Saturday’s Democratic Debate proved that the difference between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton is as simple as it is profound.
Hillary is a New Democrat and subscribes to the philosophy of the DLC (Democratic Leadership Council) that her husband chaired back in the 90’s. She believes that Corporate America is a rightful constituency of the Democratic Party, and that the Democrats should embrace “market-based solutions” through what the New Democrat Coalition calls a “pro-growth agenda”
Hillary does not really believe that income inequality is as big a problem as Bernie does, and she is very wary of what the Republicans used to call “Big Government”. Remember when Bill Clinton was so proud of “ending Welfare as we know it”? Well, that was pure DLC. Likewise, the Clinton Crime Bill, which instituted mandatory minimums, three strikes laws, and led to mass incarceration of African American and Latino youth — that was to prove that New Democrats could also be “tough on crime.”
And yes, they say that only a Republican like Nixon could go to China, and it is also true that only a “Democrat” like Clinton could get the congress to completely abolish a social service program that was literally called “Aid to Families with Dependent Children.”
A Bit of History
The DLC was part of an international reaction to the conservative philosophy and the popularity of Reagan and Thatcher. That dynamic duo of the Right convinced many on the Left that they had to move to the centre in order to win elections. This led to the “Third Way” political movement that was personified by Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. In both cases, the so-called “liberal” party used “triangulation” to co-opt what had previously been conservative issues in order to cobble together a “super electorate” which was supposed to transcend the old stereotypes of Right and Left.
The result in America was that the Democratic Leadership Council turned the party to the Right on economic issues, while still pursuing a seemingly liberal agenda on cultural matters. They would “protect” Medicare and Medicaid (but never expand it) and they would vow not to allow the GOP to privatise Social Security (but never expand it). In short, they were more interested in fighting a rear guard action and defending what earlier Democrats like FDR and LBJ had achieved, because they honestly believed that the days of populism and progressivism were over. “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” was a good example of a typical DLC/New Democrat policy.
Bernie, however, is an “Old Fashioned” Democrat — more in the tradition of FDR than of Bill Clinton. You may have noticed that most of Bernie’s economic platform is taken directly and almost verbatim from the “Second Bill of Rights” that Roosevelt proposed in 1944. That legislation never passed in the US Congress, although FDR was able to get the new Western European countries to adopt it during the post WWII reconstruction.
Yes, Bernie is channeling FDR and LBJ, looking to expand what is understood to be “Rights” to include health care and education, and looking to continue building the Great Society. These are not something that DLC followers like Hillary believe in.
The Big Difference
This fundamental philosophical difference was obvious in the debate last night when Hillary gave her response to the question as to whether or not Corporate America should still “love” her. She said:
“Everybody should!”
This is classic DLC/New Democrat thinking. You can tell both the overpaid CEOs and their underpaid workers that you represent both their interests. You do not believe or admit that the economic interests of those two groups are very different if not diametrically opposed.
Bernie, however, answered the question much differently. He immediately fired back:
"The CEOs of large multinationals may like Hillary. They ain't going to like me… And Wall Street is going to like me even less. And the reason for that is we've got to deal with the elephant in the room, which is the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior on Wall Street. "
In that response Bernie was once again channelling Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who railed against those he called the “Economic Royalists”. In his speech in NY in 1936 Roosevelt claimed that these rich elites “hated” him.
“We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering … They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.”
That is what Bernie is saying. He knows that there is indeed a class struggle going on, and in this struggle you cannot serve two masters -you need to take sides. Bernie knows that in order to help working class people, he will have to become unpopular with the wealthy.
Hillary, however, would have us believe that her policies will somehow be a “win-win” for both the billionaires and the working people. And that is precisely the kind of “Third Way” thinking that has ruled the Democratic Party for the past 35 years, and has led to the obscene wealth and income inequality, racial injustice and many other of the ills that we have today.
I believe, as many do, that we need a totally new direction, and that Bernie embodies that direction. Hillary does not.