Holding its nose, the country’s leading progressive voice that went all-in for Sen. Bernie Sanders has finally endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton for president, at the same time condemning her foreign policy and ties to Wall Street.
The reason The Nation endorsed was summed up in two words: “Donald Trump.”
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Said the editorial, “We know that some readers will find it hard to vote for Clinton.”
But, it added, “Over the past eight years, progressives have learned the hard way that voting for hope and change doesn’t always deliver hope or change. So while voting for Clinton may be necessary, it is hardly sufficient.”
In fact, the influential publication said that it will watch Clinton like a hawk, and urge allies like Sen. Elizabeth Warren to weigh in when a President Clinton gets too far out of the progressive line.
“On almost every issue you can think of, Clinton is so much better than Trump that comparison seems like a meaningless exercise. This does not constitute a blank check or a wholesale endorsement. Clinton’s enduring ties to Wall Street and corporate CEOs mean that progressives will have to continue to push her on trade, financial regulation, taxation, and public investment. The Nation also stands ready to support Warren and others in making sure Clinton’s cabinet officials and economic advisers are subjected to a searching scrutiny,” said the editors.
And, they added, “Clinton’s hawkish foreign-policy reflexes also raise grave concerns. She has frequently embraced positions to the right of President Obama, and has been embraced in turn by a rogues’ gallery of neoconservative and liberal- hawk advisers who together personify a failed bipartisan foreign-policy consensus. She’s backed regime change from Honduras to Libya to Syria, upholding the view that America is the ‘indispensable nation’ entitled to police the world. Her blinkered view of Israel and Palestine offers no comfort to those who long for a just peace in the Middle East. Instead of seeking to engage Russia—an essential partner in resolving the crisis in Syria and the conflict in Ukraine, as well as combating nuclear proliferation and addressing climate change—Clinton seems intent on deepening a new Cold War. Even as we endorse her, we understand that it will be incumbent on us to challenge President Clinton to break her hawkish habits and move toward a new and progressive realism.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
