Patients For Dr. Jill Stein Part 1: Clinton’s Frankentrump

Patients For Dr. Jill Stein Part 1: Clinton’s Frankentrump
“Frankentrump” Image Courtesy of Will Walters

“Frankentrump” Image Courtesy of Will Walters

Fear, fear is all we hear. ‘Tis the central Democratic issue, now that the rigged machine squelched the Bern. O yea, and irrationally fear the Russians and always terrorism.

We are told to fear Trump, but as Kshama Sawant stated on Democracy Now, “If the Democratic Party establishment (had) as its first priority to defeat Trump (then) why did they (not) promote the one candidate (that numerous polls indicated had) a real possibility of winning against Trump? (Instead, they used) every dirty trick in the book to stymie (Bernie’s) campaign. (Their) bigger priority (was) to defeat the agenda of working people. (The) interests of Wall Street are diametrically opposite.”

Muffled beneath Trump terror, precious little analysis is directed toward his creation. Overwhelmingly, Bill Clinton’s “New Democrats” or “centrists” built Frankentrump. The word “centrist” is code-speak for right wing neoliberalism with a facade of social justice makeup, or lipstick on a pig. It is corporate subservience of placing profit before people versus the appropriate inverse, a more meaningful left-right dichotomy.

Like Brexit, Trump is succeeding not merely from xenophobia and racism. A deeper base of support stems from the effects of neoliberalism. Read The Shock Doctrine and see how Ronald Reagan led installation of this anti-government ideology. After Clinton’s rightward transformation of the Democratic Party, neoliberalism was cemented as the global economic operating system. Prior to this, more understood the benefits of practical social programs, like welfare, and smart corporate regulations, like anti-monopoly laws.

With Clinton’s corporatist trade policies like NAFTA and the WTO, extensive manufacturing was outsourced. Many of Trump’s supporters are workers that lost decent paying jobs to this bipartisan assault on American workers, in the greedy pursuit of profit.

Simultaneously, foreign small farmers were ruined when their nation’s markets were “liberalized” with a flood of highly subsidized agricultural commodities. This has been a major contributor to Latin American immigration, another basis for Trump’s popularity.

Now, Obama and Clinton have pushed the secretive TPP, an even more disastrous trade agreement, which further establishes comprehensive corporatocracy. And yes, Clinton still supports it as evidenced by her platform committee appointees protecting TPP, not to mention her running mate selection of Kaine.

An excellent analysis titled “Worse Than We Thought: TPP A Total Corporate Power Grab Nightmare” was published by Common Dreams. Numerous experts found “(TPP is) an act of climate denial, (a) giveaway to big agribusiness, (and) a death warrant for the open Internet. (The) job-killing TPP is worse than (imagined). This agreement would push down wages, flood our nation with unsafe imported food, raise the price of life-saving medicine…”

According to 350 director Jason Kowalski, “(TPP is) full of handouts to the fossil fuel industry, it doesn’t mention the words climate change once (and it gives corporations) the extraordinary ability to sue (governments and communities) that try and keep fossil fuels in the ground. (Thus,) these rules undermine countries’ ability to do what scientists say is the single most important thing we can do to combat the climate crisis.”

Another Franken-factor is Clinton’s Wall Street deregulation. Alarmingly, Hillary firmly opposes reinstating these Depression Era banking regulations Bill repealed. Economist Robert Reich wrote, “It’s a big mistake economically because the repeal of Glass-Steagall led directly to the 2008 Wall Street crash, and without it we’re in danger of another one.”

After millions of people were crushed from the meltdown and witnessed over $16 trillion in bailouts with no serious reform or accountability, many seek anti-establishment politics. Nobody screams establishment like the Clintons, and Trump appears to many as the best opposition.

Another unrecognized factor contributing to Trump’s rise is Clinton’s Telecommunications Act deregulation for media monopolization. We now have six massive corporate conglomerates, with interlocking directorates, controlling 90 percent of all communications. With a diminishing diversity of information, it is difficult for voters to be fully informed, especially poorer folks.

Monopolized media excludes many of the brightest voices from public debate, and with Obama’s war on whistleblowers and unconstitutional surveillance, we have a full assault on investigative journalism and their sources. According to The Guardian, Obama imprisoned more whistleblowers for lengthier sentences than all previous presidents combined. When our secretive government acts illegally, how can we know if whistleblowers fear decades in prison?

This corporate takeover of our government and economy is creating a disgruntled class that have as much to fear from maintaining the status quo, as those comfortable with the status quo fear from Trump. He provides them some hope.

These factors combined with floods of ratings-driven media nonsense, which delivered over $2 billion in free airtime for Trump at the expense of valuable information, created Frankentrump. People are hindered from understanding the causes of their problems or solutions. With a more fully informed electorate and less rigged party, Bernie would have obliterated his oligarch competition.

Without addressing these underlying Frankentrump causes, namely the hopelessly corrupt Democratic Party, the stage remains set for even worse Trump-like characters to ascend. Clinton will likely win and face even more gridlock than Obama, except on issues of corporatism and war. Hopefully, she will serve only one term, and be replaced by Dr. Jill Stein in 2020.

Among other things, ignorant mistruths about Stein and third parties will subsequently be deconstructed. Stay tuned.

Categories: Commentary