The left critique of Clinton is not that she is uniquely corrupt; it’s that the entire system is blatantly rigged, and that the Clintons are a particularly obvious example of it.
See Citizens United, see McDonnell vs United States, see the response to the GFC, see the general theme of American history over the last century. They aren’t even bothering to hide it any more.
Citizens United is an ironic choice, as it was about a hatchet job against Hillary that the SuperPAC Citizens United wanted to run against Hillary with. You think she’s for that decision when it was her campaign that was targeted, and she was the plaintiff fighting to restrict super PAC spending?
I get the idea that some think she never left her roots behind, but that’s kind of weak. Also the idea that she’s not pure enough because she can work within the system rather than let it break, but that’s an extreme position to take.
Yes, the Citizen’s United decision was about a group blatantly violating the already paper-thin American regulations on electoral spending, in order to fund an anti-Clinton propaganda film.
But the Clintons responded to that decision by making enthusiastic and hugely profitable use of it.
That’s the point: the key divide in American politics isn’t R vs D, it’s rich vs poor. Republicans represent the crazy/bigoted wing of the plutocrats, Democrats represent the sane/diverse wing of the plutocrats. The working class have no party.
So let me get this straight: people are pissed because Clinton and her team play according to the rules, even if they themselves think the rules are dumb? Because they didn’t volunteer to hamstring themselves in preparation for taking on a GOP that had no qualms about exploiting every loophole?
I think this is a big reason why Republicans hate Bill and Hillary so: they know how to beat them at their own game. And yeah, mainstream politics is a lot of promising a loaf, and then bargaining to get half a loaf. But to compare her with the doofuses that run the GOP is, well, absurd.
The standard establishment Dem defence for using SuperPACs etc was “well, we know that they’re blatantly corrupting, but we don’t have a choice; you can’t raise enough money for an effective campaign if you don’t sell your soul to the Banksters”.
It was always a contemptible argument, but it lost what little credibility it had this year. Bernie proved that it isn’t true. The choice to sell out to corporate bribery is exactly that: a choice.
“It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see…"
“You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?”
“No,” said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, “nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.”
“Odd,” said Arthur, “I thought you said it was a democracy.”
“I did,” said Ford. “It is.”
“So,” said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, “why don’t people get rid of the lizards?”
“It honestly doesn’t occur to them,” said Ford. “They’ve all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.”
“You mean they actually vote for the lizards?”
“Oh yes,” said Ford with a shrug, “of course.”
“But,” said Arthur, going for the big one again, “why?”
“Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,” said Ford, “the wrong lizard might get in.”
Spoiler: Half the GOP nomination hopefuls are actually time travelers from a distant, post-Trumpocalyptic future, instructed to bear messages that would resonate with today’s voters as understood from the remaining tatters of the obliterated historical record. Little did they know that their meddling would perpetuate the very disaster they were trying to prevent! Or something.
And Persians are not Arabs, which is where we came in.
I’ve framed this in a cultural sense from the beginning, not an ethnic one. The writings and culture in question were Arabic in nature especially the written account of the mathematics, but also the shift in values from a science minded society to a fanatically religious one.
To put it your way, it would be like saying an African American’s contribution to science wasn’t American because they were black, not at all like those white Englishmen who founded the country. That’s the sort of poison Trump supporters drink.
This has nothing to do with ethnicity, and everything to do with what we value as a society.
Ah yep, you got it right. I couldn’t support any of them. I am now an independent voter. The Tea Party Twits were bad enough, but who really thought that they had pushed any real candidate besides The Jeb, who was a mess and his entire campaign was garbage. Although, that is consistent with the theme.
Arabic is the name of their language, and more importantly in this case, their numbers. At the time, Persia was part of what’s known as the Arab World. Whether or not they were ethnically Arab, they were a part of the Abbasid Caliphate until the Mongols invaded in the 13th century. They spoke the language, they practiced their religion, they shared their beliefs as much as countrymen do. So to say they were part of the culture was not inaccurate.
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi was Persian, but he wrote his works in Arabic. He was the Isaac Newton of his day. His works were translated into the languages of Europe centuries later and introduced to them to the concepts of algebra, algorithms and the number 0.
If there’s a better way of putting it than that, I don’t know what is.
Fun Fact: According to Shelley Winters, Albert Einstein made the list of men that Monroe wanted to fuck…
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