The Progressive Review was one of the earliest, longest and strongest critics of the Clintons but compared to Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton is merely a corrupt, selfish, and untrustworthy politician, something we have lived with throughout our history. Trump, on the other hand, is the most dangerous threat to the republic of any presidential candidate in the nearly four decades your editor has been covering politics. Our strategy for this election: get Clinton elected, then immediately launch a multicultural issue-based movement that will force her to do the right thing and change the nature of our politics. Remember that the support for Trump is largely from older Americans; the young are on the right track, they just haven't figured out yet how to organize - Sam Smith
Robert Reich - Can we have a word? I continue to hear from many of you who say you won’t vote for Hillary Clinton because, you claim, (1) she’s no better than Donald Trump, or (2) even if she’s better, she’s still corrupt, and you refuse to vote for the “lesser of two evils,” or (3) you don’t want to reward the Democratic Party for corrupt primaries that gave the nomination to Hillary instead of Bernie Sanders.
Please allow me to respond.
(1) Anyone who equates Donald Trump with Hillary Clinton hasn’t been paying attention. Trump is a dangerous, bigoted, narcissistic megalomaniac with fascist tendencies who could wreak huge damage on America and the world. Hillary isn’t perfect but she’s able and experienced. There is simply no comparison.
(2) Even if you see Hillary Clinton as the “lesser of two evils,” the greater of two evils in this case (if you see the choice in these terms) is seriously evil. You’ve probably had occasion in the past to vote for someone who doesn’t meet your ideals, when the alternative is someone who falls much further from those ideals. This doesn’t mean you’ve sold out or compromised your principles. You’ve just been realistic and practical. Realism and practicality are critically important now.
(3) I understand your frustration with the Democratic Party, and your reluctance to “reward” it for its bias against Bernie in the primaries. But anything you do that increases the odds of a Trump presidency isn’t just penalizing the Democratic Party; it’s jeopardizing our future and that of our children and their children. All of us must continue to work hard for a political system responsive to the needs of ordinary Americans. The movement Bernie energized must not and will not end. But Donald Trump, were he to become president, would set back the cause for decades.
There are just over 7 weeks until Election Day. My request to those of you who still don’t want to vote for Hillary Clinton: Please reconsider. It is no exaggeration to say the fate of the nation and the world are at stake.
9 comments:
Strange comments. As a longtime progressive there simply is no question in my mind that Trump is a much, much lesser evil than Trump, that he is more qualified to be president, that he has a better grasp of the issues and what has to be done. Just can't understand at this point why educated people are still supporting Hillary. Her election would be a disaster for the country and all of humanity. But each to their own. Some people like to cling to the past, some people live in the present.
Maybe some reason to not to doubt her credibility would help. Where are the 30,000 emails she deleted? Why did her staff take a hammer to two blackberries? Why did she say she had only one device for convenience when she had as many as 13? Why did a have an IT staffer delete emails when there was a subpoena out for for these emails? If so many on her staff had pneumonia, when she was diagnosed on a Friday, why be so close to people, even a little girl, on Sunday? Why is Bill still taking in money at a huge fundraising event for the Clinton Foundation this month? Why did she not get treatment after her collapse on 9/11/16 at a real hospital? Even before this recent physical problem, why did she not give a press conference for more than 270 days? Why did she not go down to see the flood victims? Why does she not remember being briefed on handling classified information when she became Secretary of State? How did she allow her staff to work at both the State Dept and the Clinton Foundation? Guess what? I was a big supporter in 2008, hoping for a woman for President, but her credibility has been low for awhile and now its crashing.
Colin Powell is exactly right - she fouls up everything she touches.
She is corrupt to the core - and dangerously incompetent and sloppy.
Every single hysterical allegation about Trump has been proven to be true about Hillary. Trump may have his flaws, but he definitely has a better grasp of the issues, is more responsive to the American people, and has shown competence in his business and recent political career.
