Go Left My Lady!

The video Hillary Clinton produced to announce that she is running for President was a fluff piece. It was warm and fuzzy and totally devoid of any substantive policy statements. I am familiar with the old saw that unsolicited advice is worth what you pay for it. I also know that the probability of Hillary Clinton ever seeing or even hearing about this post is almost nil. But if I were inclined let those things deter me I would not have created this blog in the first place. So here goes, here is what I have to say to Hillary.

Forget about the Bill scandals. The only people who are still carrying them around like a bad rash are Wayne La Peebreath, the right wing dumb asses, and the GOP demagogues who exploit the right wing dumb asses. Fortunately that rash is rarely contagious, and the people who have it are never going to vote for you anyhow. I do not think you have to worry about Benghazi either. The Republicans will continue to beat that drum, but all you have to do is remind people of who deprived you of the funds you requested to provide more security for our embassies and consulates. Whether those funds would have made a difference in the case of Benghazi does not matter. What matters are the optics of the Republican Party's hypocrisy and the shameful way the Republicans are using for political purposes the deaths of patriots who bravely risked their lives by serving this country in places they knew were dangerous.

Now that I have talked about the baggage you do not have to worry about, let me tell you about the baggage you should worry about. You are perceived by many people as being a corporate Democrat. Furthermore, the Clinton name is associated with Globalization and Gramm-Leach-Bliley. That perception and that association make a heavy load, and you cannot lighten it with fluff pieces.

Even the people who do not pay much attention to politics know they are getting screwed! They know about the exportation of good paying jobs, and they feel the pain this has caused. If you are smart you will back away from fast tracking and the TPP just as fast as you can peddle. The trade imbalances and jobs lost because of prior trade agreements make fast tracking and TPP issues that both the left and the right can and will use against you!

In regard to Gramm-Leach-Bliley, let me say that toxic loans and the bailouts still resonate as issues. Getting rid of Glass Steagall was a huge mistake that we paid for with the crash of 2008. You can appeal to both left and right by saying that we must prevent future bailouts with regulations that will prevent the greedy behavior that caused the crash. Pledge to reinstate the ban on the FDIC insuring derivatives, and let it be known that you favor strengthening Dodd-Frank rather than weakening it. I know your Wall Street and Bank connections will make that difficult, but reinstating Glass-Steagall and breaking up the mega-banks and financial firms would be a lot more objectionable to your contributers. And neither of those things is an idle threat. If the mega-banks and financial institutions cause another crash, which is very likely, the clamor for anti-trust suits and the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall will become irresistible!

Embrace a progressive agenda. The popularity of Elizabeth Warren is not simply a left wing phenomenon. A progressive agenda is what is clearly called for now, and there are things in that agenda that appeal to a wide range of voters. In fact, the Democrats who ran away from a progressive agenda are the ones who lost during both mid-terms, and it was not just because those Democrats were running in red states. Running as Republican Lite does not work. Give the voters a clear choice. Promising more of the same is also a non-starter. The people of this country want a fair shake, and you need to tell them they are not going to get it from the Greedy Old Plutocrats and their lackeys.

Drawing a distinction between yourself and Republicans by talking about the need for an increase in the minimum wage, and the need to protect and in some cases expand earned benefit programs such as Unemployment Insurance, Social Security, and Medicare is good. Those programs and the ACA are meat and potato issues, as is equal pay for equal work. But we need more. The decrease in real wages has become intolerable. We need a President who will follow the principles the progressive caucus set forth for trade agreements and one who will fight for labor unions and the right to collectively bargain. We also need a President who will figuratively give the five Supreme Injustices the finger by fighting for a Constitutional Amendment that will overturn Citizens United and decrease the role money plays in our political system.

Tactically, it is also time to employ a little Republican style jiu jitsu. Up until Ronald Reagan it was Democrats who talked about the undo influence “special interests” had on the Republican Party. What the Democrats meant by special interests were large corporations, the Chamber of Commerce, and the large financial institutions (you know, the people who crashed the economy in 2008). Reagan turned that issue on its head by re-defining “special interests” to mean labor unions, environmental groups, etc. (you know, the people who fought for living wages, safe work places, and the preservation of a beautiful place to live, work and play). I think it is time for us to turn the table on Republicans by re-defining the bogey man Republicans call “Big Government.”

It is the Republicans who want a big, intrusive government that will tell women what they can or cannot do in regard to planning their families and careers, and what kind of health care they can get. It is the Republicans who want a big government that restricts our democracy by putting up impediments that deprive groups of citizens of the right to vote. It is the Republicans who want a big government that will stop providing the public schools our taxes pay for and will force us to pay more to have our kids educated by private companies the government will use our tax dollars to subsidize with no restrictions on how much those private companies can charge us directly. It is the Republicans who want a big government that wrings from the middle class the price of all the subsides and services the government provides to our wealthiest corporations and our wealthiest citizens while reneging on the benefits of earned benefits programs such as Social Security and Medicare by turning those programs over to private companies that will make a whopping profit at our expense.

I think most people would rather have a Democratic government that will go into board rooms to protect our jobs and our safety rather than a Republican government that will go into our bedrooms and our doctors' offices to prevent us from using our own good judgement to make choices religious fanatics might find objectionable?