29 Mar 2024
Sunday 30 October 2016 - 11:50
Story Code : 236989

10 things to expect with a Hillary Clinton presidency

In last issue of Black Agenda Report, I argued that readers should vote for the Green Party this November. This week, I will outline what to expect from a Hillary Clinton Presidency. The great migration of Republicans into the Democratic Party tent of Hillary Clinton has guaranteed her victory in the highly undemocratic US Presidential elections. Corporate media outlets have collaborated with Clinton to instill deep popular fear of aTrump administration. Fear of Trump has been used to distract the many millions of people in the US who are fed up with both corporate parties. This has led to a lack of investigation and analysis of what can be expected once Hillary Clinton actually takes office.

The corporatemedia has exploited the general population's distaste for sexism and white supremacy in the process.Trump has made heinous statement after heinous statement, all of whichshould be taken seriously by anyone who calls themselves a movement activist. It is critical that the left in the US extend solidarity to those who experience theconsequences of racism and sexism every day. However, Trump's vile character has been used as a means to legitimize the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. His characterization as a fascist has convinced many that his rule would be a greater dangerto humanity than a Clinton Presidency.

One could endlessly debate Clinton supporters on the validity of such a claim. Trump's vulgar and putrid presentation has provided Clinton supporters with a convenient weapon of defense against all criticism of their own vile choice. Yet the lesser evil argument has never been weaker than in the 2016 elections. It is reasonable to assume that a Hillary Clinton Presidency will be far less effective than Obama in effecting capitalist and imperialist hegemony. This is why her support system, the entire ruling class, has gone into overdrive to spread fear of a Russia-Trump collaborative threat in every sphere of US political life.

Here are ten things to expect from a Clinton Presidency. I will leave it to readers to judge as to whether Clinton represents a "lesser evil" than Trump or just plain evil.

1.) The Privatization of Social Security - Hillary Clinton has stated publicly and privately to her Wall Street friends that she will reignite conversations to downsize the program. Wikileaks exposed Clinton's support for the Obama's Administration's "deficit reduction" commission that originally proposed cuts to entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare in 2012. Clinton donors on Wall Streethave made it clear that they would love to get ahold of Social Security earnings and turn them into a financial market to be traded for profit.

2.)World War III - Hillary Clinton has stated in nearly every debate that her administration would consider placing a no-fly zone in Syria. That means US airstrikes would rain down on Syrian and Russian assets in Syria. Such a move would place the US military in directconfrontation with Russia. Clinton has been caught stating that the Syrian and Russian lives that will die in such a conflict are well worth the benefits.

3.) The Transpacific Partnership -Often called "NAFTA on steroids," the massive corporate trade agreement that captures much of Asia Pacific region has been a major talking point in the 2016 elections. Clinton has supported the agreement in the past, only to switch her position due to pressure from the Bernie Sanders campaign. With Sanders firmly in the Clinton camp, there is currently nothing in the way to stop Clinton from moving forward with the TPP's passage and making her private position on the deal a public reality.

4.)Maintenanceand Expansion of the Surveillance State -Not much needs to be said here. The Obama Administration's vast expansion of the surveillance state has been exposed by the likes of Ed Snowden and Julian Assange. Wikileaks additionally revealed Clinton's desire to drone Julian Assange for releasing Washingtons secrets to the public. A Clinton Presidency has every intention of following up on the Obama Administration's passage of bills such as the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012. This bill gave the US government theright to militarily detain "terror" suspects indefinitely.

5.) Trump's Wall -Hillary Clinton was Obama's Secretary of State from 2009-2013. Over this time, she helped facilitate the largest deportation of undocumented people in US history. Furthermore, she oversaw the detention of thousands of Central American children during the great migration from the 2009 fascist coup in Honduras, a coup that was drawn up by Clinton herself. The US-Mexico border is more militarized than it has ever been. Trump's wall rhetoric was indeed a racist trip, but too few recognize that something just as dangerous actually exists under current US immigration policy.

6.) Servitude to the Bankers -Hillary Clinton has received over forty million in support from Hedge funds in the 2016 elections.Before selling out, Bernie Sanders made it a point to request publicaccess into Clinton's private, quarter million dollar speeches to banks like Goldman Sachs.The deregulation of the banks with the passage of the Glass-Steagall Act was a Clinton project. Both her current list of donors and past connection to her husbands policies make her the obvious choice for the finance capitalist class.

7.)Maintenanceof the Mass Black Incarceration State -Hillary Clinton is the enemy of Black America. From her callous use of the term "super predator" to describe working class Black men to being the architect of the 1994 crime bill, the Clinton dynasty virtually built the mass Black incarceration state. Under Bill and Hillary Clinton's two terms, the prison populationrose by 673,000. This wasfacilitatedby draconian "three strikes" laws, mandatory drug sentences, and the deep militarization of local police departments. With her record, it isn't too difficult to assume what another four years of Clinton rule will bring in the realm of policing and prisons.

8.) Austerity and More Austerity -It was the first Clinton Administration that eliminated "welfare as we know it." The evisceration of Aid to Families and Dependent Children (AFDC) and its replacement, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), threw millions of women and children into poverty. Obama has followed up with draconian cuts to SNAP (foodstamps). There is nothing on Clinton's track record that indicates her administration would do anything but roll back whateversocial programs and protections still exist for the poor in the US.

9.) A Boost to the Privatization of Education -Hillary Clinton received boos in July when she urged teachers' unions and charter operators to "work together" for the greater good of students. Ever since, Clinton has attempted to exploit the rise of Sanders by courting teachers unions to endorse her. Her position has slightly softened on the privatization of education, but that hardly matters. Clinton receives broad support from school privatizers (like Wal-Mart) and should not be expected to roll back the "shock and awe" war on public education waged by the Obama Administration.

10.) An Economic Crisis- Bankers and economists have been predicting an economic crash for much of 2016. Capitalists everywhere were given free rein to "recover" with trillions in stimulus cash after sending the entire global capitalist economy into collapse in 2008. The internal contradictions of the system are only sharpening as workers become poorer and globalproduction stagnates. Whether Clinton can manage a crisis in service of the capitalists as well Obama has remains to be seen.

Clinton may very well be the highest expression of ruling class consensus that has ever presented itself in an election season. Her political record represents a greater material threat to humanity than Donald Trump for the sheer fact that she is the preferred candidate of the ruling class.The question now is whether mass sentiment exists to organize around an alternative to the two-party corporate duopoly. Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka are attempting to build the base of theGreen party ticket. Whatever method is chosen, it must be wielded to combat lesser evil politics and build an organized force ready to struggle against the intensified suffering that will surely be imposed on the world by a Clinton Administration.

 

This article was written by Danny Haiphong for American Herald Tribune on Oct 27, 2016.
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