There is much talk in politics about the “Overton Window,” the range of acceptable opinion on an issue, but I observe that the Clintons have managed to move this window in the realm of political ethics a considerable distance in the wrong direction. The proof is that Clinton fans are tolerant of the following conspicuously sleazy practices of their “best qualified” candidate:
1. Using a charitable foundation as a base for selling political influence and aggrandizing political power. Donations by foreign nations to the Clinton Foundation are suspiciously correlated with approval of major arms purchases by those nations during Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State. Monies expended by the Foundation have likely been applied to secure political support.
2. Massively deleting emails (>30,000) from a private email server with no accountability regarding their contents. We have nothing but HRC’s personal assurance that there was nothing improper in her scrubbing of her private email server. Apparently her high intelligence and powerful ambition led her to “mistakenly” operate an email server over which she had complete control.
3. Selling political influence as a likely presidential candidate by taking extravagant “speaking fees” from powerful financial firms and refusing to disclose the text of those speeches. Wall Street firms are not stupid. They expect to receive political protection in exchange for giving large sums to a Presidential candidate. The text of those speeches likely shows Clinton praising major malefactors in the financial crisis, and that is why she refuses to disclose them.
The fact that many Hillary supporters not only accept these sleazy maneuvers but view them as proof of impressive cunning and political savvy means that the Clintons have instilled their own corrupt values into a large segment of the Democratic Party base. Clinton rules are the new normal for these voters, and that is a serious loss for American politics.