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In reply to the discussion: Jon Stewart: "Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe a real person doesn't exist underneath there" [View all]Peace Patriot
(24,010 posts)With Clinton, there is no there there.
It was Gertrude Stein who said that--"there is no there there"--when she was on a return visit to the Bay Area, and was looking for her childhood home in Oakland, CA, a home with lots of acreage, lawns and gardens, surrounded by orchards and farms. It was now covered over with new homes. The "there" of her childhood home was gone.
Clinton is not rooted to any place. She is not OF any place or its people or its critters. She is a transglobal jet setter who now hangs with people like Bush, Kissinger and Trump. She is, like them, now, a multi-billionaire. The 1% has made her and she is a member of their global non-country with loyalty to no one but this sky-born royalty that touches down on earth for business, luxury recreation and sketching out their plans, such as "The Project For a New American Century."
No there there. There is nothing to be discovered there of high ideals, of democratic principles, of good government, though quite a bit of substance can be found there, of greed and mass murder. But evil empties the soul, in the end.
I believed for awhile, through Bill Clinton's administration anyway, that as a citizen of a country doing evil in the world, it was perhaps best to have clever, wily, corrupt people running things, so long as they had some loyalty, some minimal feeling of obligation, to the rest of us, and provided some sops to us, like little incremental raises to the minimum wage. 25 cents an hour can mean a lot to the very poor. Simple, honest people couldn't handle the "Beltway" snake pit. It took the corrupt to handle the corrupt. It's also called "the lesser of two evils." But I mean a bit more than this. I mean the "lesser evil" needs to be smart and a real maneuverer and wheel-dealer and con man. Clinton was all of those things, so I voted for him (not having any choice), thinking of that 25 cents an hour more for the poorest of the poor.
I considered this thought about Hillary Clinton. While Bernie Sanders is far from simple, as an intellect, he does like simple living and is as honest as the clear blue sky. Could he snake his way through the vipers' nest of Washington DC, to get anything done? Could he survive it, let alone reform it? Hillary Clinton has these wily, conniving qualities I'm talking about. I could even maybe (maybe!) forgive her kissing Kissinger and begging from Bush donors, or at least put my scruples aside, if I thought she could become a good ruler--a sort of Queen Elizabeth I to Bill's 25 cents an hour presidency.
But I don't think she can. I think she has the soul of a corrupt and power-hungry courtier, not of a true monarch who actually loves her people. I think the connection--the 25 cents an hour connection--has been broken. No more sops to the poor. Greed for power and money have consumed her and her associates in the sky-born kingdom. They are going to inflict their final blows to our democracy, using her as their tool. We are going to see Social Security privatized and what little social safety net we have ripped from us. Our very sovereignty as a people will be shredded by TPP.
Her soul is empty--no there there. She is only interested in her own power in that uber circle. I may be wrong. She may be wily enough to disguise her own soul. Maybe she has some home that it would break her heart not to be able to find again. But my strong sense is that there isn't.
As for Bernie, I've grown strongly to believe that he is wiliest old guy who ever sat on a House subcommittee, and has somehow kept himself rooted to a place, Vermont, and to his ideals. He is best the leader we have ever been given a chance to vote for. And he will survive it, and he will reform it, with--as he requires--our help.