The center-left’s ever rightward drift - How Clinton drove the Democratic Party astray
Among other things, President Bill Clinton repealed the Glass-Steagall Act which paved the way for the 2008 credit collapse and Great Recess...
https://www.elkgrovenews.net/2024/11/the-center-lefts-ever-rightward-drift.html
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| Among other things, President Bill Clinton repealed the Glass-Steagall Act which paved the way for the 2008 credit collapse and Great Recession. | |
By Michael Monasky | Guest Contributor |
Clinton tweaked politics; novelist Toni Morrison declared him the first “black” president. Clinton became the Republican Party’s most loyal administrator, a place-holder bridging the Bush era of George the Elder and his hapless son, George the Lesser.
The 1933 Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act separated commercial and investment bank activities. In 1999, Clinton repealed it. Clinton’s repeal meant financial institutions went hog-wild with housing investment schemes which brought about the Great Recession of 2008.
In 2009, Obama bailed out the errant banks, and millions of US families lost their homes. More than eight million US workers also lost their jobs. The effects of this recession were not corrected until after 2016, and some economists say that the world has yet to recover from this event. This is why many millennials will never own a home.
In 1993, Bill Clinton proposed health care reform but his legislation, despite heavily favoring health insurance corporations and hospital systems, was dead on arrival. It was to be delayed another 18 years when Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) into law in 2010.
In 1993, Bill Clinton proposed health care reform but his legislation, despite heavily favoring health insurance corporations and hospital systems, was dead on arrival. It was to be delayed another 18 years when Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) into law in 2010.
Obamacare merely adopted the principle of the ultraconservative individual mandate, proposed by the Heritage Foundation, in the name of single-payer health care. To Obama, Clinton, and the right-wing think tanks, when it comes to health care, you’re on your own; you must pay to play.
Clinton oversaw welfare reform, repealed Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) (1996) and prevented parents from receiving cash aid. Workfare required parents to leave the home and find paid work. The joke was that single moms could find work caring for the children of another mom, and vice-versa.
Clinton oversaw welfare reform, repealed Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) (1996) and prevented parents from receiving cash aid. Workfare required parents to leave the home and find paid work. The joke was that single moms could find work caring for the children of another mom, and vice-versa.
Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives but not convicted by the Senate over alleged perjury in his stated denials, ironically, over having sexual relations with a woman on his staff. The staffer lost her job and has led a miserable life since the experience.
Clinton was in office during the Siege of Sarajevo (1992-1996) in the former Yugoslavia/Bosnia-Herzegovina. Over 10,000 died, more than half of those civilians, and over 1,500 children. He knew about and directed US military involvement with NATO and the United Nations in response to the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre, which killed 8,000 Muslim men and boys. It was a classic ethnic cleansing by Christian Serbs against Muslim Bosnians.
Clinton was in office during the Siege of Sarajevo (1992-1996) in the former Yugoslavia/Bosnia-Herzegovina. Over 10,000 died, more than half of those civilians, and over 1,500 children. He knew about and directed US military involvement with NATO and the United Nations in response to the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre, which killed 8,000 Muslim men and boys. It was a classic ethnic cleansing by Christian Serbs against Muslim Bosnians.
Why did Clinton fail to act quickly? Do we see any similarity to the attacks on Palestinians? Is this genocide? It wasn’t until the Dayton Accords were signed in Ohio that 60,000 peacekeepers were sent in and remained until 2004.
Clinton made vast and long-lasting transportation proposals, signing the Transportation Equity Act of 1998. Although this law called for long-range planning focused on the metropolitan regional level, many states and localities balked at raising matching funds to create, manage and maintain equitable transportation systems. Most metropolitan transportation organizations, like the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, have abysmal performance and consistently fail to meet air pollution limits, traffic congestion goals, and housing densities.
If you see a pattern of failures here, they are not exclusive to Clinton. After all, he was the pseudo-Republican bridge to the Georges Bush. Such failed policies in transportation and commerce, peace-making and war-avoidance, the social safety net that is more like a tightrope, the complicated morass that is more health denial than health care, and the deeply growing crevasse in affordable housing; these are problems to which none of us seem to have answers.
The current political parties are supported by “the bigs.” Democrats are propped up by big finance and big media. Republicans are funded by big oil and big business. Labor unions support both parties; or the Democrats get labor money, while Republicans get the labor vote.
Such political support is predicated upon identity. Democrats try to be humane, behave like the four member Pod Save Americans, mouthing the epiphanies of identity politics. Kamala is a black, Indian woman former prosecutor child bused to a white neighborhood. Trump is a lying sack of whatever. He cheats on his wife after their son is born. He is a winner; we are all losers.
