As I mentioned yesterday, the progressive website Vox Populi
has published four articles about Hillary Clinton’s campaign, including my analysis of her position on issues.
In this excerpt from my Vox Populi article, I dig into her
recent statements to erect what her platform will look like. I based most of
this analysis on comments she has made since 2014 or comments she has made so
many times that she would be hard-pressed to move very far from her past
position. I depended to a large degree but not entirely on the very thoroughand accurate nonpartisan website, ontheissues.org,
which breaks down how all the potential candidates for either major party’s
nomination stand on a large number of issues.
Before presenting the detail, let me sum up what we can say
about Hillary Clinton’s probable platform: on social and domestic issues not
involving unions, she will follow Elizabeth Warren’s lead, which should make
progressives happy. On homeland security, foreign policy, military policy and
trade policy, she will continue Obama’s initiatives in virtually every way,
which is not such good news for the left.
Now for the detail:
Economic Issues
·
Income/wealth inequality: She has commented numerous
times on the need to recut the wealth and income pies so that less goes to the
ultra-wealthy and more goes to everyone else, but she has suggested little that
specifically addresses that issue.
·
Minimum Wage: Through the years, she has
consistently been vociferous in her support of raising the minimum wage, but how
high remains unclear since her last comment was in 2007.
·
Labor unions: She has no recent comments on
whether she supports unions, but her stands on charter schools and trade
agreements suggest she’s no lover of labor.
·
Taxation: She is on record many times of saying
she believes that the wealthy are not paying their fair share in taxes.
·
Trade: Hillary is one of the most aggressive
advocates for TPP and for lowering barriers for corporations to do business
abroad.
Education
Hillary is a long-time supporter of charter schools and has
said she wants to link teachers’ pay to performance, but do it by school and
not by individual teacher. These sound like anti-union moves that do nothing to
address the real problems facing public education: resource shortages and large
class sizes.
Environmental
She is both for limiting emissions worldwide and for
investment by wealthier nations to mitigate the effects of global warming on
the most vulnerable nations.
Foreign Policy
Hillary will probably be a little quicker to send in troops
and bombs than Obama was, but will have essentially the same policy. She tends
to be hawkish on specific issues:
·
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: She is very
concerned about the security of Israel, and doesn’t seem to put any priority on
addressing the mistreatment of Palestinians or Palestinian rights.
·
Iran: Hillary was involved in arranging secret
talks with Iran in 2012 and 2013, and has come out in favor of a negotiated
agreement with Iran regarding its development of nuclear weapons.
·
Hillary pretty much agreed with the 2003
invasion of Iraq and the way the war was prosecuted thereafter, except for the
torture, which she vehemently opposed.
·
Syria: She wanted to arm Syrian rebels.
·
Russia: One of her goals as Secretary of State
was to achieve a permanent thaw in relations with Russia, but since the
invasion of the Crimea, she has been as tough-talking as any mainstream
American politician against Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin.
·
China: Hillary was influential in implementing
the Obama Administration’s “pivot to Asia,” which has as its goals projection
of American power in Asia and containment of China by the United States and its
allies. Nothing that she has said or written lately suggests that she has
changed her mind about continuing Obama’s hard line on China.
·
Military Technology: In her book, Hard Choices, Hillary defends the use of
drones by the Obama Administration.
Gun Control
Hillary has been an outspoken supporter of expansion of the
national firearms registry and on placing more controls on gun sales and who
can buy and carry a gun.
Healthcare
We know she has long been in favor of universal coverage. We
can expect that she will want to maintain and perhaps extend the Affordable
Care Act.
Immigration
She supports immigration reform that helps immigrants, by
which I think we can assume illegal immigrants, judging from her comments.
Safety Net
Hillary has always supported maintaining and extending aid to
the poor and the elderly. Her stands are particularly significant in light of
the frequent calls of all the potential Republican candidates for cutting
benefits to the poor.
Security State
Her past positions do not bode well for civil libertarians.
Hillary voted for the misbegotten Patriot Act and its renewal and disapproved
of Edward Snowden’s actions.
Social Security
She opposes privatization and is in favor of raising the cap
on how much earnings are taxed for Social Security purposes, which places her
left of President Obama. She also stands in stark contrast to every Republican
candidate, all of whom want to privatize Social Security and cut benefits.
Values Issues
She supports gay marriage and a woman’s
right to control her own body, which again, contrasts with every Republican
candidate. She wants to see how marijuana legalization works in Washington and
Colorado and is skeptical of the relative lack of research on medical uses.
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