Between the mainstream media’s demonization of Donald Trump and the neocons jumping ship to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, a Clinton victory might prove grimly inevitable, but that will guarantee more neocon wars, says ex-CIA official Graham E. Fuller.
By Graham E. Fuller
In this crazy year — actually a non-stop circus for 18 months — the press has engaged in an orgy of vitriol and bloodletting against the presumptive Republican nominee for the presidency with a hysteria I have never seen in my life against any mainstream party candidate. And the Donald probably deserves a great deal of it.
Yes, we can all see now how Trump is engaged in shredding, maybe even remaking the Republican party — creative destruction. That, in the view of many including myself, is basically a good thing, given how far off the rails of reality the party has drifted.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Trump has trashed the neocon war party, blamed George W. Bush for the debacle in Iraq and elsewhere, wants to throttle way back on foreign wars, and has declared a readiness to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin — otherwise treated in the US press as toxic and satanic. (Though even Chuck Hagel, former Secretary of Defense, recently had the temerity to suggest that things with Russia were getting dangerous and that we should be in constant dialog with Putin.)
Like many others, I have been galvanized at watching the spectacle of Bernie Sanders proclaiming issues in his campaign that had been virtually off limits for political discussion for decades: gap between rich and poor, rapacious international trade deals, a fair wage, free university education, the call for US balance (gasp!) in handling the Arab-Israeli, issue, etc.
The great thing about Bernie — even if he probably won’t get nominated — is that he has pushed hawkish, friend-of-Wall-Street Hillary to the left. She has as much acknowledged that. That will be Bernie’s greatest legacy. I would have hoped that the issues Sanders has raised can never be shoved back into the political toothpaste tube again.
That was the hope. But now along comes Trump. The Right — and especially the neocons — are hysterical about what he is doing to the Republican party — of neo-cons, hawks, Wall Street cash recipients, fundamentalist Christians, Tea Party, and U.S. global supremacy. They are pulling out all stops in a desperate attempt to block Trump at all costs. Many of them already say they will vote for Hillary, such is their fear of the Donald.
And herein lies the fear. Just what does that do to Hillary — ever tacking to the shifting winds of popular opinion? Bottom line is that Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton will no longer have to worry about winning over the Sanders’s Left — some of whom might well stay home on Election Day. The massive support of Republicans, and especially neocons, will bail Hillary out.
Hillary will indeed embrace this Republican support — and will accommodate to it. Indeed her basic political instincts have been all along in that direction anyway — rather than to the left.
And that means we are guaranteed to have a President Hillary Clinton far to the right of Obama — who barely qualifies even as centrist himself.
Prominent neocon intellectual Robert Kagan. (Photo credit: Mariusz Kubik, http://www.mariuszkubik.pl)
In short, the essential pressures that Bernie has been exerting to pressure Hillary to the left — so vital to balanced government — are being cancelled out. Bernie’s influence, and all those who revel in the fresh air of his platform, will be drowned out in the new love-fest between Hillary Clinton and the Republicans, whose key neocon figures like Robert Kagan and Charles Krauthammer now enthusiastically and publicly embrace her.
The handwriting on the wall is clear: the advisers, counselors, so-called brain trusts and special aides around her (some of whom even infiltrated into Obama’s ranks) — those who remain blindly impervious in their serial defeats in foreign policy — they will all be back in full force to offer us same-old-same-old losing foreign policies dating back to George W. Bush.
And so the U.S. will continue to be virtually the only democratic country in the world whose political spectrum runs boldly from Right to Center — and then stops. There is no Left in America. We operate on half a spectrum.
Why do I cringe in using the word “Left” — even to describe myself? Because Left is a dirty word in the U.S. One can speak freely of politicians on the Right. But to say that someone is on the Left is fightin’ words — it smacks of the un-American.
Trump’s delivery of the neocons and Republican establishment to Hillary Clinton’s door will be his final and greatest damage to our political order. He will bring out all the very worst instincts in Hillary that some of us had hoped might have been softened or nuanced through Bernie Sanders’s unwavering spotlight on what really ails the nation. Precisely in his own defeat will Trump bring about his greatest revenge in decisively coloring the next administration.
