Huffington Post Dec. 11, 2007
Derek Shearer, long-time friend of the Clintons, author of the visionary book Economic Democracy published in 1980, and former US Ambassador to Finland, wrote a column about "Hillary Clinton as An Agent of Change " at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/derek-shearer/hillary-as-an-agent-of-ch_b_76156.html. I respond below.
Mr. Shearer asks if, as president, Hillary Clinton would be an agent of change or a protector of the status quo?"
The correct answer is neither: how about "an active agent of the status quo"? Hillary is certainly no FDR for this era or any other; when the chips are down, she stands firmly with what FDR called "the economic royalists" (eg., a health plan centered on retaining health insurers in command of the health system; support for the NAFTA-style Free Trade Agreement with Peru; support for welfare "reform" in 1996 that repealed part of FDR's Social Security Act.)
Nor will Clinton observe what FDR called his "good Neighbor policy" with other nations. Clinton is far too wedded to the corporations and military leaders who maintain the US empire. She not only voted for the Iraq war, but also voted against Sen. Levin's amendment requiring that all diplomatic means be exhausted before launchng war against Iraq.
Her recent bellicose statements on Iran blew up in her face when the National Intelligence Estimate found that Iran had stopped its atomic-weapons program four years ago.
I can appreciate Mr. Shearer's longstanding connection to the Clintons, but he doesn't offer a shred of hope that she is prepared to address the appalling economic polarization in the US or put an end to aggressive preventive wars in consolidating the US empire abroad.
In 1980, Mr. Shearer wrote a book advocating "economic democracy" at home and a humane foreign policy. Hillary Clinton clearly stands for neither.
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