Posted by Magus 1982 at cisco-ts5-line39.uoregon.edu on February 10, 2003 at 10:56:31:
In Reply to: Re: What's up with all the Clinton bashing??? posted by Hal Phillips on February 09, 2003 at 03:21:10:
After the Reagan/Bush Sr. agenda in the 80s and early 90s, and Thatcher/Major Conservative party in Britain, the Democrats and Labourites pushed their party rightward to get votes. From New Labour's privatization under Blair to his support for Bush and Berlusconi, "liberal" politicians are becoming increasingly conservative and some of them downright fascist. In America, Democrats like Tipper-to-the-Right Gore supported youth music censorship including most of the alternative and non-corporate scene (yeah, 16-year-olds should listen to Aaron Carter, not Dead Prez. WTF), promoted a minimum age of 17 for all movies with 2 or more F words, and pushed for other various forms of youth oppression to promote morality. Clinton refused to acknowledge the truth that marijuana can be good medicine. The drug war soared to new heights, creating inflated drug prices that lead to more property crime. Not to mention that they cut the welfare and supported anti-union forms of trade agreements, and promoted monetarist anti-inflation policies over full employment, living-wage Keynesian economics.
Though Clinton tried to nationalize health care and raise the minimum wage, and work for gay rights to some extent (which was good), his New Democrat policies were by and large anti-poor and anti-youth. Because of the corporate shift of the Republicrats, I have changed my party registration and plan to vote, well, a little more progressive in 2004.
: Bill Clinton:
: --destroyed welfare
: --supported the death penalty
: --led America into numerous foreign attacks which had nothing to do with America's interests-- including in both Iraq and Afghanistan, among other areas
: --pushed NAFTA into existence
: --pushed for increased censorship of the Internet
: --may not have been directly responsible for the massacre in Waco, but tacitly condoned it by not condemning the subordinates who were responsible
: --brought about the "don't ask, don't tell" pseudo-compromise, which left gay people in no better of a position than they had been in previously
: The list goes on.