Graham E. Fuller is a former senior CIA official, author of numerous books on the Muslim World; his latest book is Breaking Faith: A novel of espionage and an American’s crisis of conscience in Pakistan. (Amazon, Kindle) grahamefuller.com
The neocons know it’s all about having political power. They will sign on to anyone likely to take the White House because without the White House, the neocons are just piss-poor columnists. This time, Hillary is making it super-easy for them. Even if there were no Trump in this race, they would be eyeing her hungrily because of her proud hawkishness. She’s itching to start a new Middle East war, and that is like catnip to the neocons.
They’ve had eight years to think through the mistakes of the Iraq fiasco, and they’ve probably now got a much slicker, much more convincing way of manipulating events — and since they failed so miserably with a dolt for a president last time, they’ll be super-eager to work with someone as dangerously intelligent as Hillary.
The next four years should complete the fall of the American empire quite efficiently.
The American empire is quite safe. It is in no danger of falling. It might have to accept the emergence of China and the return of Russia as the end of unopposed world dominance but the empire remains quite sound. What is threatened is the pretense that American democracy is a genuine force in American life. The relief that many felt when Hope and Change followed Bush and Cheney was replaced with bitter disappointment and the undeniable awareness that talk is cheap. We have a real opportunity to regain a bit of what we’ve lost with Sanders offer of more FDR New Deal democracy. The lengths that the corrupt democratic party goes to in attacking Sanders are the best evidence available that he offers real hope.
Re: “The great thing about Bernie — even if he probably won’t get nominated — is that he has pushed hawkish, friend-of-Wall-Street Hillary to the left. She has as much acknowledged that. That will be Bernie’s greatest legacy. I would have hoped that the issues Sanders has raised can never be shoved back into the political toothpaste tube again.”
Fuller, like some others, seems very naive telling us that Bernie Sanders is pushing Hillary towards the left, which is totally impossible, even if she wanted to be pushed (and she doesn’t), because she couldn’t tell defense contractors that she is no longer interested in wars, coups and regime changes, even if she wanted to (which she doesn’t) because her non-charitable Foundation has accepted $Million “donations” from the defense industry and they just might want their investment back should she refuse to deliver on her pledges. Nor could she tell Netanyahu that the US can’t afford to pay Israel $40 Million or $50 Million to support more Gaza wars, even if she wanted to (and she doesn’t) because AIPAC made a hefty investment in getting what they had bargained for. The same is true for hefty investments by Wall Street, banks, foreign governments, and transnational corporations. In short, unless money and influence buying is taken out of politics, a true democracy is not really possible and we might as well stop putting on the expensive charade of pretending that we have one. The only thing Bernie has done is get Hillary whom I like to call Ms. Flip-Flop, to temporarily change her rhetoric to prevent Bernie from taking too many votes away from her, and that’s all and it is completely meaningless.
I can only hope that this country will wake up soon and realize that HC is not the progressive defender of the democratic faith she presents herself to be.
She is as pro-business / anti-worker as any corporate or Wall St. CEO.
The only thing separating today’s establishment dem’s rhetoric from the most conservative republicans is that so far, they still pay lip service to civil, women’s and LGBT rights. Other than that, they line up at the same corporate cash trough as every republican politician. If she becomes our next president, very little, if anything at all, will change. Nothing will be done to better the lives of the average working class / working poor American.
We will not see any improvement in the state of our healthcare system; Wall St. will be allowed to continue the behaviors that caused the financial meltdown of ’08, there will be no meaningful increase in the minimum wage, fracking will continue to pollute our groundwater, and workers unions will continue to lose the power to represent and protect their members. Our involvement in Middle Eastern conflicts will grow, and possibly escalate into an all out war with Iran. She has stated she is willing to compromise with republicans on issues like abortion, that were settled by the SCOTUS decades ago.
I am not repeating republican talking points. I am stating what I and millions of other people believe to be the truth, based on things she has said and done, and the industries and other entities that are funding her campaign. Her campaign is already beginning to tack hard to the right with her pursuit of donations from former Bush and Cruz supporters. Her campaign has formed a “Republicans for Hillary” arm, that is appealing to republican voters by pointing out that she represents their interests better than the republican nominee.
I never in my life thought that any democrat would ever say they were a better republican than the republicans nominee. If someone had told me this was going to happen, I would have laughed in their face.
You are absolutely right about Hillary. My hope is more modest – for people who are in doubt, to simply not vote. That will probably be sufficient.
She can prove to be an even bigger disaster than you think. Geopolitical situation with China and Russia had set things in motion now. They were years into the preparation already, and now the events are pushing them to accelerate pace. With her it will likely only accelerate further.
