Where Was The `Change' During The Clintons' First Two Terms?--Part 18

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:

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

Mayor Richard Daley and the other Young Democrats of the 1960s are apparently hoping to hold yet another closed Chicago Democratic National Convention on Aug. 27-29, 1996. Yet 285 days before the 1996 Chicago Democratic National Convention, the Clintons’ Administration still has not freed any U.S. political prisoners, passed a federal gay rights bill, responded adequately to the AIDS epidemic, established a free health insurance program or legalized hemp.

Bill Clinton has also apparently been too busy panhandling for re-election campaign contributions at dinners of the Corporate Rich since moving into the White House to devote much of his time to pushing through Congress a campaign financing reform law that would prevent special corporate interests and the Big Media from rigging the U.S. electoral process. All Big Media power to the people!

(Downtown 11/15/95)

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

Like former CIA Director George Bush I, the Clintons still don’t appear to have much of a domestic agenda. [Permanent] Prosperity has not yet been restored in New York City and U.S. society has still not been radically democratized, 257 days before the 1996 Chicago Democratic National Convention. Nor has a generous peace treaty yet been signed with the government of Iraq or the government of Cuba.

Coincidentally, at the same time heavily-armed U.S. troops are being rushed into Bosnia to protect the special interests of the transnational corporations and David Rockefeller’s Trilateral Commission, French working-class people appear to be getting rebellious again. Russian working-class people, meanwhile, may be getting more dissatisfied with the [then-]Yeltsin regime’s “free market economy.” All Big Media Power To The People! Bring The Troops Home From Europe Now!

(Downtown 12/13/95)

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

Under the Clintons’ Administration’s secret economic recovery plan, “about 8 million or 40 percent” of U.S. workers “between 55 and 65 are unemployed” and “two-thirds of these were laid-off or forced into early retirement,” according to American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) spokesperson Patricia Smith (Boston Tab 1/2/96). The New York Times (1/5/96) also reported that, under the Clintons’ Administration’s secret economic recovery plan, “the nation’s merchants reported the worst December sales…since the 1990-91 recession.”

Bill “Whitewater” Clinton still appears more interested in Bosnian politics these days than in releasing U.S. political prisoner Leonard Peltier, 215 days before the 1996 Chicago Democratic National Convention. All Big Media Power To The People!

(Downtown 1/24/96)

Next: Where Was The “Change” During The Clintons’ First Two Terms?—Part 19