Hillary Clinton: just because she deserves her own thread
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Saturday, September 27, 2025 01:07
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http://www.salon.com/2016/07/12/the_blowback_from_hillary_bashing_righ
t_wing_attacks_thwart_reasonable_criticism_of_clintons_campaign/
The blowback from Hillary bashing: Right-wing attacks thwart reasonable criticism of Clinton’s campaign
Last week brought two tales of an email scandal. In one version the former secretary of state and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, committed a crime by using a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State. She sloppily handled classified information, left our nation vulnerable to terrorist hacks, and lied repeatedly to the public and the authorities when asked about it. She was crooked and careless and acted as though she was above the law because she is a scheming she-devil. In another version of the story, there is no story — no crime, no carelessness, no lies worth paying attention to. The case is closed and we should all move on and get ready for to root for Hillary at the upcoming Democratic convention.
For some of us, both of those versions of the story are completely idiotic. They make no sense at all. But they aren’t equal in their nonsense. One of the versions is far more delirious and far more vicious. And that is the problem.
The right-wing attacks on Clinton are so excessive, so misogynistic, so mean-spirited and so often absent of any connection to reality, that it has become almost impossible to criticize her at all.
It’s no news that Hillary Clinton may well be the most lambasted politician in recent history. And, given the trouncing Barack Obama has endured, that is really saying something.
The shrill, vitriolic, and often hysterical attacks on Clinton have been constant. As Clinton supporter David Brock of Media Matters points out in his book on media coverage of her: There is ample evidence of a sustained right-wing plot to derail her as a candidate. Gene Lyons, another pro-Clinton commentator, has also amassed significant evidence of a “covert and often concerted effort” to take down Bill and Hillary. If you are skeptical that a Clinton supporter could give an accurate accounting of the many ways she has been attacked, don’t forget that the GOP itself admitted that the Benghazi Committee was solely designed to attack Hillary and hurt her campaign.
Hillary hasn’t only had to deal with the covert and often-overt efforts to discredit her and her husband; she has also suffered a litany of misogynistic attacks. Recall that Tucker Carlson once said, “There’s just something about her that feels castrating,“ on his MSNBC show “Tucker.” Of course, Clinton has often had to endure the bile of Rush Limbaugh, who claimed she has gotten every job she’s ever had because of her husband. In true Limbaugh loony contradiction, he has also repeatedly suggested that she has a “testicle lockbox” that she uses to force men to her bidding. And then there was the time that Ted Cruz suggested on the campaign trial that Clinton deserved a “spanking” for not telling the truth. We’re never getting that horrific image from our heads.
Whether you support Clinton or not, it is hard for a reasonable person to ignore the realities of how she has been bashed by public discourse. It is also hard to ignore the fact that that very same media bashing has led to a vicious social narrative—buttressed by a pack of social media trolls– that perpetuates deep hatred for Clinton.
But here’s the problem. It is increasingly harder to acknowledge that Clinton has been a target of unfair attacks while also asking fair questions about her record. The brutal and over-the-top attacks on Clinton have shut down calm and reasonable debate about her actual flaws. Any criticism at all seems to ratify the wingnuts. If you don’t want to be associated with those loons, then you might feel obliged to keep quiet.
The fact that Clinton has managed to wage a successful campaign in the midst of these continuous jabs is truly stunning. But it is also disturbing, because it has converted her suppor
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The draft democratic party platform also called, 'they bought too many hyphens and dashes and had to use them up'.
