This week's
The Nation has a fascinating and illuminating article about Hillary Clinton. I was just thinking about her because of that diary a few days ago the suggested we be careful of people (I'll call them FUD purveyors, for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) who tell us we should fear and repudiate certain articulate leaders (Dean, Chavez, Galloway) based on ill-defined and unsupported attacks.
Well, I think Hillary is another one. I would argue that it behooves us all to take another look at her, with full skepticism about the stereotypes imposed on her by the FUD purveyors. I am not arguing that HRC should be our presidential nominee - I'm not sure she is even my favorite at this point. But I do want to argue that we should make our decisions about her based on what she is really like and not what we've been told she is like.
The article starts by talking about a recent campaign swing through nothern New York farm country. First it discusses an appearance before "rural, moderate Democrats--small-town schoolteachers, librarians, general-store owners":
The event was closed to the press, and the Senator shed her typically demure, bipartisan approach and launched a sharp attack on the GOP. Yet she knew her audience--these were hardly red-meat-craving Democratic activist types. They were rural, moderate Democrats--small-town schoolteachers, librarians, general-store owners. So Clinton's assault was spirited, but even-tempered and larded with patriotic language.
"We're seeing the slow and steady erosion of what made America great in the twentieth century," Clinton told her audience in an even tone. "When I got to the Senate I asked myself, What's going on here? At first I thought the President just wanted to undo everything my husband had done." Clinton waited a beat, then added, "And I did take that personally."
The audience laughed. "But then I thought, Wait a minute. It's not just about turning the clock back on the 1990s.... They want to turn the clock back on most of the twentieth century. They want to turn the clock all the way back beyond Franklin Roosevelt. Back beyond Teddy Roosevelt. That's why they're trying to undo Social Security. Make no mistake about it.
"What I see happening in Washington," Clinton continued, "is a concerted effort by the Administration and the leadership in Congress to really create absolute power. They want to control the judiciary so they can have all three branches of government. I really don't care what party you are--that's not in the American tradition.... Right now young men and women are putting their lives on the line in Iraq and Afghanistan, fighting for the America we revere. And that is a country where nobody has all the answers--and nobody should have all the power.... We all need to stand up for what made America great--what created a wonderful set of values that we revere, that we exported and tried to really inculcate in people around the world!"
Wild applause rolled over Clinton now, although it was unclear whether the crowd had appreciated the political subtleties of what they'd witnessed. She had offered a critique of the GOP sharp enough for any progressive--even as she'd given an approving nod to American exceptionalism and a paean to US troops defending our "values" abroad. She'd stoked the partisan passions of her audience--even as she'd sounded an above-partisanship note of concern about the state of the Republic. Indeed, she'd managed to pull off what many Democrats struggle to do these days: She'd weaved her criticisms into a larger narrative about America's past and future, criticizing the GOP leadership without sounding as if she wanted America to fail--when she said she was "worried" about America, you believed her.
Next, the article talks about a speech to around 300 farmers:
She instantly, and effortlessly, became Homespun Hillary. Her vowels grew flatter, more rural-sounding. "Little" became "li'l." "Get" became "git." Entire pronouns vanished, as in: "Heard there are some places in California selling gas for three dollars a gall'n." She poked fun at city folk. Speaking about how farmers could make money supplying the specialty produce that New York restaurants need, she mimicked a demand made to her by city restaurateurs: "We need all those little funny things you don't know what they are when they put 'em on your plate."
The crowd seemed especially impressed with her command of their pocketbook issues. She talked about fuel prices, protecting farmers from foreign competition, the Senate's neglect of New York agriculture in favor of Western agribusiness. She touted an initiative she'd spearheaded making it easier for local businesspeople to sell products via the Internet: "Fella made fly-fishing rods and lures--all of a sudd'n found there were people in Norway who wanted to buy th'm!"
By the end, you could feel it: Her audience had been won over. Her listeners filed out, murmuring approval of what they'd heard. As Robert Madison, a Republican and owner of a small local dairy farm with his three sons, put it: "Real down-to-earth person. Knows what she wants to do for the farmer."
These descriptions of these appearances illustrate two things about HRC: (1) She is a very good politician. Once people give her a chance and listen to her, they like her and trust her. (2) She works hard and does her homework. She knows farm policy, for example - those weren't vague generalities.
