Bill Clinton: A Moderate Republican

Economic absurdities that
Democrats must expose:

...because it's wrong to penalize success and hard work.

...therefore, we should eliminate the capital gains tax.

...After all, they came from, and understand, business.

...even though it is based on pitting the worlds' workers against each other.

...union bosses are only out for themselves.

...and the more the rich have, the more will trickle down to everyone else.

...Democrats are communists, or at least, socialists at heart.

...so when we tax wealthy investors, we lose jobs.

...so investors, not workers, create wealth.

...so we should give them all the tax breaks possible.

...Democrats just want to tax and spend today.

General Issues:

...check out this 2-minute video.

...It's a mountain, and a terrible defense of globalization.

...for those of Indonesia, Mexico, China and India.

...and how not to do it again.

...and the "crisis" is just a ploy by those who want to destroy it.

...Republicans' most important propaganda technique.

...and get the media on your side

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Clinton: A Moderate Republican

 

    Forget the Monica Lewinski debacle. She's irrelevant.

   Clinton was a disaster for liberals and Democrats because he was a closet Republican and was a major cause of the wealth and income gap that exists today between the rich and middle- and low-income Americans. Voters now identify his economic policies that benefitted investors and the wealthy at the expense of workers—primarily, but not exclusively, NAFTA, WTO and "globalization"—with today's liberals and Democrats. As they say, "Why vote for a Democrat if their economic policies are just as bad as the Republicans."

    The Wall Street Journal agreed. From the November 7, 1996 issue:

 

"We have a great Republican president now."

A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard
Chairman of the Securities Industry
Association and head of Alex Brown, Inc.

"Here we are dead set in the center with a big long leash around President Clinton."

Hardwick Simmons
Prudential Securities Inc.
Chief Executive Officer

    According to the biased-conservative-news-media, Clinton was right where Big Business wanted him: in the middle of the road between the Republican right wing of Congress, and the moderate Democrats in Congress.

    In other words, The Wall Street Journal and America's right wing have successfully changed our definitions of balance and moderation. Traditional "Eisenhower Republicanism" (Clinton) is now considered moderation, and is almost nonexistent in the Republican party. Traditional "Truman Liberalism" is now considered extremist and is increasingly rare in the Democratic party.

    This means that big corporations, the wealthy and the powerful have convinced the American voter that:

  • Workers' wages are low, not because they lack power, but because they are uneducated and poorly trained

  • Unmanaged free trade will eventually benefit all Americans

  • The growing wealth and income gap in our society is good because it is fair (the wealthy work harder and have more talent) and it will eventually benefit everyone

  • The more money our richest citizens take out of our corporations and our society, the better off everyone will be

  • High taxes on our richest citizens are unfair and hurt the economy

  • Money, greed and raw political power have nothing to do with what voters believe about the above

  • And, in general, no one should try to change any of the above because that would be "big government," and, besides, these "temporary abberations" are the natural, inevitable forces of a healthy economy.

    Conservatives have been very effective in palming off these economic absurdities. Even many former liberals have changed sides, having joined the ranks of the affluent, and having forgotten what kinds of governmental policies got them there.

   Democrats are long overdue in disavowing much of Clinton's economic policies. They erroneously feel they must leave his legacy untarnished if they are to regain the confidence of voters. The opposite is true: they absolutely must educate the public, including many Democrats, about who destroyed working-class incomes through globalization—Republicans and conservative Democrats.

   To get a roaring stock market, Clinton and the Republicans were willing to exchange high-paying manufacturing jobs for a larger number of poor-paying service jobs. And now the pressures on American incomes are creeping up the economic and social ladder to high-skill and professional jobs.

   It’s an economic disaster, and—until Democrats are willing to accurately place blame where it belongs—they’ll never be able to truly level with the American public about what needs to be done now. The answer to our economic problems is NOT more of the same—globalization and a whole range of anti-labor legislation—but just the opposite.

   As America continues to drift to the far right, with the help of some pseudo-Democrats, the charade continues. 


      
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