Progressives: As president, could Clinton be forced to do decent things?

[DerekG]

One of the chief arguments to voting lesser-evil--and no one epitomizes the term better, or worse, than Bill and Hillary Clinton--is that said evil could potentially be bent to the will of a mass movement. (And let it be said that even principled politicians like Lincoln, FDR and JFK had to be pushed beyond their original aims, particularly in the realm of civil rights.)

Now, I can’t really use recent history as a guide, since Obama was allowed to push his center-right policies unfettered until Occupy Wall Street, but what is possible here?

Faced with an overwhelming leftist outcry, could President Clinton be compelled to act justly despite her ignominious history, neoliberal ideology, moral-pygmy braintrust and crooked donors?

If we were practically knocking the White House gates—as many were in the Nixon era—how would she and the Democratic establishment respond?


On edit: This is NOT to be interpreted as advocacy for lesser-evilism; I'm merely asking a question.

[DinahMoeHum]

1. The pen may be mightier than the sword. . .

. . .but it only happens when WE push it.

[Armstead]

2. "Trust us,. We know what we're doing."

Once ensconced they'll just go back to marginalizing the "fringe left" and empowering the "realistic adults" to continue fucking things up.

[Maedhros]

3. Possibly - but today's Democratic rank-and-file prefers to engage in hero worship

with regard to their Presidents, so I don't see it happening.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. She is a center right moderate who will not

push the envelope on anything.

[dragonfly301]

5. I'm exhausted

from politicians who say "now make me do it". I want a POTUS who wants to do it as much as me. That's never going to be Hillary.

[djean111]

6. No. IMO she will happily do all the Third Way things that the GOP will cooperate with her on,

And claim obstruction is why she can't get anything liberal or Progressive done. I would fully expect to see Chained CPI and privatization of Social Security placed lovingly on the table.
And war.

[Corey_Baker08]

7. Clinton Or Sanders In Their Own Right Would Both Make Great Presidents...

Clinton Would Be Way More Liberal Than Sanders When It Comes To Gun Control & Reigning In The NRA.

Sanders Would Be More Liberal Taking On The Corruption On Wall Street.

Which Issue Is More Important To You?

[DerekG]

8. Economic justice and a sane foreign policy

An unfettered Clinton would be disastrous on both accounts.

[99th_Monkey]

9. Actually there IS some recent history on this: it's called NAFTA & the WTO

We shut down the WTO, for awhile, but still had NAFTA in the end. Which should tell us
something about how "convincible" another Clinton in the WH would be, by a progressive
up-rising..