Hillary Clinton as Big Sister. (With apologies to George Orwell.)
In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Hillary Clinton made two disturbing comments. One has, quite rightly, received a lot of negative publicity; the other one hasn’t but should.
Here’s the 5-minute video.
At the 2:15 point, Clinton said, “Maybe there needs to be a formal deprogramming of the cult members.” (She’s referring to MAGA Republicans, whom, recall, she referred to in 2016 as a “basket of deplorables.”)
Two things to note about this. First, if she had left out the word “formal,” one could more easily think that she was saying this off the top of her head and didn’t really believe it. But by using the word “formal,” she seems to show that she’s been thinking seriously about this proposal. That’s pretty creepy and dangerous. And to think that on election eve in 2016, after Fox News Channel projected Trump as the winner in Wisconsin, I was hoping for Clinton to pull it out. I now think that we really dodged a bullet. (Better the devil we know, etc.)
Second, notice Amanpour’s giggle when Clinton makes her proposal.
The part that hasn’t gotten as much notice, but is also dangerous for what it says about Clinton’s views on Americans’ freedom, comes at the 4:52 point. Clinton says:
Make America Great Again was a bid for nostalgia, to return to a place where, you know, people could be in charge of their lives, feel empowered, say what they want, insult whoever came in their way. And that was really attractive to a significant portion of the Republican base. So it is like a cult and somebody has to break that momentum.
Get it? Somebody has to break the momentum of a movement of people who want more freedom to live their lives as they see fit and to say what they want. And one way she proposes to rid people of this belief in freedom is “formal deprogramming.”
Yikes!
READER COMMENTS
Ron
Oct 7 2023 at 8:36pm
Thanks for pointing that out. I’m unsure on the origin of her authoritarian impulses. Is this ego driven and her views are the result of a sick mind? Or has she studied Marxism and she’s using these ideas as a way to gain power? Or is she a just a Marxist now?
There is a far left wing of the democrats in New York that are now publicly announcing their allegiances to the communism.
Grand Rapids Mike
Oct 7 2023 at 11:18pm
Today’s (10/7) Wall Street Journal, there is a full page interview with Thomas Sowell on his recent book, Social Justice Fallacies. Sowell provides a comment that I think fits in here. ” The fatal danger of today is a growing intolerance and suppression of opinions and evidence that differ from prevailing ideologies that dominant institutions”. The discussion and quote continues in this vein. Will add that in today’s world the elite and their followers cannot stand differing opinions. It is as if Freedom of Speech was not in the Constitution and a hallmark of Liberty.
steve
Oct 7 2023 at 11:20pm
Meh. On the first part she was clearly making a joke. Amanpour caught it and laughed. I suspect that even a big spending Dem realizes we dont have the money to deprogram 100 million people, or the time or the therapists. On the second past it’s pretty clear, I think, that she is mocking for people for making those claims when what they really want to do is act against gays, black people etc. I think she is the second worst candidate we have ever had for POTUS and think she should be totally ignored now. But if you do have to listen to her at least listen to the context.
Steve
Michael Stack
Oct 9 2023 at 2:06pm
I think she was joking too, but even a joke here is revealing. She obviously does not take people who supported Trump seriously, even though a lot of (at least otherwise) reasonable people voted for him.
Her second comment was truly shocking. Something I’ve read from a lot of progressives is that they think white Americans supported Trump because they want to return to the glory years where they could discriminate freely against black people. Clinton seems to hint at that interpretation with her comment about “insult whomever came in their way”.
I think that interpretation of Trump supporters is mostly nonsense, though I think white people enjoyed additional unearned status via their skin color, and this association between status & skin color is something with which woke progressives are obsessed. Indeed, I think the entire woke movement can be distilled down to an exercise in elevating the status of historically oppressed minorities (black, gay, trans, etc.) while demoting the status of white people. I think what they’re imagining is the evil opposite of a meritocracy.
Jose Pablo
Oct 7 2023 at 11:32pm
The fact that every ruler wants to extend his/her control over everybody else (particularly over dissidents) should not be a surprise.
Any political system that tries to constraint the power of the ruler, must be very well prepared to withstand the repeated attempts of the ruler to break the constraints (including deprogramming people or declaring “national emergencies” with the only goal of illegally appropriate funds for his/her pet project).
