguably worse. Under his leadership the federal bureaucracies and courts were deliberately and methodically stacked with ideologues, true-believers, Liberty University law school graduates, etc. Rules and processes at the federal agencies were methodically changed to work against the people. Among all of his other challenges, President Obama was faced with this reality when he took office. He's been working to undo Bush's work, but it takes time. BushCo was nothing if not thorough.

The movement toward the left will continue just fine under Hillary. She isn't nearly as friendly to big business and corporate power as some people say. Her voting record as a senator shows this without a doubt.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

31. Trust me, there are people chomping at the bit wanting to come in as The Clinton Team...

They will march into those positions of power within the Democratic Party acting like it was fun while it lasted letting the kids run the store but the adults are in charge again.

These are the types who call everyone at DU part of "the loony left".

[cheapdate]

32. Hillary Clinton, for all of her centrist positions and conservative leanings,

would be IMMEASURABLY BETTER in the White House than a Republican for anyone interested in progressive politics. She would support most or all Democratic legislation brought before her. Her staff, nominees, and appointees, would invariably include many people with liberal and progressive views.

Like a lot of DUers, I'm way, to the left of Hillary Clinton. Hell, I voted for Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party last election (who won exactly 0.036%, or about 4 one-hundredths of one-percent of the vote.)

But I don't for one second fall for the mistaken hype that Hillary Clinton is even remotely as awful as even the least objectionable Republican. It's not even close. Republicans don't want to change the inflation adjustment formula for SSI, they want to dismantle it. Republicans don't want to tweak the capital gains tax rate, they want to abolish it.

Hillary Clinton is a Democrat. I don't share her ethics in every area but we at least share a common language. Maybe she would slow down progress in some progressive areas, but a Republican will use every tool at his disposal to destroy and reverse progress in ALL areas.

It's not even close.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

33. "IMMEASURABLY BETTER in the White House than a Republican"

So would a potted plant. That doesn't mean I would prefer her over a Dennis Kucinich or a Bernie Sanders.

I do NOT want to go back to the days of Rahm Emanuel, Al From and Harold Ford being considered "the future of the party".

Besides, one thing Hillary backs 100% is NAFTA because it's considered to be Bill's big "achievement".

[cheapdate]

36. A Republican is not at all like a potted plant.

A potted plant doesn't appoint deeply conservative judges to the federal courts, like justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, and a potted plant doesn't appoint asshats like John Bolton to be the US Ambassador to the United Nations.

A trade agreement between the United States, Mexico, and Canada isn't an inherently bad thing. NAFTA has been much better for Mexico than for the United States. Within Mexico, it's helped some areas and been profoundly bad for others. I'm not against trade agreements, I'm against certain of the terms, especially those that confer more power to corporations and those that take away power of local self-rule. The lion's share of NAFTA was negotiated under George Bush while Bill Clinton was still governor of Arkansas. Clinton's primary contribution was in signing the agreement one year after taking office.

I would question your claim that Hillary backs NAFTA "100%". Her senate voting record belies it. Regardless, NAFTA is the law for almost fifteen years now.

I don't know your endgame. A Hillary Clinton presidency would allow progressive momentum to continue, even if imperfectly. A Republican presidency would set it back many years.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

40. You don't GET it. I'm not talking about a progressive agenda for the COUNTRY....

I'm talking about it within the PARTY.

I don't want to see the Democratic Party skid off to the Right (which they call "the center&quot after we finally got into the fast land.

[cheapdate]

41. Debate within the party will continue, as it should.

When it's over, I'll stand with party and it's nominee.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

42. It's never "over". Not while we have to fight with people who are SUPPOSED to be on our side.

[cheapdate]

45. Let me be clear about "when it's over".

I was talking very particularly about the period of time from the naming of the Democratic Party's nominee until the general election.

If you're suggesting that the "fight" should continue after the nominee is chosen then you're on your own.

Second, no one is "supposed" to be on any side. No one is bound by any oath or mandate to agree with your or my opinions.

Hillary Clinton is an imperfect liberal, but she is a liberal and a Democrat. If she's the nominee of the party she will have my complete support in the general election.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

46. "but she is a liberal and a Democrat"

That's a matter of opinion.

[INdemo]

17. It will take Bernie Sanders/Elizabeth Warren

running to stop this Corporatist from getting the nominination. They could win but it would take grass roots funding but it could be done
Hillary has billionaires waiting in the wings to open up their treasure chests and somewhere through some hidden unknown the Koch Bothers may even been ready to divvy up for Hillary

[LittleGirl]

18. That would be my dream ticket for Dems

Bernie and Elizabeth.

[betterdemsonly]

22. Good, the liberal radio is saying it

so it isn't just online, and isn't just netroots.

[cheapdate]

29. Hillary will most likely win the nomination if she runs.

She has detractors, but she has broad, nationwide support. If she wins the nomination, she probably wins the presidency. It's not the end of the world. The movement to the left in the United States will continue. Her nominees and appointees will include some progressives.

If she fails to win the nomination, the country will most likely get a Republican president.

Elizabeth Warren has devoted supporters, but nothing close to the actual nationwide political support needed to win the White House. She'd lose by a landslide to any reasonably "strong" GOP candidate.

I don't care how freaking bad some people say Hillary Clinton would be. Another Republican president is WAY, WAY, WORSE. People seem to forget how bad George W. Bush was. And as bad as his overt policies and decisions were, the damage that he did in stacking the federal bureaucracies and courts with ideologues, true-believers, Liberty University lawyers, etc., is just as bad and arguably worse. It's the damage you don't see -- the 90% of the iceberg that's below the surface.

[antigop]

35. Lloyd Blankfein: "I held fundraisers for her."

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/wall-street-republicans-hillary-clinton-2016-106070.html?hp=t1

But the private consensus is similar to what Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein said to POLITICO late last year when he praised both Christie — before the bridge scandal — and Clinton. “I very much was supportive of Hillary Clinton the last go-round,” he said. “I held fundraisers for her.”

[antigop]

37. HRC's Business Legacy at State Dept (leading part in drafting TPP)

Last edited Sat Aug 16, 2014, 01:33 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101667554

[Stellar]

39. I will support Hillary Clinton

Only if she is the last man standing.

[Z_California]

43. I love Bernie Sanders

But I don't think having someone who labels himself a "socialist" on the Democratic ticket would help our chances. Winning national elections is about winning swing voters who are usually comprised of people who consider themselves fiscal conservatives.

Best case scenario in my mind is a primary campaign that is respectfully debated, with no hard feelings or dirty politics, and the best woman wins. Our dream ticket is Warren/Clinton. The actual progressive on top and the ringer on the bottom. We really need to win this one.

[antigop]

44. "OUR" dream ticket? No, speak for yourself. nt