HILLARY AND BILL: LIBIDINOUS, LIBELOUS INGLORIOUS PAST

THE CLINTON PRESIDENCY SET THE STAGE FOR THE GREAT RECESSION, THE RISE OF THE NEOCONS, THE IRAQ WAR, AND THE CURRENT DEVASTATION OF THE MIDDLE EAST.

DO WE WANT TO REPEAT ANY OF THAT WITH ANOTHER CLINTON?

Many of Bill Clinton's key foreign policy and economic decisions and signed legislation were too often based on faulty reasoning or political weakness. They set the stage and paved the way for the disaster of the Great Recession of 2007-2008, the neocon takeover of the GOP, and ultimately the Iraq War, the chaos in the Middle East--- and the rise of ISIS.

I recently came across Thomas Frank's new book, "Listen Liberal", on display in our Manchester VT, bookstore. Waiting for the grandkids, I leafed through a few chapters. It is recommended, as are the earlier Frank works. What stirred my interest was the clear-eyed retelling of the history of the Clinton years. Too many of us have fuzzy memories and a mistaken positive view of that era. Author Frank reexamines those years critically. With Bill's so-called "co-president" running for a seat in the Oval Office now...it seems wise to examine that era with more circumspection--with an eye to avoiding a reprise of many bad decisions and lingering ill-effects from those days. And yes, since the Clintons introduced the term "co-president", it is fair to saddle Hillary, today with their joint mistakes.

Thomas Frank conveniently excerpted a good deal of his book in a fine piece in Salon (March 13, 2016). In that piece, Frank reminds us that it was Bill Clinton that deregulated the derivative market. At the behest of his Republican detractors, he also deregulated telecom and signed off on a bill to kill the Glass Steagall Act too. That post-Great Depression law wisely kept banks as savings institutions distinct from the Wall Street "gambling casinos" and preventing these two types of institutions form intermingling depositors funds at great risk to depositors. The loss of Glass-Steqgall also set the stage for the costly bank bail-out tqxpayers are still paying for.

Bill also rammed through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which when implemented caused that loud sucking sound heard across our great land as good high-paying American jobs and industries headed south (and north) to relocate over the border. Bill Clinton's NAFTA deal eliminated millions of well paying jobs and contributed to the decline of middle America and hollowing-out of our middle classes. Clinton also initiated the policy of mass incarceration, and the harsh restructuring of the welfare system, both of which we realize today hace had such a negative impact on our social structure.

Bill's uncontrolled libidinous activities in the Oval Office (and under his desk) led to the ugly Monica Lewinsky affair. When discovered and faced with a disgrace and lying under oath, he and Hillary hung on. Instead of honorably resigning his Presidency, as had Nixon under similar circumstances, and leaving the affairs of state to his more than competent Vice President, Al Gore, Clinton selfishly dragged the nation through his seamy personal sexual peccadilloes. He limped on in office, a weakened political,force, and then an impeached President. During this time of political vulnerability, he acquiesced to pressures from Congress that he might have repulsed and avoided prior to his embarrassment. It was during this period of weakness and of preoccupation with the Lewinsky charges that Clinton signed on to the neocon-sponsored Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 which gave legal status to the overthrow of the Iraqi government...the first such law in American history. It radically altered our foreign policy in the Middle East and was frequently cited by George Bush in the run up to the Iraq War as evidence that Clinton supported the Iraq invasion and overthrow of a legally constituted government.

Many of Bill Clinton's key economic and foreign policy decisions set the stage for disaster. His triangulated economic policies of deregulation and freeing the markets paved the way for the most profound economic downturn since 1929,---the Great Recession of 2007-2008. We are still in the throes of that recession, living with an economy characterized by weak growth, weak demand, and low inflation. We have millions underemployed or unemployed. Massive wealth and income inequality plague the nation and continue to stymie a full recovery. In foreign affairs, the Iraq Liberation Act signed by Bill Clinton, altered our foreign relations and precipitated the neocon takeover of the GOP foreign policy portfolio. That law ultimately gave credence to a disastrous interventionist policy initiated by Clinton, and then unwisely implemented by his successor, George W. Bush. Bush led us ultimately into the fifteen year long "three trillion dollar" Iraq War. With the the acquiescence and inaction of President Obama, that conflict morphed into the utter devastation and chaos which presently characterize the Middle East today, and most recently, contributed to the rise of ISIS.

Do we want to send the Clintons back into the White House? Never!