The Patriot Post® · 2016 DNC Repudiates Bill Clinton

In 1992, Democrat Bill Clinton beat out incumbent Republican George H.W. Bush for the presidency, having successfully branded himself as a Southern, conservative “New Democrat” who could be trusted with major responsibilities like national security and the economy. Fast forward nearly a quarter century and this week the Democrat Party is hosting its national convention for the purpose of nominating Bill’s wife, Hillary, as its candidate for president, and to adopt a party platform. In doing so, the Democrats have swerved hard left and, while Bill is still immensely popular with the Democrat base, this year’s Democrat National Convention is nothing less than an utter repudiation of the Bill Clinton presidency.

The Bill Clinton Democrat Party of 1992 was a center-left party, but the Hillary Clinton Democrat Party of 2016 is a motley amalgam of far-left radicals, socialists, racial grievance-mongers and card-carrying members of the Hate-America Club. This is abundantly evident in the convention backdrops, the platform, and the rhetoric used by its speakers, perfectly captured by the sight of Bernie Sanders’ supporters angrily waving “America Was Never Great” signs.

On Day One of the 2016 Democrat convention, there were no American flags in sight (at least not that weren’t on fire outside the convention hall), although you didn’t have to look hard to find Palestinian or Soviet flags. Whereas Bill Clinton tried to put a moderate face on the party, socialist Bernie Sanders accurately crowed that they now have “the most progressive platform in the history of the Democrat Party.” And whereas the media repeatedly used the words “dark” and “fear” to describe the Republican National Convention, the DNC speeches have been an endless litany of condemnation of America and her supposed evils.

To listen to the Democrats tell it, America is today a boiling cauldron of racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, poverty and inequality, and just generally a miserable place to be. That is a pretty damning indictment considering that their messiah, Barack Obama, has had nearly eight years in office, able to ram through most every major policy initiative (either legislatively, with congressional Democrat supermajorities, or by acting outside the constitutional boundaries of his power) that his heart desired. Such negativity has had an impact, with two-thirds of the country saying America is in the “wrong track” after eight years of Obama.

What a stark contrast! Reagan campaigned for re-election in 1984 on the slogan “Morning in America,” and he won in a landslide because, under Reagan’s policies, America had once again become a happy, vibrant, prosperous nation. In 2016, Hillary Clinton suffers from multiple-personality disorder, lamenting the morass in which America is bogged down on the one hand, and promising, on the other hand, to continue the very Obama policies which pulled us deep into the quagmire in the first place. If Obama’s policies have been so wonderful, then why the need for Hillary to put Bill in charge of “revitalizing” the economy? In a speech to the delegates, Bernie Sanders railed against “the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality that we currently experience, the worst it has been since 1928.” How is this possible when Democrats have been in control?

In his 1996 State of the Union address, Bill Clinton infamously declared that the “era of Big Government is over!” In 2016, Hillary is promising free college, expanded welfare and “single-payer” (as in a fully socialized/nationalized, government-run) health care. Under Obama, government has in fact, or in effect, taken over health care, student loans and the financial industry. Hillary and Bernie call for a massive increase in the job-killing minimum wage, more income redistribution, expanded maternity/paternity leave, and a host of other government-mandated benefits that end up being paid for by confiscating more and more of the earnings of the taxpayers.

In 1992, Bill Clinton masterfully capitalized on his “Sista Soulja moment,” repudiating a female rapper who, when questioned about black-on-black violence, replied that maybe black people should take a week off from killing each other and instead kill white people. In 2016, Hillary capitalizes on the fraud that is the Black Lives Matter movement, stoking racial anger for political gain and perpetuating the lie that American law enforcement officers are waging a war on innocent young black men, even as she expresses sympathy for the climate that has led to the assassination of a dozen police officers in recent weeks. Democrats are likewise apathetic toward the fact that nearly half of all black children conceived are murdered in the womb, or the fact that the vast majority of black murder victims in America are killed by other blacks in the Democrats’ urban poverty plantations.

The 1992 DNC platform proclaimed, “Republicans brought America a false and fragile prosperity based on borrowing, not income, and so will leave behind a mountain of public debt and a backbreaking annual burden in interest. It is wrong to borrow to spend on ourselves, leaving our children to pay our debts.” In 2016, Obama has accumulated $10 trillion in new debt, and Hillary wants to dramatically increase spending and raise taxes.

In 1992, Democrats declared, “We vow to make government more decentralized, more flexible, and more accountable — to reform public institutions and replace public officials who aren’t leading with ones who will.” In 2016, Democrats drive tirelessly to consolidate ever more power in the federal government, even as the IRS is used as a weapon against conservative Republicans, with Obama providing cover and refusing to hold them accountable.

In 1992, Democrats declared the start of a revolution that would be “about restoring the basic American values that built this country and will always make it great: personal responsibility, individual liberty, tolerance, faith, family and hard work.” In 2016, Democrats disdain personal responsibility, crush individual liberty at every opportunity, undermine incentives to work hard, and show no tolerance for people of faith, even as they actively implement policies that are destroying the family.

In 1992, Democrats called business a “noble endeavor,” but today they treat business, at best, as a necessary evil; a beast of burden to be beaten down until it draws its last breath.

In 1992, Bill Clinton proclaimed that abortion should be “safe, legal and rare.” In 2016, Democrats have overseen the slaughter of nearly 60 million unborn children since Roe v. Wade. They funnel more than half a billion taxpayer dollars annually to Planned Parenthood, which had been exposed as killing live babies and chopping them up to sell for parts, and Democrats make clear today that, when it comes to the unborn, no level of cruelty, brutality, or inhumanity is beyond their capacity to justify in the name of “women’s health.” And they want taxpayers to foot the bill.

The broadcasting of the Democrat National Convention this week, while disturbing to watch, is actually a public service. No one can watch that angry, bitter spectacle and not realize that the centrist Democrat Party of yesteryear is dead, if not quite buried, and that the Democrat Party of today is populated by America-hating, anti-Christian, anti-free market, anti-Constitution, anti-Second Amendment, anti-individual liberty, pro-Marxist radicals.

For anyone that loves freedom, the thought of Democrats controlling the White House for another four years should be a terrifying prospect.