Despite what you may think about his business practices and personality - he is a problem solver and not an ideologue. He is willing to change his mind when given better information. We need that right now - not a weak, impotent, corrupt, arrogant political hack.
Vote Green in 2016
Without seeming to refute what Robert Reich says - and I admire him very much for many things - and without judging how anyone should or will vote, come election day, more than 50 days away - consider this.
#1: There is simply no comparison (between Trump & Clinton):
There are quite a few that agree, who favor the Trump side, such as all his supporters and much of the Republican party. A few of the Grand or at least Old Party have taken a stand or simply said nothing, reminding us of Mill's quote:
Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. --John Stuart Mill, in an address at the University of St. Andrew (1 February 1867)
Shame on any and all Trump supporters, especially in light of the evil you assign to him.
#2: You haven't sold out, you've just been realistic and practical ... which are critically important now.
From Braveheart on the topic of compromise:
Princess Isabelle: Let us talk plainly. The King desires peace ... he declares it to me I swear it. He proposes that you withdraw your attack. In return he grants you title, estates, and this chest of gold which I am to pay to you personally.
William Wallace: A lordship and titles. Gold... then I should become Judas.
Princess Isabelle: Peace is made in such ways.
William Wallace: Slaves are made in such ways!
The two party duopoly - that's a monopoly meant to look as though there were two opposing parties, but which in reality are front pieces for the same single purposed back end - will always be delierately manufacturing an urgent "reason" for us to abandon our principals and subscribe to the lesser of its two arms, which reason is portrayed by all its surrogates - wittingly or unwittingly, insincere, sincere or merely blinded by their fear or apprehension - as "critically important now." Enough of such talk! There will always be a desperate reason to fall in line and take what is offered. Just don't swing at such a bad pitch!
#3: It is no exaggeration to say the fate of the nation and the world are at stake.
If this is so, if the WORLD's FATE rests on rejecting this one man, and those minions he has drawn to himself, why did half of the duopoly choose him to run in the first place?
If he is so incredibly evil, how could our country let him get to the point where his "evil" could be allowed to function? If the Dems were so good at silencing such a good, honest, beneficial candidate as Bernie Sanders or with Repubs, shutting others down with their fake "Commission", why couldn't Trump have been sabotaged in the same way?
If the DemoPubs want Trump, is there anything we can do to stop it? Didn't Al Gore really win an election but loose it through behind the scenes manipulation?
Just think about all of this and certainly help the third parties move their just cause forward by voting for them, at the very least in those state that have been considered safe to vote third party, as in a previous TPR article...
Finally, please consider this:
For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me. Job 3:25
This was to test Job, to make him stronger, to wean him away from fear.
Instead, "Go at it boldly, and you'll find unexpected forces closing round you and coming to your aid." William Benjamin Basil King (1859–1928)
No matter who you end up voting for, or who "gets elected," don't subscribe to the fear that's playing with our minds this election cycle, seemingly more than others. This condition is being created by those with little or no imagination because they themselves are also afraid.
Its up to the thoughtful, fearless folk to "think for all of us" like Bogey in Cassablanca, to include all in the good future when we get pasts wars for oil and harness the sun, wind and tides to provide for us all.
That's not an end to industry, its just the start of new industries!
Cheers, Tom
Here, here, Tom Puckett. Well stated
As FDR said, "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself."
Whatever happened to that kind of leadership?
Trump could easily demonize the Russians. It would have been better for him to do it! Why didn't he? How is the one pushing for a new Cold War, more civil wars around the world, how come that's the nice woke lady and not the crazy fascist?
$15T went to wars in the past 15 years, that's where your social spending is.
I think Robert meant to say that everyone should vote for Jill Stein.
You're saying we should elect Hillary and then try and change her later? I think you've just invented a new condition: Battered Voter Syndrome. "Sure, she beat us up with her policies in Libya and Syria, but we know deep down inside we can change her warmongering ways because she loves us so much." Wake up!
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