Now that the electoral college making it official, it’s time to decide on a way forward for the Democratic party.
I would argue that the Clintonista domination of the Democratic Party must end now.
When Bill Clinton resigned as head of the DLC to run for President, they promulgated an agenda that hurt the American people and the party:
- Favoring capital over labor in legislation and regulation. (Rubonomics)
- Encouraging labor and regulatory arbitrage through trade deals that explicitly favored the capital over labor.
- Dog whistles to racists (Sistah Soulja moments).
- Deregulation of the financial industry. (Repeal of Glass Steagall)
- Destruction of the social safety net. (Welfare “Reform”)
- Insanely racist and punitive law enforcement policies. (“Bring them to heel”)
- Privatization of basic government services. (“Reinventing Government”)
- Hostility to labor unions.
- Insanely punitive IP policies. (DMCA)
Most importantly, it was the Clinton’s aggressive push for the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, which has converted aid into block grants, with the following results:
- Aid to need families is less than 26% of the money spent.
- Deep poverty in the US has more than doubled.
- Aid is now spent on such things as:
- Dating and relationship workshops.
- Scholarships for well off kids to go to private schools.
- ANTI-abortion counseling. (Mike Pence’s Indiana, no surprise)
The argument has always been, “But we win,” ignoring the damage that has been done to the party, and the nation.
And now they no longer win. As Ian Welsh so pithily observes, everything cost Hillary Clinton the election, and the majority of these were an artifact of an insular and arrogant leadership who trace back their origins to the Clinton.
Unfortunately, the leadership of the Democratic Party establishment is still largely Clinton hacks, (Barack Obama was kind of busy with the world blowing up in 2009 and then passing the PPACA) and so we still have a political establishment that favors their own power within the organization over what works. (**COUGH** Dismantling the 50 state strategy **COUGH**)
The current Clinton dominated leadership of the party needs to be ripped out, root and branch.