Why Hillary Clinton's 90s nostalgia is so dangerous

[insta8er]

Times were good in the last years of Bill Clinton’s presidency. But to put the arch-deregulator in charge of an economy wrecked by financial bubbles is sheer folly


'I had never heard someone denounce deregulation and hail the economic achievements of Bill Clinton in the same speech. That kind of mental combination, I’ve always assumed, puts you in danger of spontaneous combustion.’

Donald Trump’s campaign to “Make America Great Again” is one big, flatulent exercise in delusional nostalgia, as so many have noted. Given the likely outcome of the American presidential contest, however, it is Hillary Clinton’s delusional nostalgia that may ultimately prove more harmful for the country.

Campaigning in Kentucky recently, she promised that, should she be elected, she would task former president Bill Clinton with “revitalizing the economy, because he knows how to do it”. A few minutes before, she had recited her husband’s qualifications for this job: “In the 90s, everybody’s income went up, not just people at the top. We lifted more people out of poverty than at any time in our recent history.” And so on.

Bill Clinton took some time out to dynamite the federal welfare system, then he came back and deregulated the banks
Ah, the 90s. It seems that Hillary, too, longs to make America great again, and she reminded the audience in Kentucky of the specific elements of our lost golden age. First among those gauzy memories: “A budget that is balanced and in surplus” – like the budget Bill Clinton built in the good old days before the spendthrift George W Bush administration came in. There were other ways in which the GOP had diverged from Clinton orthodoxy as well, like their desire to “Cut taxes on the wealthy [and] get out of the way of regulation of all kinds,” sins that, Hillary said, contributed directly to the financial crisis of 2008.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/20/hillary-clinton-90s-bill-clinton-economy-thomas-frank

[highprincipleswork]

1. Absolutely true and fundamental. The Clintons and the Democratic Party seem about to make a fatal

miscalculation, by going with the tired old policies from the 90's that were a kind of Vichy accommodation to what was then called the Reagan Revolution.

Donald Trump's nomination is just the latest historical sign that the Reagan Revolution is officially dead, with a terrific opportunity for Progressives to retake all branches of government in a Populist surge. Obama's 2008 campaign, Occupy Wall Street, and Bernie Sanders campaign are just further signs that the country is ready for a Progressive charge. If not a Progressive Revolution, a Progressive Solution.

Policies, campaigns, rhetoric, and political manhandling as was evidenced in Nevada are not the way to win this year.

We need to try particularly hard to keep this campaign Progressive and not revert to these policies that did so much harm and that have caused so much dissension and failure for the Democratic Party.

[insta8er]

2. It made them very rich, I guess rinse and try again. Regular joe's are the ones who foot their bill.

While they get speaking fees netting 200k.

[highprincipleswork]

3. Thanks! Surely this Dem Party must exist for some other reason than 2 make the Clintons rich.

[Thinkingabout]

4. We should look at all of the congression members who voted for the Commodities Futures Modernization

Act which played heavy in the finanical crisis. We can start with Bernie Sanders.

[insta8er]

6. Indeed, since he is the one getting paid 200k per speech from that very same banking

industry he deregulated..oh wait, he didn't it was the Clinton's.

[Thinkingabout]

7. Hillary's speeches was after this, did not affect the finanical crisis but the CFMA did

[Tarc]

5. I love the 90s. Kurt Cobain, flannel, Bikini Kill, the Fresh Prince

Good times.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

8. Everything about Hillary is dangerous... we can do better!

Bernie is the only candidate, who represents our values and can also defeat tRump.

Bernie & Elizabeth 2016!!!