Clintonism

Now that Lurleen …errr... Hillary… Rodham Clinton is running for president, all the old discussions about what exactly the Clintons stood for have resurfaced, with a vengeance. Are they: Ex-lefties who became true moderates of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) ilk, who led the Democratic Party away from its left-liberal suicidal tendencies? Left-liberals to the core (flower-in-her-hair Hillary and a draft-dodging pothead), pretending to be moderates to get elected? Ambitious frauds that will say and do anything ("triangulation") to advance themselves and their beliefs? All of the above?

One thing for sure, they and their followers have been great masters at manipulating the national conversation, able to turn previously contentious ideas into the mundane - the new "conventional wisdom" - with appropriate catch phrases that have become a part of the lexicon of this country. They have been so successful at it, that these ideas have become mainstream thinking to a large swathe of the country, including so-called conservatives like George W. Bush. Among the more successful of these ideas that have been burrowed into the national conscience are:

· "It's all about the children" ("we are not really rewarding lazy, promiscuous, irresponsible women; we are taking care of the innocent kids"), which was originally used to justify extensions of the welfare system in the early Clinton years. It has been so successful at tugging at the conscience of the American people that it is still doing splendid service to this day: Think of S-CHIP and its proposed extension to adults "who care for the children"; all kinds of welfare and educational benefits for illegal immigrants and (by extension) to their parents; and - last but not least - "no child left behind". In fact this trope has been so successful, it has been "franchised". The most notable current application is "It's all about the troops", used as the smokescreen by "respectable" liberals who wish to see Bush (and America) defeated and humiliated in the Middle East. To the left, it is unacceptable that America's interests can be successfully asserted and defended by force.

· "Don't ask, don't tell" as a means to begin the process of getting respectability for homosexuality in this country, starting at "the top of the masculinity chain", so to speak. This phrase, hated and derided by the true believers on the left, was the starting point for the left-liberal agenda to make homosexuality respectable and acceptable as an "alternate life style". Conservatives are so much on the defensive that they are fighting to hold the line at this idiotic idea, to prevent further destruction of our national character and culture.

· “Diversity” is by far the most pervasive and most profound of all the “new paradigms” of Clintonism. It changed the entire cultural argument about who we are as Americans. The Clintonites used it to short-circuit all the then-prevailing arguments about multi-culturism (who hears that word now?), integration, “alternate life-styles” and what it means to be American (no more of the REAL culture war on that front now). The word has become so pervasive that we hear now about nothing but diversity in all its … DIVERSITY: bio-diversity; cultural diversity; business diversity; broadcast diversity; ethnic diversity… ad nauseum (googling the word produced over 73 million hits before Google gave out). It is now cited by the courts as a good unto itself. No mainstream politician would dare argue against it now; George H. W. Bush was the last major party candidate to run against multi-culturism - and he lost in ’92. Junior learned the lesson and campaigned in SPANISH. No one dares to ask why it is necessary for a candidate for public office to campaign in any language other than English (or why we need multi-language ballots), since all immigrants are supposed to pass an English language test for citizenship; hence all voters are supposed to know English.

So let not liberals denigrate the LEFT-LIBERAL credentials of the Clintons; they have done more to institutionalize left-liberal ideas than any rabid leftist, in academia or out, could possibly have done.