https://demconvention.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-DEMOCRATIC-P
ARTY-PLATFORM-DRAFT-7.1.16.pdf
***DRAFT
–
DELIBERATIVE AND PREDECISIONAL***
2016 Democratic
Party Platform
DRAFT
July 1, 2016
***DRAFT
–
DELIBERATIVE AND PREDECISIONAL***
Version July 1, 2016
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1
Raise Incomes and Restore Economic Security for the Middle Class
3
Minimum Wage
3
Labor
3
Equal Pay, Paid Leave, and Caregiving
4
Housing
4
Social Security
5
Retirement Security
5
Postal Service
6
Create Good - Paying Jobs
6
Infrastructure
6
Manufacturing
6
Clean Energy Jobs
7
Research, Science, and Technology
7
Small Business
7
Youth Jobs
7
Fight for Economic Fairness and Against Inequality
8
Fixing our Financial System
8
Stopping Corporate Concentration
9
Taxes
9
Trade
9
Bring Americans Together and Remove Barrie rs to Create Ladders of Opportunity
10
Racial Justice
10
Racial Wealth Gap
11
Criminal Justice
11
Immigration
12
Civil Rights
13
LGBT Rights
13
Disability Rights
13
Faith and Service
14
Agricultural Communities
14
Poverty / Communities Left Behind
14
Honoring Indigenous Tribal Nations
14
People of the Territories
16
Puerto Rico
16
Protect Voting Rights, Fix Our Campaign Finance System, and Restore Our Democracy
17
Voting Rights
17
Campaign Finance
17
Judges
17
D.C. Statehood
18
Management of Federal Government
18
Combat Climate Change, Build a Clean Energy Economy, and Secure Environmental Justice
18
Clean Energy Economy
19
Environmental and Climate Justice
19
Public Lands and Waters
20
Provide Quality and Affordable Education
20
Higher Education
20
Student Debt
20
Minority - Serving Institutions
21
For - Profit Schools
21
Early Childhood, Pre - K, and K - 12
21
Ensure the Health and Safety of All Americans
22
Universal Health Care
22
Community Health Centers
23
Prescription Drug Costs
23
Medical Research
24
Drug and Alcohol Addiction
24
Mental Health
24
Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice
24
Public Health
25
Violence Against Women and Sexual Assault
25
Gun Violence Prevention
25
Principled Leadership
25
Support Our Troops and Keep Faith with Our Veterans
26
Confront Global Threats
27
Terrorism
28
Iran
29
North Korea
29
Russia
29
Cybersecurity
29
Non - proliferation
30
Climate Change
30
Protect Our Values
30
Women and Girls
30
Trafficking and Modern Slavery
31
Young People
31
Religious Minorities
31
Refugees
31
Civil Society
31
Anti - Corruption
31
Torture
32
Closing Guantánamo Bay
32
Development Assistance
32
Global Health
32
HIV and AIDS
32
International Labor
32
A Leader in the World
33
Asia - Pacific
33
Middle East
33
Europe
34
Americas
34
Africa
34
Global Economy and Institutions
34
1
2016 DEMOCRATIC PARTY PLATFORM DRAFT
Preamble
In 2016, Democrats meet in Philadelphia with the same basic belief that animated the
Continental Congress when they gathered here 240 years ago: Out of many, we are one.
Under President Obama’s leadership, and thanks to the hard work and determination of the American people, we have come a long way from the Great Recession and the Republican policies that triggered it. We have seen 75 straight months of private - sector job growth and added 14.5 million new jobs. Twenty million people have gained health insurance coverage. The American auto industry just had its best year ever. We are getting more of our energy from the sun and wind, and importing less oil from overseas.
But too many Americans have been left out and left behind. They are working longer hours with less security.
Wages have barely budged and the racial wealth gap remains wide, while the cost of everything from childcare to a college education has continued to rise.
And as working people struggle, the top one percent accrues more wealth and more power. Republican
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Well darn but I can't find the article. It was written by a Sanders supporter who was on the platform drafting committee for the party platform. And that person was quite proud of the many concessions gained, though very regretful they could get no movement on trade agreements.
The Hillary/ Debbie contingent - with 2/3 of the committee (what, the dncc couldn't agree to give the primary percentage to Bernie in the committee?) - was intransigent on trade agreements, and on Israel.
That says a lot about the intentions of the party (and the political naiveté of some of Sanders' supporters).
OF COURSE the Hillary/ Debbie sleaze-team gave ground on things that the party wasn't going to get past congress, and for which the party was going to spend exactly zero political capital.
That opens up a promising new way to look at the platform. Simply ignore the empty rhetoric that will never come to pass, and focus on the parts that are meaningful.
Let me just point out that the author left out vital relevant facts in the opinion piece. Doing that is known as cherry-picking. And whether you do that in the news, in discussion, in debate or in opinion, when you distort the facts, you've changed the nature of your communication into propaganda. But WE don't have any of THAT in the US, do we?!
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Sorry, but Sanders supporters weren't naive then, and they aren't now. The DNC is almost a wholly-owned subsidiary of Big Capital, just like the RNC has been for decades.
Thanks to the Citizens United decision, they all play the same game.
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2016 DEMOCRATIC PARTY PLATFORM DRAFT
Preamble
In 2016, Democrats meet in Philadelphia with the same basic belief that animated the
Continental Congress when they gathered here 240 years ago: Out of many, we are one.
Under President Obama’s leadership, and thanks to the hard work and determination of the American people, we have come a long way from the Great Recession and the Republican policies that triggered it. We have seen 75 straight months of private - sector job growth and added 14.5 million new jobs. Twenty million people have gained health insurance coverage. The American auto industry just had its best year ever. We are getting more of our energy from the sun and wind, and importing less oil from overseas.
But too many Americans have been left out and left behind. They are working longer hours with less security.
Wages have barely budged and the racial wealth gap remains wide, while the cost of everything from childcare to a college education has continued to rise.
