Clinton's Revenge & The New Democrats

While America spirals downward under the constant pressure of catastrophic failures, foreign and domestic, the Democrats sit back, wringing their hands, grateful that they were not in control of government when the inevitable happened. They huddle in quiet places and take turns issuing statements of outrage without offering a global assessment or a vision of where we should go from here.

The latest offering comes from former president Bill Clinton, fresh off his unity tour with the elder Bush, suggesting that Democrats care more about poor people. His remarks were interpreted as a stinging rebuke. They were rather the standard Democratic line with little in the way of programs and policies to back them up.

An assortment of leading Democrats, taking their cues from the Clintons, are forming alliances with the John McCain camp in preparing an election package that covers all the Republican bases: More soldiers for a bigger and better war, less funding for social services in the name of budgetary restraint, no tax increases (read my lips), greater freedom for international corporations, less freedom for individuals, and a new era of austerity for the working class. All hail the Democrats!

When I observe the former president rubbing elbows with the Bush people, making apologies for catastrophic failures, making overtures to the most extreme rightwing war mongers, and counseling Democrats to abandon controversial issues, I recall what a dismal failure his presidency was to everyone on the left of the mainstream political divide. I remember that his crimes of aggression and omission were the precursors to all the blunders that we have now absorbed.

I am reminded of Neil Young’s epic saga of the Green family and the telling lyric: "Hey, Mister Clean, you’re dirty now, too."

To all of you who are looking forward to the presidency of Hillary Clinton, I implore you: Take a good hard look before you buy.

In a time of relative prosperity, the Clinton administration initiated the current program of austerity with welfare/workfare reform. Clinton disassembled job training and relocation programs in favor of enterprise zones (a Republican favorite), knowing that his free trade initiatives would lead inevitably to a mass exodus of jobs. Clinton set the policy of regime change in Iraq and prosecuted the most deadly sanctions the world has ever known. Clinton sabotaged an astonishingly successful weapons inspection and disarmament process. Clinton stabbed Jean Bertrand Aristide in the back and sealed the fate that Haiti now suffers. Clinton refused to support the Kyoto Accord on global climate change and neglected the levees of New Orleans as much as his successor.

The one thing that can be said for Bill Clinton is that he was smarter than Karl Rove and the neocon brain trust that rules today. He was a good manager and he managed to get out of town before it all came crashing down on the heels of the accounting scandals. In all fairness, Clinton was much too smart to invade and occupy Iraq. That said, what would Hillary bring to the table in 2008? Will she pledge to bring the soldiers home? Will she end corporate dominance of public policies? Will she reverse the bleeding of jobs and restore quality of life with decent wages?

All of these outcomes are sadly improbable.

The Clintons are entrenched. They are a part of the machine and they will not disturb the established order. They have survived thus far by adhering to the corporate vision and they are not likely to change in a third or fourth term.

The time is growing late for true democracy in America. If we continue to look in the same old places, to the same old parties, with variations on the same old policies, we will continue the downward spiral until it is too late to recover.

There is such a thing as being too hopeful.

I am as guilty as anyone is for supporting the candidacy of John Kerry in spite of his policies. I supported him because I chose to believe that he would be better than another term of this Republican administration. I reasoned that he would have to better because he could not be worse and I held on to that belief (sheer irrational faith) even after he offered the vice presidential candidacy to McCain.

I admit that I despise the new Republicans – not because they are conservative but because they have severed themselves from that part of the conservative philosophy I most respected. There is nothing conservative about aggressive wars, inflated military spending, massive deficits or an all-out assault on civil liberties. Conservatives are supposed to embrace small government and individual liberty. They do not write blank checks and continue spending under a mountain of debt.

I despise the new conservatives because they are false even to themselves.

I have come to realize that the Democrats are guilty of the same mendacity. In the wake of Katrina, it may be fashionable for some to speak of a revived New Deal but when it settles in the dust, the corporate sponsors of both parties will not allow it. In the end, they will ask us to make do with a closed tax loophole, a few enterprise zones and a modest discount on the price of prescription drugs.

The new Democrats are no more liberal than the new Republicans are conservative. They are demagogues all, pandering to the issue of the day. They are elevated public relations officers for the corporate powers they represent.

Real change must come from outside the established order.

If Huey Long were alive today, he would be our candidate.

Who among the leaders of our nation will step forward now in the greatest hour of need since the Great Depression? The midterm election is a year away. The presidential election is three years away. The nation is suffering and the downward spiral will not be reversed. The time is ripe but it is already late. We need a party, an organization and a candidate and we need them now.

People in the antiwar movement, the civil rights movement, the pro-choice movement, the gay rights movement, the environmental movement, dissidents and disaffected alike, do not yield the electoral process to the parties that no longer care. There is a window of opportunity the size of Grand Canyon but if you wait too long, it will slam shut and once again, you will all be holding Hillary placards through another feckless campaign and praying for a miracle that will never come.

Jazz.

JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). THE CHRONICLES HAVE BEEN POSTED ON DISSIDENT VOICE, THE ALBION MONITOR & COUNTERPUNCH. SEE RANDOM JACK: http://www.jazzmanchronicles.blogspot.com.

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