I can only hope that this country will wake up and realize that HC is not the progressive defender of the democratic faith she presents herself to be. She is as pro-business / anti-worker as any corporate or Wall St. CEO.
The only thing separating today’s establishment dem’s rhetoric from the most conservative republicans is that so far, they still pay lip service to civil, women’s and LGBT rights. Other than that, they line up at the same corporate cash trough as every republican politician.
I don’t think the fascist harpy will have it as easy as you think. Trump can attack her from the left and gain the support of many. The reality of his appearance does not match the propaganda and many of the bozo pronouncements he made were necessary for the nomination. The other thing is that Hillary’s (and the Clintons in general) are carrying so much baggage and Trump won’t follow political correctness like Sanders has in not going after it.
Her status as a war criminal in Libya who facilitated a takeover there by barbarian Jihadis who, among other things, engaged in a mass murder of black Africans Khaddafi had allowed to settle there based on his support for African unity, is more likely to be disclosed by Trump. This will make it difficult for Clinton to hold the black vote which has enabled her to win despite her obvious rightwing policies.
tripe!!!!
“Why do I cringe in using the word “Left” — even to describe myself? Because Left is a dirty word in the U.S. One can speak freely of politicians on the Right. But to say that someone is on the Left is fightin’ words — it smacks of the un-American.”
want to discredit someone, just apply a label from the following list, “liberal, socialist, leftist, communist, social justice warrior.”
want to be branded with one of, or a combination of the labels on that list …
label someone, or some institution as “fascist.”
Jorge, you need to change your circle of friends, and move in better company. Find like-minded people. Fox and talk-radio jocks don’t speak for all of us.
Up until 2003,there was no talk of a left in the USA,at least MSM wise.
Trump will beat Hillary in a landslide, with or without the Neo-cons going over to Hillary.
Wouldn’t count on that with most of the Republican “establishment,” including the media, lined up against him. It will be close either way. The international community also seems to be lined up vehemently against Trump, which may work out for the best if he wins. Perhaps that will cause Europe to plot a course independent of American dictates, and maybe leading to the breakup of NATO (which Trump actually said he wants).
The Zionists want no part of America First.
The MSM keeps bringing Adelson into the Trump conversation,saying he wants to donate 100 million,which of course is illegal.I think they are starting to wake up and try guilt by association with Trump.
Donald,please refuse?
The American people might dislike Arabs and Muslims(for dumb reasons)but we definitely dislike Israel for the right reasons.Whatever support they have here,outside of their co conspirators,is a mile wide,but a millimeter deep.
How is it lost on people that Trump is as establishment as it gets. The part of it that sees the need for urgent change. Perhaps a minority within the establishment but clearly riding the wave of the anti-estblishment silent majority of the voters. Media cannot ignore such a rating-worthy nominee of a major party. It’s too late. Also, the more they try to discredit him, the stronger the support from the anti-establishment wave is. The old establishment is splintering already, with more and more jumping on the new bandwagon.
People, who were reliable voters before and who are offended by his rhetoric, are also not greatly energized by Hillary. As you can see across so many forums, they tend to plan not to vote or vote third-party. This means a loss to Hillary, since anti-establishment wave, who did not vote before, probably will now.
They are really at a loss now and they are beginning to understand it. They would have a better chance if Hillary could come up with a positive energizing agenda (i.e. not just #stopTrump) or if they had Bernie instead of her. Pigs will fly sooner with those types of people. So, the last tool in the toolbox is assassination and not just of a political variety… I hope they are not this crazy as there is everything to loose going that route.
Yes. The same course by democrats in Massachusetts led to a mild mannered republican privatizer governor. Good democratic party candidates were defeated by party insiders who anointed a blond princess for governor candidate; she was defeated by indifference and low turn-out.
I’m independent. If Bernie is shoved aside, Trump does not scare me at all.
Regarding the Clinton Crime Family Foundation and its need for a private server:
The Clinton Foundation is “organized crime” at its finest, and we are financing it. It may eventually prove to be the largest political criminal enterprise in U.S. history. Here is how and why they did it.
1. Create a separate foreign “charity.” In this case, one in Canada.
2. Foreign oligarchs and governments, then donate to this Canadian charity. In this case, over 1,000 did — contributing mega millions. I’m sure they did this out of the goodness of their hearts, and expected nothing in return. (Imagine Putin’s buddies waking up one morning and just deciding to send untold millions to a Canadian charity).
