Lie Of The Day: Clinton Tries to Win Over Sanders Supporters By Claiming To Be A Progressive

HANOVER, NH - JULY 3: Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton participates in a grassroots organizing event in College Park at Dartmouth College July 3, 2015 in Hanover, New Hampshire. Clinton is spending two days over the fourth of July in the first in the nation primary state. (Photo by Darren McCollester/Getty Images)

Hillary Clinton said, “I take a backseat to no one when you look at my record in standing up and fighting for progressive values.” Quite a lie, but not surprising coming from a candidate who the majority of voters agree is dishonest in recent polls.

Clinton believes she needs to make such false claims now that Bernie Sanders is posing a serious threat in Iowa and New Hampshire, but she will hardly convince Sanders supporters that she has ever been progressive. The former Goldwater Girl has maintained conservative values throughout her career, except that Barry Goldwater was more socially liberal than Clinton.

In February Truth-Out had a post on Five Reasons No Progressive Should Support Hillary Clinton, which is worth reading–and there are several more reasons besides what is in that article.

Besides the economic differences which have dominated the campaign so far, it was Sanders who, reviewing the same intelligence as Hillary Clinton, voted against the Iraq war. Hillary Clinton not only voted for the war, she went to the right of other Democrats who voted to authorize force in falsely claiming there was a connection between Saddam and al Qaeda. She showed she did not learn from her mistake when she continued to advocate for increased military intervention as Secretary of State.

In an era when the nation is becoming more liberal on social issues, Hillary Clinton’s long-standing conservatism on social/cultural issues also make her too conservative to be the Democratic nominee. This was seen when she was in the Senate when she was a member of The Fellowship, being influenced on social issues by religious conservatives such as Rick Santorum and Sam Brownback. Clinton’s affiliation with the religious right was seen in her support for the Workplace Religious Freedom Act , a bill introduced by Rick Santorum and opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union for promoting discrimination and reducing access to health care, along with her promotion of restrictions on video games and her introduction of a bill making flag burning a felony. Her social conservatism is also seen in her weak record on abortion rights, such as supporting parental notification laws and stigmatizing women who have abortions with the manner in which she calls for abortion to be “safe, legal and rare.” Clinton was speaking out against same-sex as recently as 2013.

Clinton has disappointed environmentalists in supporting fracking and off-shore drilling. Her views on the Keystone XL Pipeline is just one of many controversial issues where Clinton has refused to give her opinion. The vast amounts of money she has received from backers of the pipeline lead many environmentalists to doubt that Clinton can be counted on to oppose the pipeline, or take any positions contrary to the wishes of the petroleum industry.

Bernie Sanders voted against the Patriot Act while Clinton supported it. Sanders has spoken out against the illegal NSA surveillance while Clinton has remained quiet, and has an overall poor record on civil liberties. Clinton’s failures to archive her email as required when she was Secretary of State and disclose donations to the Clinton Foundation as she had agreed to are just the latest examples of her long-standing hostility towards government transparency.

Saying she is a progressive is not going to win over progressives after she has spent her career opposing liberal values.

12 Comments

  1. 1
    I do do not support her because when she and her husband lived in the white house and a Million Men of African Descendt came in PEACE to the white house on Monday Morning, she and her husband bill left town! says:

    I do not support her because when she and her husband lived in the white house, ONE MILLION BLACK MEN Came to the white house on Monday Morning in Peace,hillery and bill, left town !!!

  2. 2
    Patrick in Michigan says:

    Is it okay if I link to this? I am thinking of doing a blog posting about Clinton and her antics with the press. I'd also like to mention the left's feelings about her.

    Thanks,

    -Patrick

  3. 3
    Ron Chusid says:

    Patrick,

    You are welcome to link to this.

  4. 4
    Patrick in Michigan says:

    Okie dokie will do. 

     

    Patrick,

    You are welcome to link to this.

  5. 5
    Laura @StealthyMom says:

    Her ties to Monsanto are scary enough. I would need no other reasons.

  6. 6
    Mike says:

    She is part of the Bilderberg group also. That’s enough for me! In fact she was probably the topic of discussion there as their choice for president!
    She would gladly fulfill the New World Order agenda!

  7. 7
    Vernon T says:

    Backseat, Hillary. Sorry, but you're not even on the same bus as Bernie.

  8. 8
    MichaelZ says:

    I'm 100% Bernie, but I hold no illusions of his winning the nomination. I will support him fervently right to the end, and come November '16 I will hold my nose and vote for Clinton, because the idea of a Republican president scares the living shit out of me. All progressives had better do the same, because the last thing this country needs is a mass exodus of thinking people from the political process.

  9. 9
    Ron Chusid says:

    Isn’t that why they invented clothes pins? 🙂

  10. 10
    Philo Vaihinger says:

    Nothing you said in this piece shows she is not a progressive, totally true to that tradition (though I don't believe she is).

    Your criticisms here only show she is not a social liberal, and social liberalism is quite different from progressivism.

    Ask William Jennings Bryan, TR, Wilson, or even FDR.

    Maybe even LBJ.

    And that difference, by the way, is at the root of the annoyance of some contemporary liberals with Bernie Sanders, like Joan Walsh who has repeatedly attacked him for not making gay marriage, "women's issues" like abortion and "equal pay," or "race issues" like immigration and police misconduct ("Black Lives Matter") central and identifying themes of his campaign, right from the first day – a campaign focused on core, historic progressive issues like strengthened political democracy, regulation of the economy in the interests of working and ordinary people, and taxation to restrain inequality and finance projects to undo it and otherwise enhance the public good. 

    Bernie is a solid progressive whose passions are engaged by old fashioned progressive issues.

    He is even too old-fashioned and too far-reaching an anti-capitalist, for me, needing (I think) to hear and heed those words of wisdom from Mao, "Let a hundred flowers bloom."

    (I am thinking of his choice to structure his otherwise admirable education reforms as attacks on private and independent educational institutions.)

    That doesn't mean he isn't a social liberal or won't play along with its agenda – though his refusal to call himself a Democrat for all these years might make you wonder how reliable he might be, in the long run, as a "team player."

  11. 11
    Ron Chusid says:

    I intentionally have concentrated more on social liberties and civil liberties issues as there has already been a tremendous amount written on economic issues. Plus it coincides more with my interests.

    Considering the current economic conditions, it is no surprise that candidates would concentrate on economic issues during the campaign. It is more important that Sanders has held liberal positions on social issues his entire career.

    I don’t care that he isn’t a “team player” in this regard. He is far preferable to a “team” with Clinton in charge.

  12. 12
    gizmo says:

    Clinton also sat on the Boards of WalMart & LaFarge Cement, two of the worst corporations on earth.   She has zero experience as a business person, so there was no reason for her to be part of those organizations other than to provide an insider connection to Washington.

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