Monday, April 28, 2014

The Groupthink Party

At the same time Wall Street bigwigs are signalling, via the Politico gossip rag, that they'd be equally OK with a President Hillary Clinton or a President Jeb Bush or a President Chris Christie, comes word that Hillary was guest of honor at Republican John McCain's annual neoliberal schmooze-fest for the ruling class. The press was barred, and so far there is no news about what was discussed. No secretly recorded goodies from a minimum-wage servant or waiter yet, anyway.  Her gig wasn't even publicly announced until two days before the event:
The McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University announced today (April 24) that former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will participate in a conversation with U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) at the McCain Institute's annual Sedona Forum on Saturday, April 26, 2014 in Sedona, Arizona.
"I am very pleased to have my friend Secretary Clinton join this year's Sedona Forum," said Senator McCain. "From her years of service as first lady, in the U.S. Senate and at the State Department, one would be hard-pressed to find a leader with Secretary Clinton's informed perspective on the many challenges facing America across the globe."
The guest list was a hodgepodge of Senate centrists, tax-avoiding CEOs, polluting oil company execs and neocon war hawks. (or, in the press release propaganda-speak,"thought leaders, philanthropists and decision-makers.")

Hmm. So when Elizabeth Warren told George Stephanopoulos yesterday that she thinks Hillary would be a "terrific candidate,"  maybe she meant that she hopes Hillary runs on the Republican ticket, right where she belongs.  As Hillary herself might say, "What difference, at this point, does it make?"

Or,as the late Gore Vidal did say, "Our only political party has two right wings, one called Republican, the other Democratic.  But Henry Adams figured all that out back in the 1890s.  'We have a single system,' he wrote, and 'in that system the only question is the price at which the proletariat is to be bought and sold, the bread and circuses."

4 comments:

Jay–Ottawa said...

Hillary, the brightest penny out of Wellesley, has stomached so much from Bill, worked so hard for the corporations and the Council on Foreign Affairs, waited so long and loyally on the political escalator behind Barack. Even the Republicans agree she’s entitled to become simultaneously the POTUS and the FLOTUS after the next campaign charade. That's why she was there with elder statesman McCain.

"The guest list was a hodgepodge of Senate centrists, tax-avoiding CEOs, polluting oil company execs and neocon war hawks. (or, in the press release propaganda-speak,"thought leaders, philanthropists and decision-makers.")"

Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders has recently been speechifying to proles in the Deep South and the Midwest. Sounds like he’s testing the waters for a campaign run as an Independent.

You say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to. Yeah, well let’s tell them all to go to hell and vote Third Party.

Zee said...

So.

Elizabeth Warren--great Presidential hope of Progressives for 2016--now endorses Hillary as "Terrific," presumably for the 2016 presidential campaign?

An advance paying of political "dues," maybe?

You say "to-may-to," I say "meh."

Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, "yada, yada yada..."

Politicians are just that: politicians...

And not to be trusted...

The greater fools we for so hoping...

Valerie Long Tweedie said...

Oh, I am completely depressed. Annenigma predicted long ago that Elizabeth Warren would go over to the dark side and I argued that she was different. I feel like it is just "game over." Zee is right - She is paying political "dues." But the damage her endorsement brings is great.

James F Traynor said...

For Christ's sake! Et tu Brute! Elizabeth Warren? It was but a glimmer - yet, still, a light. Next we'll find a pair of white bucks hidden in Bernie's closet.
It's The Magus.