3. The Canadian charity then bundles these separate donations and makes a massive donation to the Clinton Foundation.
4. The Clinton Foundation and the cooperating Canadian charity claim Canadian law prohibits the identification of individual donors.
5. The Clinton Foundation then “spends” some of this money for legitimate good works programs. Unfortunately, experts believe this is on the order of 10%. Much of the balance goes to enrich the Clinton’s, pay salaries to untold numbers of hangers on, and fund lavish travel, etc. Again, virtually all tax free, which means you and I are subsidizing it.
6. The Clinton Foundation, with access to the world’s best accountants, somehow fails to report much of this on their tax filings. They discover these “clerical errors” and begin the process of re-filing 5 years of tax returns after it was disclosed in “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich,” by Peter Schweizer that was published in April, 2015.
7. Net result — foreign money, much of it from other countries, goes into the Clinton’s pockets tax free and untraceable back to the original donor. This is the textbook definition of money laundering.
Oh, by the way, the Canadian “charity” includes as a principal one Frank Giustra. Google him. He is the guy who was central to the formation of Uranium One, the Canadian company that somehow acquired massive U.S. uranium interests and then sold them to an organization controlled by Russia. This transaction required U.S. State Department approval, and guess who was Secretary of State when the approval was granted. As an aside, imagine how former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell feels. That poor schlep is in jail because he and his wife took $165,000 in gifts and loans for doing minor favors for a guy promoting a vitamin company. Not legal, but not exactly putting U.S. security at risk.
Sarcasm aside, if you’re still not persuaded this was a cleverly structured way to get unidentified foreign money to the Clintons, ask yourself this:
Why did these foreign interests funnel money through a Canadian charity? Why not donate directly to the Clinton Foundation? Better yet, why not donate money directly to the people, organizations and countries in need?
This is the essence of money laundering and influence peddling.
Now you know why Hillary’s destruction of 30,000 Emails was a risk she was willing to take.
HILL-BILLY s are devious, unprincipled, dishonest and criminal, and they will make America into the world’s largest banana republic-BERNIE SANDERS IS NEW JESUS AND ALL MONEY HANDLERS OUT TO CRUCSIFY HIM PLEASE SEND HIM FEW DOLLARS, DNC Chair Debie Wasserman Shultz must be fired,and WATCH ((( Clinton Cash))) soon in Netflix <.SHARE
The Clintons have politically and personally pocketed so much cash from the corporate and Wall Street interests that Hillary must to toe their lines. These people are going to move mountains to see to it that Hillary becomes the next POTUS!
“In short, the essential pressures that Bernie has been exerting to pressure Hillary to the left — so vital to balanced government — are being cancelled out.”
Exactly why Bernie should not and must not endorse Hillary. He needs to continue his “revolution” by running as a third party candidate. The so-called progressive democrats are willingly complicit in Hillary’s coronation – the nation be damned!
hmmm… Whom will Trump choose to be his foreign policy advisers? Repackaged Neocons? Recycled Pentagoons? Other unflinching failures from MENA disasters? I doubt that Trump has a network that includes anyone not locked into Conventional Wisdom boilerplate.
You’re breaking my heart with this, because it rings so true. Could the upside still potentially be that half or more of the “left base”, the Bernie half that is, abandons the democratic party aggressively and permanently and goes all-in as members and voters with a Green or socialist party this November? They could be laughed at by the elites in the presidential election, as tweedledee-hillary or twedledump-donald-trump coasts into the white house, but the state governments in WA, OR, VT, and others could begin saturating themselves with Green office-holders and lead the way for national change.
#Dropout Hillary. She needs to go to priso….
This is why, though I’m a very liberal Democrat, I feel compelled to pull the lever for Trump–though I would never admit that in a conversation to anyone. I have simply said that I cannot in good conscience cast a vote for either Killary or the Donald. But, Killary has evolved into such a threat, I think putting Trump in will help the world survive. Who knows, it might even be beneficial if the American federal government is thrown into such a crisis that it needs to be reformulated. After nearly 230 years the current constitution is now mocked, not followed, by our elected leaders and representatives. Time to strip the presidency of the powers of an emperor, time to force the congress to act rather than obstruct at every turn, and time to force the courts to work for justice rather than greed. Also time to make the welfare of “we the people” once again the main focus of government rather than just the special interests of the uber-wealthy. This may be the point in history wherein the system becomes so broken that it needs to be rebuilt in a more functional and just form. If so, let’s not waste the opportunity yet again.
