The New Clinton, Not Like The Old Clinton

When Bill Clinton ran for president, you might remember, he was the leader of “the new Democrats,” a group that rejected old style Democratic liberalism in favor of centrist, pragmatic policies. Among his accomplishments as president were welfare reform, the NAFTA free trade agreement, and a tough anti-crime bill.

Also, Bill Clinton signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (whose language now in state bills draws protests and vilification from Democrats); the Defense of Marriage Act (which allows states to define marriage as between one man and one woman, and which does not require states to recognize other states’ gay marriages); repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act (which may have been a bad idea for allowing banks to pursue other commercial ventures); a bill to permit charter schools; a bill to lower the Capital Gains tax, etc., etc.

As Charles Krauthammer reminds us, Hillary Clinton rejects all of those policies of her husband.

From Charles Krauthammer, Clintonism, RIP – The Washington Post:

[He begins with a consideration of how Bill Clinton boldly defended his anti-crime bill before the “Black Lives Matter” crowd, only to abjectly apologize the next day.]

For the man who changed the image of the Democratic Party 25 years ago by daring to challenge the reverse racism of Sister Souljah to have to bow to this new — false — orthodoxy, symbolizes perfectly how far the Democratic Party has traveled since the Clinton era.

But the 2016 undoing of classic Clintonism hardly stops there. Take trade. It was Bill who promoted and passed NAFTA. Although Hillary criticized NAFTA when she ran in 2007-2008, as secretary of state she returned to her traditional free-trade stance, promoting and extolling the Trans-Pacific Partnership as trade’s “gold standard.”

Now dross, apparently. She came out against the TPP, once again stampeded by Sanders and the party’s left, i.e., its base. She may not have sincerely changed her view, but there are only so many times you can flip-flop. She’s boxed into the party’s new anti-trade consensus.

Other pillars of her husband’s internationalism were already toppled, pre-2016, by the Obama presidency, often with her active collaboration. At the core of Bill Clinton’s foreign policy lay the notion of America as the “indispensable nation.” It is today quite dispensable, indeed a nation in retreat — from (Hillary’s) reset with Russia to the Iranian nuclear negotiations (which Hillary initiated with secret meetings in Oman in 2012) to the disastrous evacuation of Iraq in 2011.

As has happened with another of Bill’s major achievements: welfare reform. President Obama has essentially dismantled its work requirements (with Bill Clinton’s acquiescence, a sign of things to come). No need for Hillary to repudiate her husband’s legacy. It’s been done for her.