In a recent debate with Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton bragged about getting the approval of Henry Kissinger: "I was very flattered when Henry Kissinger said I ran the State Department better--better than anybody had run it in a long time," she said. Now it boggles the mind how a candidate claiming she is a progressive can even mention Kissinger as a source of pride.
Let us quote "Dear Henry" for some context, thanks to a site dedicated to his worst quotes. About Kissinger's respect for democracy and the sovereignty of other nations: "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves."
Kissinger was, of course, walking in the footsteps of Woodrow Wilson who wanted Mexicans to "elect good men." Another gem of Kissingerian wisdom can be found in this quotation: "The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer."
Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State, is thus flattered by the approval of anti-democratic Kissinger. The cat is out of the bag: Clinton's protestations of progressivism and democratic gains are a sham. She is a Kissinger wannabe.
Let us add two quotes by Clinton's predecessor as Secretary of State to better illustrate matters: the New York Times reported about the infamous Nixon tapes in its December 16, 2010 edition and we find this new gem: "The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is not an objective of American foreign policy. And if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern."
This should be very embarrassing for a close friend of Netanyahu and a passionate hater of Putin (though the two do not dislike each other). It was a private definition of what Kissinger meant by realism in foreign policy: ethical considerations do not matter. Yet for someone who had escaped Nazi Germany when Hitler persecuted Jews this was rather strong stuff. Which group is Clinton ready to throw under the bus if she becomes President? Not the Jews as Kissinger did back then, I presume.
Another quote highlights the deadly immorality of the man Clinton is so flattered to be admired by: "I can think of no faster way to unite the American people behind George W. Bush than a terrorist attack on an American target overseas. And I believe George W. Bush will quickly unite the American people through his foreign policy." (CNBC, 13th Dec 2000).
Kissinger, George W. Bush, Clinton: we have come full circle, the Uber-Machiavellian policies and preferences of these leaders are closely related.
One could think these connections have to do only with foreign policy and that domestic issues show more of a divide but is it really so? Nixon, Kissinger's boss, after all was a Keynesian and a socio-economic liberal besides being a crook and a paranoid hater of the media and the alleged influence of Jews in them.
Hillary Clinton points out that if elected she'd be the first woman president of the U.S. That is a fact and symbolically important but it does not follow that she would be good for women or better for women than Sanders or another progressive. Obama has not been able to improve the lot of African Americans, for a lot of reasons which do not all have to do with him, for identity does not a policy make. Clinton is in the hands of lobbyists, notably Wall Street which funds her on the basis of the well-known principle: "Who pays the piper calls the tune." In spite of this additional proof that she cannot be a financial industry-funded progressive Clinton manages to accuse those who point out her connections to Wall Street of being disingenuous or "Bernie Bros." Some play the race card or use dog whistles to discredit someone on the basis of his/her race; Clinton uses the gender card to savage a male candidate who, on many counts, is more of a progressive feminist than she is. Progressives shout "Wall Street" and she answers "macho." Anyone, any man, opposing her views risks being labeled a "Bernie bro", so tarred with the broad brush of sexism even when the issue if one of class and equality. The "Queen of Chaos" (Diana Johnstone) knows a thing or two about demonizing opponents.
Last November Clinton published an article in the Forward whose title was explicit: "How I Would Reaffirm Unbreakable Bond With Israel -- and Benjamin Netanyahu"
Clinton does not re-affirm the traditional U.S. support for the state of Israel but she goes way further than Obama in stating her support for the Israeli leader. Precisely the one who has done everything he could to block any advance toward peace and also to insult the current president of the U.S.
Clinton sides with the worst Obama critics from the right and has no time for the supporters of peace in the Middle East. Netanyahu though has something in common with Kissinger: they are willing to ignore Jewish history for the sake of a larger concern. Netanyahu argued that the grand Mufti of Jerusalem suggested the idea of the Holocaust to Hitler, as if the Nazis had not been the prime movers of genocide. Netanyahu thus sides with Holocaust deniers while Kissinger shows his callousness toward Jews as well as toward Latin Americans. How can Clinton claim to even want to defend Jews when she associates with such shady characters? And here we are not even talking about Russians, Chinese, Palestinians or Chileans. What all these statements illustrate is the absolute lack of principles in a candidate who will trample anyone to get ahead.
Glenn Greenwald makes these points in his usual blunt style. He says: "Opposition to her is going to be depicted as misogynistic, like opposition to Obama has been depicted as racist." and even goes further arguing:" It's going to be this completely symbolic messaging that's going to overshadow the fact that she'll do nothing but continue everything in pursuit of her own power. They'll probably have a gay person after Hillary who's just going to do the same thing." In other words identity politics will be put to use to shore up neoliberalism and imperialism. Standard fare.
Hillary Clinton is not a feminist but a fraud masquerading as a progressive; she is the soul mate of the likes of Kissinger and Netanyahu who do not care about Jews, women, Americans, Chileans, African Americans or any American. Her feminism is a red herring like her progressive pronouncements. Young women in New Hampshire did not buy her faux feminism for they know she belongs to the Kissinger wing of the Democratic Party.