Realist – there is a better solution than voting for Trump (although between Killary and Trump, he is the lesser of two evils). Vote Jill Stein – Green Party. I think millions of Sanders supporters (myself included) will vote for Stein if Killary is the nominee. It will accomplish two worthy causes: 1. It will teach the DNC a lesson they deserve to learn; and 2. It will turn the Green Party into a viable third party that they won’t be able to exclude any longer from the political process. Even if Stein will probably not win with our votes, four years from now we will have a real choice when going to the polls between a progressive, anti-war party, and the two corporate neocon and neoliberal war parties labeled D and R. We presently don’t have this choice, and we need to have it. Our votes for Stein may end up electing Trump by default, but they will not be wasted votes and they will actually change the political landscape.
I’m 100% on board with this plan. It’s time for brand-D and Brand-R to die and be thrown into the dumpster. They are so despicable, words fail me. A fellow worker I know (a Republican…I’m a New Deal Democrat) told me every Republican he talks to, are planning to vote Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party. We may have a four-way race this election, with nobody gaining 270 electoral votes. Looks like maybe the Libertarians and Greens will eventually replace the R’s and D’s (Deep State permitting?). This will NOT be the typical election, that is certain.
Good thinking (pun intended). Congress will then obviously choose Hillary, which can lead ultimately to the implosion of the economy unlike anything in modern US history, if not full on WWIII.
Two-party system is not as bad as it is portrayed. It tends to be a stable equilibrium given the American rulebook. Two is the minimum to have competition. Each party agglomerates a number of very different fractions and the composition changes over time. Up until now US was under what is called the “Sixth Party System”. Clearly this is being reshuffled into the 7th one as we speak. You would not recognize either party across long enough timelines.
There is no need in usual times to have another active party. One can simply join as a fraction in one or the other. They are normally in cut-throat competition over fractions. The problem is when the two basically collude into one, like in recent times, driven by same donor money contributed to both, as well as manipulation by the “king maker” media.
European parliamentary multi-party system is an alternative. But there the party establishment is way stronger, and individual representatives are much less personable and therefore less accountable.
Yes I think the implosion & collapse & The Long Emergency are coming on fast. In the end, when the vote is taken on a policy issue in Congress, THERE ARE ONLY TWO PARTIES; the one that votes “Yes”, and the other one that votes “No”, no matter what combination of Parties or Factions are involved.
That would be true if Trump was going to honor any of the positions he took during the primary. In the past week he’s done an about face on fund raising. He’s also flipped on his promise ti defend Social Security and Medicare. In the wake of his meeting with Paul Ryan Trump now is open to cutting Social Security and Medicare deeply. In a recent interview he admitted that his tax increases on the wealthy are only a starting point, meant to be bargained away. Name any position Trump held that benefits working Americans or weakens the stranglehold of the billionaires on the government and that position is coming round to traditional republicsn orthodoxy. Trump will not only continue to govern according to the GOP playbook he’ll cross lines that others haven’t dared to. Slashing Social Security for one. Trump will go where those before him haven’t dared to go. He has shown quite clearly that you take him at his word at your own peril.
I agree. I will not vote for Hillary. I don’t know who she represents. At least with Donald, I kinda know where he stands though he is unpredictable at the moment. I’m hoping Sanders can squeak pass Hillary at the end of the DNC. I think whoever becomes president, we’re already on a death spiral, and it will necessitate renewal and the revival of the old more in line with what the founders had in mind. I hope the coming change can be achieved peacefully, and we all come out better for the coming generations.
I’m not sure that just because these Neocons and other Republican Party elites endorse Clinton that it will translate into the average Republican voting for her. So many segments of the population, including Republicans, hate her.
I was thinking that too. If the republican voters gave a rat’s arse about the demonic Kagan’s opinions, we’d have it whittled down to Jeb and Little Marco by now, instead of Trust-Fund-Donald. And given that Donald is such a charmer (let’s face it, he is a genius salesman, and can even come off seeming authentically humble and caring when he wants too), whereas Hillary is so uniformly stiff, plastic, distant, and entitled, I think he stands to make way more gains than her through the summer and fall. But, on the other hand, the rabid knee-jerk outrage of shallow-thinking, self-absorbed american voters to the racial and gender wedges Hillary is driving cannot be underestimated, either.
I agree. That is the salient fact of this campaign, also, Trump is not as bad as lamestream propaganda has painted him. The extent of this propaganda is even indicative of this fact.