These two themes are expanded upon in the article. There is much discussion on how she comes across as non-rigid to moderates, thus getting them to listen to her and give her a chance. Here two examples:
Take the Santorum press conference. You can endlessly debate whether popular entertainment hurts kids, or whether government should fix the problem. Yet if there's one thing most middle-of-the-road parents can agree on, it's that they are worried about how pop culture affects their children. By appearing with a right-wing Republican loathed by liberal Dems, she's essentially telling moderate Republicans, "parenting should transcend ideology, so this Democrat will stand with anyone if it might help kids." Yes, it legitimizes Santorum. But it also helps to defuse an undeniably potent right-wing strategy: the effort to paint Dems as antifamily.
Or take the abortion speech. You could argue that while it might have been discomfiting to prochoice groups, it's actually a smart tactical response to the right's increasingly successful strategy of painting prochoicers as ideological extremists. Polls consistently show that majorities favor legalized abortion. But decades of conservative attacks have fooled voters into believing that prochoice groups are to the left of public opinion. The speech wasn't really about abortion policy; it was about what to do before conception to reduce pregnancies, and while Clinton stressed teen abstinence, her main focus was on encouraging birth control, a stance objectionable only to the hard right.
The political beauty of this, as NewDonkey.com's Ed Kilgore has observed, is that it makes a subtle play for Republican moderates by forcing right-wing ideologues to reveal themselves as the true extremists, as foes of the common-sense goal of lowering rates of unwanted pregnancies. "When Democrats speak this way about abortion," says one senior Hillary adviser, "it drives a wedge between sensible Republicans, who want to reduce the amount of abortions, and the right-wing crazies, whose main goal is to stop people from having sex."
Another example: She is till talking about health care, but now she emphasizes that it isn't just harming the uninsured, but also companies. She says "GM has become a healthcare company that makes cars." I can attest from my own experience that this is an argument that moderate conservatives can listen to.
There is also some discussion of the difficulty those of us who are on the progeressive end of the party have with some of her positions - the war resolution vote being the prime example.
What about Clinton's biggest lapse--her Iraq vote? For some antiwar progressives, no doubt, it will be a deal-breaker. And, of course, they are unlikely to be comforted by the fact that she really thought she was doing the right thing, as people who are close to her insist she did. Yet to focus on that one vote, again, misses the larger goal of Clinton's politics. As she recognizes, the Democratic Party's problem on national security far transcends the Iraq vote. Decades of assaults on Dems from the right (helped along by international fiascoes presided over by Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter) have succeeded in persuading Americans that Dems are fundamentally uncomfortable with the application of American "hard" power abroad. As Clinton well knows, this is not something that can be corrected by merely donning a pair of plastic hawk's wings. It's a perception problem that will take a long time--and a lot of hard work--to reverse. So she's methodically built up a comfort level--and comfort is the key--with national security issues, joining the Armed Services Committee and spending countless hours mastering military arcana. This approach is far more involved and politically shrewd than just talking tough on the Sunday chat shows. It's not off-putting to the Democratic base, which loathes Joe Lieberman-style militaristic posturing. And it comes across as genuine, because it's rooted in Clinton's strategy of emphasizing smart, pragmatic government over ideology.
Of course, sitting on Armed Services is hardly a substitute for articulating a sweeping foreign policy vision that can compete with GOP militarism. But it may be a necessary first step. Polls indicate that there's rising disquiet with the direction of Bush's foreign policies. At the same time, Americans appear consistently more comfortable entrusting foreign policy to the GOP. What that suggests is that perhaps the real problem Dems have on national security is not just the quality of their ideas but that moderates simply won't listen to them. That in turn suggests that one key to reversing Democratic decline in the foreign policy arena is to do what Bill Clinton managed to accomplish on various domestic issues: Get moderates to open their ears.
The article ends thusly:
"Hillary may not be an iconic liberal, but she fights for the people liberals care about--women, children, veterans, people without healthcare," Podesta says. "Best of all, she's tough, and she knows how to win."
So, I'd recommend that everyone put aside their FUD filters and read this article with an open mind. People are obviously entitled to dislike her if they choose - I just ask that they dislike her and not her media-manufactured image.
Note: I did see a prevous diary on this (some people get their Nation much sooner than I do, obviously: earlier diary). I went ahead with this one because I think it has different material and emphasis.