Republican identity is founded upon authoritarianism. It tries to be fair...but fails.
Clinton made vast and long-lasting transportation proposals, signing the Transportation Equity Act of 1998. Although this law called for long-range planning focused on the metropolitan regional level, many states and localities balked at raising matching funds to create, manage and maintain equitable transportation systems. Most metropolitan transportation organizations, like the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, have abysmal performance and consistently fail to meet air pollution limits, traffic congestion goals, and housing densities.
If you see a pattern of failures here, they are not exclusive to Clinton. After all, he was the pseudo-Republican bridge to the Georges Bush. Such failed policies in transportation and commerce, peace-making and war-avoidance, the social safety net that is more like a tightrope, the complicated morass that is more health denial than health care, and the deeply growing crevasse in affordable housing; these are problems to which none of us seem to have answers.
The current political parties are supported by “the bigs.” Democrats are propped up by big finance and big media. Republicans are funded by big oil and big business. Labor unions support both parties; or the Democrats get labor money, while Republicans get the labor vote.
Such political support is predicated upon identity. Democrats try to be humane, behave like the four member Pod Save Americans, mouthing the epiphanies of identity politics. Kamala is a black, Indian woman former prosecutor child bused to a white neighborhood. Trump is a lying sack of whatever. He cheats on his wife after their son is born. He is a winner; we are all losers.
Republican identity is founded upon authoritarianism. It tries to be fair...but fails.
Trump fouls the spark plugs of the GOP engine; it misfires from so much sugary beverages in its tank. The Donald might eschew alcohol, but his diet is distraction. Our political memories might be short, but remember this: Trump is NOT engaged. He’d rather be golfing.
And what of our four white bro’s on the Pod Save America panel? Mistakes were made. Questions remain unanswered. Why did 55 percent of Latino men vote for Trump? Why did one of three eligible US voters fail to vote at all? Answer: the Democrats are irrelevant, and Republicans are the lesser evil.
Ralph Nader famously characterized what I call Republicrats and Demublicans as “tweedledee versus tweedledum.” There is no difference. Democratic Party consultant James Carville paved the way for Bill Clinton back in 1992 with his remark, “It’s the economy, stupid.”
And what of our four white bro’s on the Pod Save America panel? Mistakes were made. Questions remain unanswered. Why did 55 percent of Latino men vote for Trump? Why did one of three eligible US voters fail to vote at all? Answer: the Democrats are irrelevant, and Republicans are the lesser evil.
Ralph Nader famously characterized what I call Republicrats and Demublicans as “tweedledee versus tweedledum.” There is no difference. Democratic Party consultant James Carville paved the way for Bill Clinton back in 1992 with his remark, “It’s the economy, stupid.”
But is it really just the economy? Is it all about the cost of gasoline or other energy sources? That’s the hold and control rules of econometrics. Everything and everybody is a commodity to be had and used.
There’s another way. To care and share is an alternative political economy. Our most expensive costs are for things we cannot live without, pretty much in this order: housing; transportation; health care-nutrition-clean water-clean air; education.
There are two problems to implementing sharing and caring in place of controlling and holding. The first problem is alienation, which dilutes democratic actions. Our suburban lifestyles and system-structures separate us from each other in our houses, cars, and exclusive places. Our work is segregated and we are powerless over what it is that we make, whether services or products. Our education policies create barriers to literacy...a topic for yet another editorial.
The second problem to engaging in caring and sharing economies is the propensity of capital to accumulate, and results in concentration of wealth. This leads to corporate power, money in politics, unequal and regressive taxation, forced labor, and wage-slavery.
There’s another way. To care and share is an alternative political economy. Our most expensive costs are for things we cannot live without, pretty much in this order: housing; transportation; health care-nutrition-clean water-clean air; education.
There are two problems to implementing sharing and caring in place of controlling and holding. The first problem is alienation, which dilutes democratic actions. Our suburban lifestyles and system-structures separate us from each other in our houses, cars, and exclusive places. Our work is segregated and we are powerless over what it is that we make, whether services or products. Our education policies create barriers to literacy...a topic for yet another editorial.
The second problem to engaging in caring and sharing economies is the propensity of capital to accumulate, and results in concentration of wealth. This leads to corporate power, money in politics, unequal and regressive taxation, forced labor, and wage-slavery.
Human needs are subservient to profit-making. Such a system impoverishes everyone but those in power. In the wealthiest nation in human history, isn’t that ironic?
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