But its not just in land beyond our borders would a Hillary presidency cause more misery then a Bernie presidency, but at home as well. To see why we must travel back in time to the year 1992.
That year's top film was Aladdin, the Simpsons were airing seasons three and four, I was all of a year old, and a smooth talking saxophone playing probable rapist named Bill Clinton was running for President.
(This following section is indebted to two pieces: "Atari Democrats" By Lily Geismer and "The Clintons' War on Drugs: When Black Lives Didn't Matter" by Donna Murch. I can not recommend them highly enough. Assume that any information not otherwise cited comes from those writings.)
In 1992 the Democratic party was on the defensive. They had won only one presidential election since 1964 (and that was with a Watergate assist). The Reagan Revolution had energized the right, and the man himself had claimed 49 states in 1984. Beginning in 1972 The Democrats started to loose their traditional union affiliated voting base (McGovern got more votes from white collar folk than blue collar). The decline of organized labor would only accelerate the shift from blue to white.
So who composed this new base? They were mainly white suburbanites, people who said the buzz words like "individual rights" and "equal opportunity" but whose commitments to civil rights stopped before structural change. Gone as well was the idea of regulations to control the market, instead these suburban technocrats feted the idea of partnership between public and private. First among these 'Atari Democrats' was Michael Dukakis, who-as governor of Massachusetts-courted tech companies and presided over a major economic boom. Dukakis (and his fighting Dukaki) would be the Democratic nominee for the 1988 presidential election. But Dukakis lost. Why? Part of the reason was that he was considered "soft on crime". Although the effect of the "Willie Horton" ad was somewhat overblown, it was still a major issue that helped Dukakis loose the election.
In order for the Democrats to win something had to change, and that something was racism.
In the aftermath of the 88' election the Democratic Leadership Council stepped into the breach. The main goal of the DLC-founded in 1985- was to shift the party from the left towards the center. They were aided in this mission by the results of two internal Democratic polls, the first measuring white attitudes in the north and south found that the Democratic party was described as the "give away party, giving white tax money to blacks and poor people." The second included data from whites who had left the Democratic fold: "These white Democratic defectors express a profound distaste for blacks, a sentiment that pervades almost everything they think about government and politics," and: "Blacks constitute the explanation for their [white defectors] vulnerability and or almost everything that has gone wrong in their lives, not being black is what constitutes being middle class, not being black is what makes a neighborhood a decent place to live." The DLC wanted to exploit this racial resentment in order to win. And Bill Clinton was their chosen son.
In 1992 Clinton was governor of Arkansas. After feinting towards liberalism in his first term he then started calling from the DLC's playbook. This would culminate in the twining of his run for president and his execution of Rickey Ray Rector. Rector, an African American man, had killed a white police officer and then shot himself in the head. This suicide attempt had left Rector minus three inches of frontal lobe and severely mentally impaired. Rector said that he would vote for Clinton in the November election-after his execution date- and set aside the dessert in his last meal so that he could eat it later.
As political operative David Garth would say: "(Clinton) had someone put to death who had only part of a brain. You can’t find them any tougher than that."
Clinton's goal was to fuse together the Atari Democrats with voters receptive towards his criminal justice and welfare stances, and then appoint minorities to positions within the government in order to keep them in the coalition. (The three best things Bill Clinton ever did were Ruth, Bader, and Ginsburg) This strategy worked and in November Bill was elected president, and Hillary first lady. He would also have time to blurb the DLC's free market policy blueprint Mandate for Change, saying it was: "new governing philosophy based on opportunity, responsibility, and community."
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