[NOTE: This is a long piece! If you want to read or print it out in pdf form, you can find it right here and download it to your computer and read at your convenience.]
There are fine reasons to support Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Some of the smartest people I know are behind her, and I appreciate their enthusiasm for what would be a historic achievement. I know, too, the long history of sexism and partisan attacks she has withstood. She’s shown amazing resilience.
But time is short and the stakes are high, and I want to focus on a pattern of her claiming to be a progressive Democrat while taking positions that are too often more closely aligned with the other side of the aisle, and on a record that I worry makes her a real longshot if she’s our nominee.
This story borrows (with permission) from dsully’s excellent post and benefits from his editing.
DOMA AND GAY MARRIAGE
Hillary spoke in support of DOMA at the time it was signed in 1996. Later, In 2004, on the floor of the Senate, Clinton said, “I believe marriage is not just a bond but a sacred bond between a man and a woman…. I take umbrage at anyone who might suggest that those of us who worry about amending the Constitution are less committed to the sanctity of marriage, or to the fundamental bedrock principle that it exists between a man and a woman, and that it’s primary role….has been the raising and socializing of children into the society into which they are to become adults.”
She ran for president in 2008 while openly opposing gay marriage (it had been legal since 2004 in Massachusetts) and did not come out in favor of same-sex marriage until May, 2013, when it was already legal in nine states.
She now says DOMA was a defensive measure taken to ward off a Constitutional amendment. Rachel Maddow calls bullshit on that defense because it’s simply not true. And in a tense 2014 interview with Terry Gross on NPR, Clinton was unwilling to admit to anything more about her shifting position on same-sex marriage than “I think I’m an American. [laughter] I think that we have all evolved.”
Where was Bernie?
Bernie was one of the few in Congress who voted against DOMA. The year before, in 1995, he spoke up in the House in defense of gays in the military, saying in response to a Republican colleague:
“Was the gentleman referring to the many thousands and thousands of gay people who have put their lives on the line in countless wars defending this country? You have insulted thousands of men and women who have put their lives on the line.”
Even earlier, in 1972, in a letter to a local newspaper in Vermont, Sanders called for abolishing all laws that dealt with sexual behavior, including homosexuality, that were used to punish people. (However, Sanders did not announce his support of gay marriage, as opposed to civil unions, until 2009.)
NAFTA
Hillary Clinton, who is said to have never spoken up (watch that video) in support of labor unions while on the board of Wal-Mart, supported NAFTA when it passed and for years afterward. In 1996, she said “I think everybody is in favor of free and fair trade. I think NAFTA is proving its worth” and in 2004 said, “I think on balance NAFTA has been good for New York and America.”
But NAFTA has been a disaster for working people in the U.S. and Mexico, costing a million or more American jobs, increasing income inequality, and failing live up to the promises made about it.
Hillary now claims to oppose NAFTA, just as she’s suddenly reversed position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership after promoting it (“This TPP sets the gold standard in trade agreements to open free, transparent, fair trade”) forty-five times around the world as Secretary of State.
Unfortunately, we have little basis for believing her on TPP (the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, for one, doesn’t believe her), which is another disaster in the making. As Ian Fletcher writes, “She has, in fact, a long record of verbally criticizing free-trade agreements, but then supporting them when in office.”
Where was Bernie?
He strongly opposed NAFTA.
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