And as working people struggle, the top one percent accrues more wealth and more power. Republicans in Congress have chosen gridlock and dysfunction over trying to find solutions to the real challenges we face.
It’s no wonder that so many feel like the system is rigged against them.
Let me just point out that the author - in this case the DNC - left out vital relevant facts in the opinion piece. Doing that is known as cherry-picking. And whether you do that in the news, in discussion, in debate or in opinion - or in this case, in your party platform - when you distort the facts, you've changed the nature of your communication into propaganda. But WE don't have any of THAT in the US, do we?!
Let me just point out that the author left out vital relevant facts in the opinion piece. Doing that is known as cherry-picking. And whether you do that in the news, in discussion, in debate or in opinion, when you distort the facts, you've changed the nature of your communication into propaganda. But WE don't have any of THAT in the US, do we?!
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RF
What I said was that SOME of Sanders' supporters were politically naive. And that's where the article would have helped - because it listed, as in an actual list, quite proudly, the specific places where the dnc made 'concessions'. It was that list, along with the specific mention of how intransigent the committee was to changing the language on trade agreements - that tipped me off to the nature of the drafting process, Because every single one of those 'concessions' was moot. And the places where the dnc refused to budge were exactly the places most likely to come to pass.
Let me just point out that the author left out vital relevant facts in the opinion piece. Doing that is known as cherry-picking. And whether you do that in the news, in discussion, in debate or in opinion, when you distort the facts, you've changed the nature of your communication into propaganda. But WE don't have any of THAT in the US, do we?!
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Quote:What’s Wrong With the Democratic Platform
Originally posted by 1kiki:
OF COURSE the Hillary/ Debbie sleaze-team gave ground on things that the party wasn't going to get past congress, and for which the party was going to spend exactly zero political capital.
That opens up a promising new way to look at the platform. Simply ignore the empty rhetoric that will never come to pass, and focus on the parts that are meaningful.
It has good language on many issues, but it lacks an overarching vision.
www.thenation.com/article/whats-wrong-with-the-democratic-platform/
Democrats must aspire to more than just beating Trump. They must take the lessons of the United Kingdom’s Brexit vote, recognizing that when mainstream parties do not offer a coherent response to fear and uncertainty in an age of rapid globalization, deindustrialization, and automation, politics can rapidly turn divisive, even destructive.
The Democratic platform doesn’t achieve that coherence. It is significantly more progressive than recent party platforms, especially on criminal-justice reform and the need to empower workers. It’s got some good language on climate change and banking reform, but too frequently punches are pulled where they should be thrown—as with its wrongheaded avoidance of formal opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, corporate-welfare schemes, and lobbyist abuses. But the devil is not in the details; it’s in the lack of an overarching vision. The platform doesn’t provide a clear sense of how all the pieces of America’s economic, social, and political puzzle might fit together with the Democrats in power.
That’s something Clinton and her running mate will have to provide. Or Not. Who knows? But probably not.
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Yeah second, it'll happen thanks to all of Hillary's 'down ticket' support.
What a joke you are.
Let me just point out that the author left out vital relevant facts in the opinion piece. Doing that is known as cherry-picking. And whether you do that in the news, in discussion, in debate or in opinion, when you distort the facts, you've changed the nature of your communication into propaganda. But WE don't have any of THAT in the US, do we?!
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Quote:Even funnier would be 6 Republican Supreme Court justices, 66 Republican Senators, 300 Republicans in the House of Representatives and President Trump, who resigns to allow VP Mike Pense to serve as President in 2021. Wouldn't that make you laugh in the face of your evil nemesis Hillary when all her plans for world destruction turned to ashes?
Originally posted by 1kiki:
Yeah second, it'll happen thanks to all of Hillary's 'down ticket' support.
What a joke you are.
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I don't despise your support for Hillary. What I despise is how propagandist it is. Instead of noticing how little the dnc machine is willing to consider you where it counts - jobs, trade and - oh yeah, avoiding a nuclear confrontation with Russia - you dismissed Bernie off-hand - he was old, and a little stooped.
And you've been shilling every single fucking falsehood the dnc has been spewing. starting with that 'downticket support' shit.
Maybe you'd be more believable if you bothered to even think about thinking about what's seriously wrong with Hillary and how to influence the Hillary machine. Nope, not you. Hillary is Saint Hillary, according to you. As an argument, it's a joke. YOU'RE a joke. Fuck you.
Let me just point out that the author left out vital relevant facts in the opinion piece. Doing that is known as cherry-picking. And whether you do that in the news, in discussion, in debate or in opinion, when you distort the facts, you've changed the nature of your communication into propaganda. But WE don't have any of THAT in the US, do we?!
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