So I was sliding around in the hallway and spotted a little gem of an editorial by Norman Soloman over at
TruthOut.
Solomon noticed that Hillary was going to be attending a fundraiser called "Take Back America 2006," put on by
Campaign for America's Future. Within the event announcment, he noticed the following language:
"As in years past, we expect America's most prominent progressive leaders to attend and address the conference."
Solomon was upset at this language. 'Do these people actually believe that Hillary is a progressive?' he wonders. ...And quite frankly, so did I.
His conversation with CAF's co-director is below the fold...
So Solomon writes a letter to Roger Hickey. I'll quote the column for the summary of the correspondence:
In response, I wrote to Campaign for America's Future co-director Roger Hickey and asked what Clinton's name was doing on a list of "progressive leaders." He responded by saying that "I don't think of ALL of our speakers as 'America's most prominent progressive leaders.' In fact, I have been quoted saying very critical things about Hillary - in the Washington Post and elsewhere. We do, however, want to ask possible presidential candidates to attempt publicly to justify their candidacy to the progressive activists."
Hickey also commented that "some people do consider Hillary progressive."
Yes "some people" may consider Hillary an effective progressive. Who those people are, however, no one seems to know. So far, it certainly isn't anyone I know from the Democratic party base--nor even her fundraiser hosts (except maybe Rupert Murdoch.)
Either way, I'll close with a short list of her "progressive" values, paraphrasing Solomon:
- Hillary Clinton remains for the war in Iraq...
- For so-called "free trade" agreements...
- For the death penalty.
- She supported the notorious 2001 bankruptcy bill...
- "Has never been for single-payer health insurance..."
- Has worked hard to undermine a host of other progressive positions.
Progressive? Thanks but no thanks.
Originally posted at Deny My Freedom