Friday, February 1, 2008

Where Was The `Change' During The Clintons' First Two Terms?--Part 20

In their current campaign to secure a third term in the White House, in violation of the spirit of the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (which limits U.S. Establishment politicians who become the U.S. president to two terms in office), the Clintons are claiming that a third Clinton Administration in Washington, D.C. will bring democratic political “change” to U.S. society. Yet as the following historical column items from Downtown indicate, when Bill Clinton was the U.S. President during the 1990s the Clintons failed to bring democratic political change to U.S. society:

152 Days Before 1996 Chicago Dem Convention: Where’s The Change?

Unlike the Clintons, most folks who want to see U.S. society changed in a democratic way—like the 300 people who packed a Campaign to End The Death Penalty meeting in Boston on March 11, 1996—are opposed to capital punishment and in favor of legalizing hemp/marijuana. And most folks in Manhattan and Jersey who favor radical democratic change prefer Nader [in 1996] to the special interests’ presidential ticket of Dole & the Clintons.

But the Big Media has apparently decided that only Democratic and Republican party-linked candidates are to be treated like legitimate presidential candidates—152 days before the 1996 Chicago Democratic National Convention. Yet, as Feminist Chronicles: 1953-1993 observed, at its Sept. 16, 1991 meeting NOW’s Commission on Responsive Democracy urged “that NOW help launch a new political party, free from what it called the corruption and hypocrisy of the Democratic and Republican parties.”

(Downtown/Aquarian Weekly 3/27/96)

124 Days Before 1996 Chicago Dem Convention: Where’s The Change?

The Clintons are not eager to debate with Ralph Nader—124 days before the 1996 Chicago Democratic National Convention. But the Clintons are very eager to spend our tax money beefing up the FBI, the CIA, the Pentagon and the Israeli military machine. And the Clintons are not eager to abolish the death penalty, despite the movie Dead Man Walking.

(Downtown/Aquarian Weekly 4/24/96)

117 Days Before 1996 Chicago Dem Convention: Where’s The Change?

Bill “Mr. Peacemaker” Clinton’s Middle East Peace wasn’t very peaceful in April [1996]. And like former CIA Director Bush I, Bill Clinton apparently still prefers traveling to foreign countries like Russia, Korea and Japan to debating domestic issues with Ralph Nader—117 days before the 1996 Chicago Democratic National Convention. Happy May Day!

(Downtown/Aquarian Weekly 5/1/96)

110 Days Before 1996 Chicago Dem Convention: Where’s The Change?

The Yuppie Democrats, the Elderly Republicans and the Media Monopoly don’t appear willing to let 1996 Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader debate on TV with the special corporate interests’ presidential ticket of Dole and The Clintons—110 days before the 1996 Chicago Democratic National Convention. Yet as Dick Gregory’s Political Primer noted in 1972:

“Inside the convention hall will be found balloons, placards, costumes, live entertainment, bands, loud demonstrations, muffled obscenities, and a more dignified form of obscenity, political oratory. Outside the convention hall may be found demonstrations of a different sort, peace officers ready to club participants in the demonstrations and unleash tear gas canisters which will pollute the convention site for blocks around, occasional street rebellions which may inspire gunfire—in short, everything you would expect to happen when voters are denied the right to choose their president.”

(Downtown/Aquarian Weekly 5/8/96)

Next: Where Was The “Change” During The Clintons’ First Two Terms?—Part 21