Historical context matters. many of the criticisms aimed at Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton are based on current political trends which ignore the historical context of Bill Clinton’s presidency. I chose the image of the Reagan vs Carter Electoral Map to prove a point about the political climate in the US in the 1980’2 and early 1990’s.
Democrats were getting annihilated in presidential elections. These elections were landslides. Not landslides by today’s standards where you call Obama vs McCain a landslide, but real blow-out landslides. We didn’t talk about red states vs blue sates because the map was mostly red. Below is the Reagan vs Mondale Electoral Map and the Bush vs. Dukakis Electoral Map.
Reagan vs Mondale
Bush vs. Dukakis
Ouch! Democrats weren’t losing these elections because they were insufficiently liberal. They were losing because the public was rejecting liberalism. These elections were the culmination of an anti-60’s backlash. The losing streak actually started in 1968 when Nixon devised his southern strategy to start dog-whistling the working class into voting GOP. He campaigned as a law and order candidate who would rid the country of all the riots and protests. The GOP began to successfully peel away white working class voters by preying on their anxiety about race relations and the Civil Rights movements of the 60’s.
Nixon vs Humphrey 1968
The Democratic losing streak continued into the 1970’s with a absolute blow-out landslide of Nixon over McGovern. Again George McGovern did not ;loose because he was too conservative. Jimmy Carter broke the streak but only because Nixon was a crook and had to resign.
McGovern vs Nixon 1972
This leads me back to my original reason for writing this diary. This is a refute to all of those on the left who continue to unfairly blame Bill Clinton for problems created by the GOP. All Bill Clinton did was devise a strategy to ACTUALLY win a presidential election. Notice that he is the last Democratic candidate to win any states in the deep south. He acknowledged the political climate of the time was pro-conservative and anti-liberal. He ran as a moderate because that was the only way he could win. He stopped the bleeding folks. Blaming Bill Clinton for the GOP take down of the middle class is like blaming the medic, for the amputation, after he puts on a tourniquet. The enemy soldier did the actual damage but we try to blame the one who saved his life.
Clinton vs Bush 1992
The reality of the 80’s and 90’s was that the electorate was very conservative. Had Bill Clinton not come along and ran as a moderate we would have had 4 more years of Reagan Bush. I’m telling you 12 years was more than enough. Imagine two more Supreme Court Justices in the model of Clarence Thomas(thanks George H.W. Bush), instead of Ruth Bader-Ginsberg and Steven Beyer (thanks Bill Clinton).
Oh but what about NAFTA? Bill Clinton merely signed it, it was negotiated by Bush Sr. Ronnie Reagan was the first to come up with the idea of fast-track trade agreements and a North American Trade alliance.
So please stop blaming the Democrats for GOP created problems, and stop pretending that you can judge Bill Clinton’s presidency by today’s political climate. I love the way everybody likes to blame the Democrats for not doing more to stop the GOP agenda. Finally, Hillary Clinton has always been far more liberal than Bill, the GOP hates her for a reason.
