The picture above is a screenshot from the Drudge Report this morning, which links to this Washington Post article.
Hillary Rodham Clinton isn’t just running against Republicans. She’s also running against parts of her husband’s legacy.
On issues large and small, the Democratic presidential contender is increasingly distancing herself from — or even opposing — key policies pushed by Bill Clinton while he was in the White House, from her recent skepticism on free-trade pacts to her full embrace of gay rights.
The starkest example yet came Wednesday, when Hillary Clinton delivered an impassioned address condemning the “era of incarceration” ushered in during the 1990s in the wake of her husband’s 1994 crime bill — though she never mentioned him or the legislation by name.
Other areas highlighted in the article; gay marriage and women’s rights.
It should be no shock that the right is taking on this article as some sort of “gotcha” moment against Hillary, but it also emphasis the exact problems the political world highlights with Republican thinking.
First off, the “shock” factor that a wife, Hillary, would differ from the policies of her husband is something the right can fathom. They are still stuck in olden times, where wives should be good little disciples of their man’s thinking and views. Yes, how dare a women differ on issues from her husband. Isn’t that reserved for James Carville and Mary Matlain?
Then there comes the other issue, which can be summed up by a single word that the right despises – change! Bill Clinton first won the White House 23 years ago. Should Hillary win, then it would be on the 20th year after her husband’s reelection. But this isn’t 1996. This is a new decade, century and millennium. America has seen fundamental changes since then. For example, gay marriage. Back in the 90’s, only a small portion of the people supported it, and it wasn’t even really an issue. Today over half this country supports it, we’ve seen countless state efforts to block it and are only a couple of months away from the nation’s top court deciding if it can be blocked or not.
But something else has changed in the past 20 years. That would be Bill Clinton. Bill used to be opposed to gay marriage, equal pay and pushed for stricter punishments through his 1994 crime bill. Every single one of those issues the former President has now switched on. This is something the article mentions, but something the right can’t comprehend. How in the world could someone’s views change over the course of a quarter of their life?
This all goes back to the cringe worthy statement Republicans, like John Boehner, love to make – “we would love to go back to the 50’s”. Yes, the rolling 50’s, when most politicians like Boehner grew up. A stay at home mom, dad making a great income and Leave it to Beaver on the TV.
Of course the 50’s also came with other things, both good and bad. The corporate income tax rate was close to 90%. College was a lot cheaper and the government helped pay for it, plus invested a lot more in infrastructure. CEOs made about 40 times that of their average employee, as compared to almost 400 times today.
And we also had social issues. Ask the black population how much better their life was in the 50’s, or even women. I’m sure they wouldn’t want to run to the time machine.
It all boils down to that horrid C word that Republican avoid like the plague – CHANGE. They hate, Hate, HATE change. It’s the dagger in the heart of the Republican platform. And it’s that very word that is driving this new “gotcha” against Hillary. They don’t want to acknowledge or accept that the President they publicly hated, but secretly loved, has changed. They can’t comprehend how a man, such as Bill Clinton, could evolve over the course of 25% of their life, when so many of the GOP is still stuck in their childhood.
The problem emphasized in this article isn’t one of Bill or Hillary. It’s one of a closed minded GOP that refuses to change. They believe the wife should still be some obedient extension of the husband-unit, and that the husband-unit should be immune to change, enlightenment and increased understanding. But more importantly, it emphasis that Bill and Hillary aren’t defined by strict ideological lines, and that’s something that really scares the Republicans. Their only tool for winning is by dividing, but if a President Hillary wins office and unites this country more, then that tool stops working, and that is their biggest fear.