Counting on the benevolence of the ruler to voluntarily submit to the constraints is just naive (see Hungary, Poland, India, Israel soon, Washington on January 6th or Hillary’s comments, as proof of this reality)
The interesting discussion is on how effective are the mechanism protecting Americans from Hillary’s intentions and on how to improve them. Tearing our clothes because a politician wants to suppress opposition is like showing surprise that dogs bark.
Jon Murphy
Oct 8 2023 at 10:20am
Even if Clinton’s comments are tongue-in-cheek, I still think it represents a dangerous growing ideology among the Left that any deviation from Left-thinking is evil and deserves to be punished.
There is a concerning rise of illiberalism and intolerance in American politics, in particular from the Left.
David Seltzer
Oct 8 2023 at 1:17pm
Jon, I think “tongue- in -cheek” is HRC’s beard. I suspect, given her druthers, she would model her deprogramming of “deplorables” after the CCP’s treatment of Uyghurs. The Uyghurs are a Muslim minority in China. Some one million Uyghurs have been detained in camps, suffering torture, forced labor, and religious persecution. I don’t recall her expressing outrage at this horrific behavior.
steve
Oct 8 2023 at 2:15pm
The Uyghur camps largely did not form until 2017, past the time when Clinton was campaigning or in office. When she was ion office she spoke out against the abuse of Uyghurs (not that hard to find).
https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2009-07-07-voa79-68804577/362339.html
I think that if you think the left is worse it probably reflects your own bias. There is no shortage of evidence that the right thinks deviating from right thinking is evil and should be punished. I will grant there is a bit of a pendulum and in any given year one can be worse than the other but the other side always catches up.
Steve
Jon Murphy
Oct 8 2023 at 2:18pm
I don’t know. I’ve never been threatened with death by the mainstream right. I regularly am by the mainstream left.
But whether one is worse than the other is immaterial. Both are terrible for any sense of liberalism.
David Seltzer
Oct 8 2023 at 9:28pm
What Jon Murphy said, Steve!!
Roger McKinney
Oct 9 2023 at 12:20pm
The French Revolution eliminated all opposition. Lenin, Stalin, Hitler and Mao all were frustrated by a small group that wouldn’t get with their plans. So they eliminated the hold outs. From Wilson through FDR and Hillary, the left wants to get rid of any opposition.
BS
Oct 9 2023 at 1:00pm
Even a joke shows you where a person’s mind is.
James Anderson Merritt
Oct 9 2023 at 4:59pm
Indeed. I used to watch the White House Press Corps’ annual dinners for that very reason. They were quite instructive.
TCGz
Oct 10 2023 at 3:21pm
While Hillary is correct that MAGA is a cult, that’s as far as it goes. Being in a cult doesn’t equal bad person, ignorant, weak-minded, gullible perhaps. The cult of MAGA has it’s “Lord and Savior” a man who as Frank Rich in his 2018 piece, “The Original Donald Trump” accurately describe Trump as “a shameless lawbreaker, tax evader, liar, racist, bankruptcy aficionado, and hypocrite notorious for his mob connections, transactional sexual promiscuity, and utter disregard for rules, scruples, and morals.”
Consider juxtaposing candidate Trump from Trump the President and you see a presidency closer to his NY Democrat Machine roots.
Did Trump “Drain the Swamp?” No, he hired the establishment swamp creatures like Bill Barr.
Did Trump defend the 2nd Amendment? No,“ During a public appearance in 2019, President Donald Trump proudly reminded us about his gun control credentials, bragging that his administration implemented new gun control and has conducted more enforcement actions than anyone in history.” “He (Trump) called for comprehensive gun control legislation that would expand background checks to weapons purchased at gun shows and, on the internet, keep guns from mentally ill people (Red Flag laws), secure schools and restrict gun sales for some young adults. He even suggested a conversation on an assault weapons ban.”
Did Trump stand in the way of the Globalists?” No, he attended the WEF (globalist mothership) in Davos and received praise from Klaus Schwab.
Did Trump end the illegal wars in Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia? No,
“Through the first seven months in 2020… Donald Trump conducted 43 airstrikes in Somalia…the Trump administration bombed Somalia more than Pres. G.W. Bush and Pres. Barack Obama combined.”
Yet the cult of MAGA continues their unwavering devotion. Go figure.
Mike Wagner
Oct 18 2023 at 12:10pm
This interview should not be surprising given many things Hillary has said during her entire career from First Lady of Arkansas to Secretary of State to this example. Suggest you replay the interview with the coal miner when she was a candidate telling him basically “we can retrain you.” She has been an arrogant elitist her whole life. Surprised this little nugget is a surprise?
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