Bill Clinton's Legacy

[Thailandnotes]

Excerpt from Thomas Frank's new book.

http://www.salon.com/2016/03/13/bill...ry_of_the_90s/

Someday we will understand that the punitive hysteria of the mid-1990s was not an accident; it was essential to Clintonism. Taken as a whole with NAFTA, with welfare reform, with his plan for privatizing Social Security and, of course, with Clinton’s celebrated lifting of the rules governing banks and telecoms, it all fits perfectly within the new, class-based framework of liberalism. Clinton simply treated different groups of Americans in radically different ways—crushing some in the iron fist of the state, exposing others to ruinous corporate power, while showering the favored stratum with bailouts, deregulation, and a frolicking celebration of Think Different business innovation.

Some got bailouts, others got “zero tolerance.” There was really no contradiction between these things. Lenience and forgiveness and joyous creativity for Wall Street bankers while another group gets a biblical-style beatdown—these things actually fit together quite nicely.

[santafe2]

Re: Bill Clinton's Legacy

Excerpt from Thomas Frank's new book.

http://www.salon.com/2016/03/13/bill...ry_of_the_90s/

Someday we will understand that the punitive hysteria of the mid-1990s was not an accident; it was essential to Clintonism. Taken as a whole with NAFTA, with welfare reform, with his plan for privatizing Social Security and, of course, with Clinton’s celebrated lifting of the rules governing banks and telecoms, it all fits perfectly within the new, class-based framework of liberalism. Clinton simply treated different groups of Americans in radically different ways—crushing some in the iron fist of the state, exposing others to ruinous corporate power, while showering the favored stratum with bailouts, deregulation, and a frolicking celebration of Think Different business innovation.

Some got bailouts, others got “zero tolerance.” There was really no contradiction between these things. Lenience and forgiveness and joyous creativity for Wall Street bankers while another group gets a biblical-style beatdown—these things actually fit together quite nicely.

I would really like to disagree with some of this TN but unfortunately this is what passes for a good President in the US in the last 30+ years. We like Obama because he isn't the idiot war monger, Bush 43. We're probably going to elect HRC because she's not Trump. If I wanted to go to a dark place I'd think it was all planned. There is little doubt that a reasonable old school, Rockefeller Republican, could get easily elected. Of course, that's a mythical creature, we've never had one.

[vt]

Re: Bill Clinton's Legacy

I'd take Truman over any since.

[jk]

Re: Bill Clinton's Legacy

There is little doubt that a reasonable old school, Rockefeller Republican, could get easily elected. Of course, that's a mythical creature, we've never had one.

remember the draconian rockefeller drug laws? i recall someone quoted as saying that if they were in the act of selling some mj to someone and about to be arrested, they'd be better off taking out a gun and killing him.