The Disingenuous Democratic Primary Hurts Their Chances In The General Election
Hillary Clinton is crying foul, and saying that Bernie Sanders has directly attacked her in his latest ad against Wall Street and big money. It doesn’t mention her by name, but it does allude to her record. It isn’t really an attack ad in the traditional sense as it targets all of Washington, but she is just trying to score points with her base and discredit Mr. Sanders.
Whether he attacked her or not, doesn’t really matter. This primary has been the weakest confrontation in recent memory at least as far as politics is concerned. Sure they have actually debated on policy, which is fantastic, but none of these candidates have been hardened for battle against what the Republicans are going to throw at them when they get the nomination. The Democratic electorate hasn’t had time to be desensitized to the crap fest that the GOP is going to unfurl against whoever gets the nomination.
Partially, I am going to blame Bernie Sanders for this and mostly the media. I actually like Bernie and his attitude of not the usual politician. However, he is probably giving up his shot at the White House, and even the Democratic chance for it by ignoring Hillary’s email situation. Since he is being quiet about it, why isn’t Martin O’Malley chiming in? Why isn’t any media other than Fox News talking about it? Or when they do talk about it, why are they downplaying it as if it doesn’t really matter?
I know the right-wing has a boner for getting one of the Clintons embroiled in a scandal they can’t get themselves out of. Since Bill Clinton became President, attempt after attempt was made to try and bring him down, and the same is being done to Hillary now that she has a chance to become President herself. The problem is, the complete totality of these scandals have built up an aura of dishonesty already, and the current email one actually does have some serious implications that the media is truly ignoring.
When Hillary was asked by NBC News’ Monica Alba about the recent 22 ‘top secret’ email discoveries, she blew it off saying:
“I’m really not concerned because it’s the same story that has been going on for months now, and I just don’t think most people are as concerned about that as they are about what we’re going to do to get economy going and how we’re going to protect the Affordable Care Act and everything I talk about in this campaign because that’s what Iowans, Americans talk to me about.”
She is delusional if she thinks Americans aren’t concerned about it. First off, a lot of apologists like to say she did nothing wrong, Ms. Rice and Mr. Powell both had private servers and it wasn’t against the law. Just because they did it, doesn’t justify the fact that she did it. The fact that it wasn’t against the law doesn’t justify it either. There is only one purpose to having a private email or a private server, to hide what you do and to keep from having a public record of events. That is why so many politicians over the years have done this and why when they have been caught they have worked so hard to destroy all the evidence, just as she may have done by deleting so many emails she said were innocent.
I know a lot of conservative sites and sources are trying to claim that her situation is the exact same as General Petraeus, but there are a few differences. He gave state secrets away to his mistress. Hillary didn’t. However, there are enough similarities that she could find herself in prison for breaking the law. If we had an honest primary going on, Democratic voters would at least be aware of this possibility and would be far less likely to vote for her because of this very real possibility.
Mrs. Clinton may think it is no big deal that will quickly blow over, but these are the parts of the law that she has violated with her private server. As a government employee, she had top secret material on a non-secure, private server. She may claim that it wasn’t marked secret or confidential, but at this point it doesn’t matter because after review they were found to be there when they shouldn’t have been. She may also claim that she didn’t create any classified material, which is another part of that provision, but if you answer that email, which she obviously would considering its importance, she made a link in a classified document that would be top secret.
Because of her wealth and standing, I doubt she would ever actually go to jail even if they found her guilty, but her reputation would be tarnished beyond repair and if she were the actual party nominee, there is no way she would be elected. That would mean we would likely have a complete Republican sweep. That would be the one thing Democrats could not afford.
Our country would radically change in the next four years with the balance of the Supreme Court probably going extremely conservative. Radical budgets that would strip the country of safety net programs and get rid of government oversight of business would sail through Congress to be signed by the President. We may even get a President who says he is a Christian first before anything else, and start asking a willing Congress to start writing all sorts of religious laws which he would sign.
These are the sorts of things we might be getting because the Democratic primary has been a complete farce. Our debates have been placed at the worst possible times where few people would actually tune in to watch them, though we are now supposed to get a few more, hopefully at better time slots. Of course, that may only be because Hillary is slipping in the polls and may need the extra air time to get some support. Unlike Hillary we have candidates who are getting little exposure in the media, while the frontrunner is rarely seriously challenged on anything. It’s almost as if the Democrats think Americans will ignore the character and previous actions of their nominee because they believe the Republican winner will turn everyone off.
This isn’t Oz and the Republican nominee isn’t the wicked witch of the north. They will appeal to their base. No matter how small that group happens to be, they will always turn out to vote against the Democratic nominee. If that nominee happens to be a Clinton they will turn out in greater numbers than usual. If the Democratic nominee seems tarnished, our own voters will not turn out in large numbers. It is always a numbers game. When large numbers of people show up to vote, Democrats win. When they don’t, Republicans win.
Do you think the Republicans haven’t been mulling over strategies for the last two years on how to beat Hillary and energize their base? If the primary is a cakewalk like it has been, Hillary is going to be hit by a hailstorm when the real election starts, and Democratic voters are going to feel like they are being punched in the gut over and over with all the accusations. Some of it will be lies, and some of it will be rehashed from the past, but a lot of it is going to be focusing on those emails that the Democratic candidates and the media are neglecting.
