The case against Hillary Clinton is strong. One of the latest reasons not to vote for her: Donna Brazile.
The former DNC chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned after Wikileaks emails led to the conclusion that DNC staffers had favored Clinton over Sanders. That was no real surprise. The Democratic Party establishment and media such as the New York Times had decided at the beginning of the election cycle that Hilary Clinton should become the next president. Only Bernie Sanders, an Independent backbencher and self-declared Socialist challenged her. And to the surprise of the establishment, he almost derailed Hilary’s second presidential bid, despite the fact that the Democratic establishment did everything to help her. The Democratic base is as angry at their party representatives as the Republican base at their leaders. Sanders is Donald’s mirror image on the left.
Subsequently to the Wasserman Schultz resignation, Donna Brazile was appointed as DNC interim chair. New Wikileaks emails surfaced in recent days showing that she was an even worse choice than the previous DNC chair. As a CNN contributor, she sent for instance information about possible debate questions to Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta as well as to other Clinton campaign staffers. CNN ended the collaboration with her, but she remained the head of the DNC! And what about John Podesta and Hillary Clinton? They never told anybody that Donna Brazile was giving them information. And they were not forced to step down. Instead, the news was more about the “Russian” (probable, but not proven) hackers than about the repeated misbehaving of Camp Hillary and the DNC leaders.
In a “normal” election cycle, this alone could have been enough to sink Hillary. However, mainstream Democrats and Republicans are equally afraid of a possible Trump presidency since nobody knows what the real-estate billionaire and reality-TV star would do. Trump himself has presented no plan and seems to have none.
Hillary Clinton, a role model for women? From Gennifer Flowers to Monica Lewinsky, Bill Clinton had a series of consensual affairs. And then there are the forced-sex allegations from Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick and Kathleen Willey. Paula Jones could (apparently accurately) describe Bill Clinton’s private parts and ended up with $850,000 in a law suit settled in 1998. Let’s not forget “Troopergate”. Bottom line: A female role model would have dumped Bill a long time ago. A juicy detail: As “First Dude”, Bill Clinton will return to the White House with plenty of time to find another horny intern.
Another reason to vote against Hillary Clinton are the roughly $130 million they largely made through speeches since leaving the White House. There is no $200,000 or $100,000 speech. Already a $30,000 speech is not a legal remuneration but a bribe. The Clintons have been co-opted be the financial and economic establishment because a good relations with them promises – at least implicitly – access to power. The 13-page memo by Doug Band found in Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails shows that there was an overlap between the business activities and the fundraising for the Clinton charities.
Another reason not to vote for Hillary: Obama’s failed foreign, diplomatic and military policies. As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton is of course co-responsible for many of the foreign, diplomatic and military blunders of the Obama Administration. Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Palestine, Russia, Syria, Ukraine, etc. The list is long. In the case of Libya, it was Hillary Clinton who convinced Barack Obama to intervene against Gaddafi. The “leading from behind” strategy failed. The French, British and US Americans had no post-Gaddafi plan, echoing George W. Bush’s Iraq disaster. Who remembers Hillary Clinton’s “reset” with Russia? It totally failed. The list of disasters, errors and failures is so long and so damaging, you would need a book to explain them all in detail.
The Obama foreign, diplomatic and military strategy has led to power vacuums in many regions around the globe. The results are disastrous. The irony is that people from the left are attacking Hillary Clinton as a hawk and Queen of Chaos (the book by Diana Johnstone: Amazon.com and Amazon.de) who would lead the US to a Third World War. They attack her for favoring the establishment of a no-fly zone and safe areas in Syria. On the contrary, that policy – advocated by John McCain – would have been the right thing to do. Instead, the result are over 300,000 people killed in Syria alone and some 11 million Syrian refugees.
As for Hillary Clinton’s own book Hard Choices (from Amazon.de Kindle edition and Amazon.com Kindle edition), it offers no analysis, no strategic thinking, no plan.
Regarding TTIP, under the pressure of Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton became a flip-flopper. She moved from being a free trade supporter to becoming a TTIP skeptic. As a reminder, Hillary Clinton was in favor of her husband signing NAFTA. In Hard Choices, she described TPP as “the economic pillar of our strategy in Asia, and she seemed still favorable regarding TTIP. The world does not need new protectionist policies, which would be a recipe for disaster, as the 1930s have shown.
This is just a short selection of reasons why not to vote for Hillary, soon the first woman in the White House. The case against Hillary Clinton is strong. However, the case against Donald Trump is even stronger. He is an isolationist, protectionist and misogynist with no clear, coherent program. He most likely sunk his campaign on the very first day when he insulted Mexicans. Subsequently, he had nasty comments for Latinos in general and other minorities in the United States.
If you insult 50% of the electorate (women), 14% of the electorate (Latinos), 12% (Blacks), Muslims and other minorities, you cannot win the White House. Furthermore, Hillary Clinton is outspending Donald Trump by more than 2:1. In addition, the Clinton ground game is substantially more professional than Trump’s amateurism. Last, but not least, The Donald is not looking presidential. His almost daily insults are pulling off Independents. In short, the angry GOP party base deserves to lose the 2016 presidential election.
Congress will most likely be divided. The Senate will probably end up in the hands of the Democrats, the House in the Hands of the Republicans. A bipartisan approach will once again be needed. The United States as well as the world as a whole cannot afford another four years of standstill in Washington.
“Trumpism” will not go away after the 2016 elections. The successes of Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders are warning signs for the political, financial and economic establishment in the United States. Will they learn their lesson and work for the people? Hillary Clinton will have to show that she is a centrist who will do what is best for the United States whilst not ignoring the needs and concerns of all kinds of disenfranchised voters.
The 2016 presidential election has not only damaged the Republican and the Democratic party. It has damaged the soft power of the United States and even undermined the standing of Democracy around the globe.
Great American Songbook sheet music. Books by and about Hillary Clinton at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. Books by and about Bernie Sanders at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. Beauty items at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.
[added on January 21, 2020: the photo on this page show the cover of the 2014 book by Hillary Clinton: Hard Choices. It is full of blablabla (700 pages!). I reviewed the German version of Hard Choices after its publication. No substance, no coherence, no analysis. She never made hard choices. She should have dumped Bill a long time ago. The book is a waste of time. Masochists can still order the Kindle version of the book from Amazon.com].
Article added on November 7, 2016 at 19:36 Swiss time
