Hillary As Prez?

A friend recently asked me whether I thought Hillary Clinton had a chance of being elected president. I responded that she had already been selected for the job. The political Establishment wants her in the White House for two terms for the same reason it selected Barack Obama back in 2008. George W.’s commitments to crony-capitalism and autocratic war-making had done so much to discredit the centralized state. The Establishment was in desperate need of rehabilitating Leviathan and ending the widespread distrust that had come to the surface, much of it from the political left. An Obama presidency would do so much to neutralize the so-called “liberal” community that provided the bulk of anti-war demonstrators. Obama would be [1] the first black president, whose accomplishment had to be supported, and [2] an advocate for such long-sought liberal domestic intervention policies as extended federal control over the practice of medicine, that public criticism of Leviathan would be diminished. The strategy worked. Once Obama was elected, anti-war demonstrations all but disappeared. Those who opposed Obama policies – including the continuation of the wars – were labeled by many, including Jimmy Carter, as “racists.” A man I know with strong liberal credentials had, during George W.’s administration, resigned membership in his church because it had failed to take a position against the Iraq/Afghan war. Once Obama was elected, he became the staunchest defender of the war, on the very “protect the women” grounds that served Bush!

We have long had one political party in this country, whether we call it the Establishment party, the Owners’ party, or the Corporate-State party. In the 2012 presidential election, its candidate – Obomney – received 98.2% of the popular vote, assuring the continuation of the post-9/11 government policies that make up the Bushobama presidency for the past 14 years.

But by 2016, the Obama tenure will come to an end [unless, of course, Obama will be able to suspend the constitutional term-limits by executive order!]. Will the Establishment be able to repeat the 2008 Obama strategy by bringing into the White House the “first woman president” who will marginalize the critics of the many policies she will want to stuff down everyone’s throats in service to her Establishment constituency? Will those who favor peace, liberty, and free-market economic systems, next be told that their principles are but a cover for misogyny and sexism?

Share

12:20 pm on June 21, 2014