Opinions of Peter Belmont
Speaking Truth to Power
| More of the Same with Hillary Clinton will not be Good for America |
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by Peter A. Belmont / 2016-03-20
After reading a very good article at SALON, ”It is urgent that she’s stopped: Hillary Clinton’s nightmare neoliberalism and American exceptionalism makes the world a dangerous place”, I thought a bit about expanding its ideas to embrace matters of society and governance other than foreign policy alone. What Should You Expect To Get If You Vote For Hillary Clinton? What will you get if you vote for Hillary Clinton? You will get more of the same. On the economy, on military interventionism, on all matters which relate to the USA’s spending or collecting-as-taxes of “serious money”, you will get more of the same. Because Hillary Clinton is a typical politician of today, “in bed with” the managers of wealth in the USA (and world-wide): big-Banks, big-Insurance, big-Military, big-Oil, big-Chemical, big-Pharma, big-Ag, etc., all the “BIGs” which flood Washington with armies of lobbyists and fill the coffers of political campaigns of both major parties. The BIGs don’t give Clinton (and the other politicians) all that money for nothing. They expect her to act “for them” either because she is corrupt (i.e., they “bought” her services in advance by campaign contributions) or because she just believes that that is the right thing to do (i.e., she is a big-business-conservative at heart). Either way, she’ll be acting for the BIGs, and not for the American people. And that is a direct continuation of years and years of American governance. Because there is nothing new about government controlled by big money, nothing new at all. So, voters, if what you want is more economic imbalance (the 0.1% own as much as the bottom 90%, no well-paying jobs for most people, crushing student debt for those that dare to go to college), then by all means vote for Hillary Clinton. If you are a fan of ”The New Generation Gap” whereby the young of all but the very rich are living somewhere between hard times and poverty, then by all means vote for Hillary. If you want more wars, more incursions, more drone assassinations (and American massacres of foreign wedding parties), more CIA skullduggery in foreign countries, then, again, by all means vote for Hillary Clinton. If you want all matters of governance which involve the spending (and also the collecting) of “big money” to be decided for the USA by those who possess “big money”, then, by all means, vote for Hillary Clinton. However, you have a choice this year. You can vote for a man widely thought to be a narcissistic madman (Donald Trump) or for a wise and decent once-in-a-generation politician, Bernie Sanders. Sanders is my choice because he [1] does not take money from the big-money-boys, and [2] he proposes many things I wish to see happen. He proposes demoting the power of “big money” in our political process. He proposes fighting Global Warming/Climate Change (GWCC), something already deferred in the USA for 25 years and by most reckoning something likely to continue to be generally ignored in the USA. Why is GWCC being ignored in the USA today—as it has been for 25 years? Because “big money” wants it ignored. And those are typical of the single reason why voters should vote for Bernie Sanders—he will ignore the demands of the BIGs and look to the needs of the people of America. In other words, Bernie Sanders does not promise “more of the same”. The dreadful jobs outlook for American youth is another reason. The “big money” has shipped our well-paying jobs out of the country, left Americans with low-paying jobs (McDonalds, Walmart), shackled our students with enormous educational loan debt, and offers no cure. Indeed, the big-money-boys have even exempted themselves from most taxes, so that America must borrow to finance the $1T wars which we fight to enrich the already rich. Bernie Sanders would work to collect money needed for governmental expenditures from those who have the money—the very rich in particular—and start to get important (and costly) work done for the USA. Hillary Clinton can be counted upon to do “more of the same”. Many were disappointed by President Obama because he seemed, 8 years ago, to promise so much change, change we never saw. Well, the one thing he did not propose to change—nor notably try to change—is the entrenched power of the very rich and the big corporations (the “BIGs”) in American governance. There is no reason to expect Hillary Clinton to do so either, and much reason to be assured that she won’t. But if you wish for changes, you have a clear choice: vote for Trump (a sort of Russian Roulette, since he hasn’t said much) or vote for Bernie Sanders, who promises to take that “first step in a journey of 1000 leagues”, the necessary business of curbing power of the BIGs and getting done the many things they have hitherto made impossible for government in the USA. |
Comments:
| ALJ 2016-03-20 | |
| This is a terrific piece. I dread how the BIGs of the DNC will react if, and hopefully when Sanders captures enough delegates for the nomination. There is all sorts of talk of Republican convention shenanigans if Trump succeeds. But what of the Democrats? |
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