Hilary

Hilary Clinton

One of the most common, and surely one of the most offensive racial slurs regularly used against black Americans is the nonsensical assertion that Bill Clinton was the nations “first black president”. This ridiculous notion not only simplifies black Americans to a set of poor cultural stereotypes but also neglects and ignores a few of President Clinton’s more controversial moves.

In 1992 while Clinton was fighting to become the Democrat nominee he decided to strengthen his image regarding crime by putting to death a man named Ricky Ray Rector in his home state of Arkansas. Rector was a large mentally ill black man who provided Clinton with a chance to endear himself to southern white men. Thankfully if this state sanctioned murder was due today it would be against the law, following too many immoral incidents like this one, 2002 saw the Supreme Court make it illegal to kill people with “mental retardation”. Never wishing to look inconsistent president Clinton’s crime bill of 1994 actually made it easier for the state to kill its own people by extending the offences for which the death penalty could now be applied, which was now altered to include drug offences.

During the same 1992 campaign Clinton also made a thoroughly unwarranted and actually absurd attack on the rapper and activist Sister Souljah in which he quoted her out of context and accused her of promoting a racist "anti white agenda". The move was criticised by the Rainbow Coalition and in reality it provided yet another example of the Democrats taking the votes of black Americans for granted and then subsequently pandering to white conservatives by promoting a crude stereotypes of Black Americans.

While in office Clinton also sold out the overwhelming amount of gay voters who had helped him get elected. During the presidential campaign Clinton had promised to ensure that gay Americas could join the military without reservation. However following opposition from the usual suspects Clinton backtracked and instead introduced a policy of “Don’t ask don’t tell” which would mean that soldiers could still be discharged from the army for the monumental crime of being gay but not to worry as soldiers would not be asked about their sexuality. The effect of this legislation is that gays are no longer seen as vile and immoral just merely sub human.

Without wishing to dwell on the morals of the Monica Lewinsky affair it is worth emphasising the fact that Clinton was prepared to lie about the matter and clearly expected his employees to do likewise. The trouble with this is not just that it raises questions about the former presidents personal sexual conduct but also the fact that such blatant lying took place over the issue means that surely anything Clinton says on other contentious issues must be taken with a pinch of salt. Of course the other outcome is that Juanita Broaddrick, Genifer Flowers and the scores of other women with allegations of sexual misconduct on the part of the former president should probably be re- examined. Furthermore it needs to be emphasised that Clinton was prepared to look the American people in their collective eyes and lie to them about something of such little importance.

During the Lewinsky affair the president, desperate to divert attention lead his nation to war in attack against Iraq and bombed a major pharmaceutical factory in Sudan, which was then followed up with no compensation whatsoever and passed with the minimum of controversy. Surely if he couldn't be impeached for lying under oath ten he should have been impeached for war crimes. Another fact which passed with minimal controversy at the time was the legislation of Extraordinarily Rendition flights as a Clinton executive order allowed the USA to send suspects to countries like Egypt where they could be placed under torture.

As I write this it appears that Hilary Clinton is still the favourite Democrat to unseat Bush. Hilary has suggested her husband would be a roving American ambassador in a moment reminiscent of his suggestion in 1994 that America had elected “two presidents for the price of one” what is apparent is that we can neither separate Hilary from Bills legacy or Bill from any future presidency. Every bad policy exercised during the Clinton era must have thus been agreed to by Hilary or at least we can conclude she never had any strong objections as her husband cut social security and waged immoral wars to detract attention from his illicit affairs.

Regarding her senate record it is worth emphasising that Hilary voted for the war in Afghanistan, she has voted for the authoritarian patriot act and also gave her full and enthusiastic support for the disastrous war in Iraq and has spoken in congress in favour of torture techniques being used during interrigations. As I write this the Government intelligence services have publicly come out saying that Iran does not have the capabilities to produce WMD's, of course this comes shortly after Hilary lined up with the neo cons to effectively give a green light for her government to use force should they see fit. On most of the major issues Hilary has only been happy to support the Bush administration; her descent in to populism is arguably embodied in her co- sponsorship of an anti flag burning Bill during her early days in the senate.

If liberal Americans give their backing to Clinton they will be making a monumental and potentially catastrophic mistake. The really bad news is that if Hilary does land the nomination then she is such a polarising individual that it seems anyone remotely conservative already views her as a communist and will ensure they turn out to vote for whoever the Republicans can put up, she stands a much better chance than Mccain of reuniting a divided GOP. I like to think optimistically that the Democrats will support Obama and in doing so bring a symbolic end to the divisive Clinton/ Bush dynasties and strike a blow to the selfish corporate interests and crude neo- liberal agenda which they represent.