Reply #64: Clinton was very bad for the "economic justice" movement. [View All]

[Xithras]

Of course, since economic justice is typically synonymous with anti-capitalism, wealth redistribution, and socialistic governmental control of trade and industry, Clinton's neoliberal policies were unkind and were seen as a slap in the face and a dashing of hopes after 12 years of Republican rule. I need merely remind you of the massive trade protests that took place in the 90's, primarily supported by trade unionists and members of the various economic justice factions, to bring back memories of what that particular movement generally thought of him. He was seen as being better than a Republican, but no friend to those who wanted to move America dramatically to the left.

In this sense, I do believe that the right has won one important battle. The so-called "New Democrats" that arose in the 1980's (better known today as the DLC), publicly embraced the "third way" as a way to escape partisan political battles. Before that you largely had two competing factions...Republicans who wanted to privatize everything and screw the little guy, and Democrats who wanted to nationalize everything and protect the little guy. The New Democrats/Third Wayers/DLC types came out with their proposal, called neoliberalism, which tries to privatize everything while ALSO protecting the little guy. Clinton not only admitted to being a New Democrat, Third Way follower, he MADE IT A PART OF HIS FIRST CAMPAIGN! The DLC has, since Clinton's first victory in 1992, come to control most of the party (Did you know that Bill Clinton was the chairman of the DLC before he ever ran for president?) That's an amazing feat for an organization that has publicly proclaimed its desire to rid the Democratic party of what it calls its "populist platform".

The sad fact today is that pretty much every leading Democrat today has fallen victim to the Third Way rhetoric. There are still some populists in the party, men like Kucinich and Edwards, but they're a minority. Although his voting record is certainly neoliberal and is DLC like in many ways, one of the reasons I chose Obama over Clinton for my support was the fact that she's at the top of the DLC's list and is proud of the fact, while Obama isn't. He's not a populist by any stretch, but he does at least make the appearances of rejecting some of the DLC's anti-worker, anti-populist positions.