In a more than 40 minute speech at a machinists’ hall in North County on Tuesday, March 8, Bill Clinton seemed to forget that his presidential candidate of choice is not the economic populist seeking the Democratic nomination.
He described Hillary Clinton as a pragmatic fighter for workers’ rights who, if elected, will work to make corporations pay their fair share of taxes and to invest in their communities, rather than shareholders.
He put the anxiety of voters in 2016 in terms of the economy that was ruined by financial speculators in the mortgage-backed security bubble that resulted in the crash of 2007, which he described in downhome terms.
Before the crash, Clinton said, “All the growth was in home building, consumer spending and finance. And if you let all that money and finance percolate to the top with no good investments down below, they start gambling with it – and then you have what happened to us.”
Without mentioning Bernie Sanders by name, he took away a few populist planks from Sanders’ campaign platform. Clinton said state college tuition should not be free to all (Sanders’ plan) but rather that those who can afford to pay college tuition should pay it.
The goal, he said, is for everyone to graduate from college debt-free, not to attend college free of charge.
He presented Hillary Clinton’s vast experience in government – which Sanders’ supporters often use against her, branding her a sold-out insider – as an enormous pragmatic benefit, given the reality that a newly elected Democrat president will face a Congress with Republican majorities in both houses.
He told detailed stories about how Hillary Clinton worked with a series of difficult Republican legislators – Tom DeLay, Lindsey Graham, John McCain – to pass effective legislation that benefits a range of constituent groups, from children in foster care to veterans of foreign wars.
He also used her impressive foreign policy experience, as a former secretary of state who negotiated major deals with Iran and Russia, to illustrate the importance of electing her, rather than one of the inexperienced Republicans seeking the presidency.
“We need to be as safe as we can in a world that is pretty whacky,” Clinton said. “We can’t elect somebody who hasn’t got a clue.”
He also reminded the capacity crowd at District 9 Machinists Hall in Bridgeton of the importance of electing a Democratic president, given the president’s power to appoint U.S. Supreme Court justices, citing a litany of Supreme Court rulings where a conservative majority delivered what he considered an unfavorable decision.
He gave a brilliant populist analysis of the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United that political contributions should be unlimited as protected free speech.
“So how you spend your money is part of free speech now,” Clinton said. “So now a billionaire and a minimum-wage worker have equal freedom to spend their money on politics.”
Again reclaiming populism for his candidate, he said, “That’s a political decision designed to rig the game. There is enough game-rigging already.”
Speaking to a union crowd, even 15 miles from Ferguson, Clinton gave scant attention to Black Lives Matter issues. He said Hillary Clinton supports prison reform, without acknowledging that his own policies as president are credited with spurring mass incarceration.
And he said, “We need police reform – and we need police,” presenting a rosy picture of communities that absorbed police-involved shootings without unrest because they have effective community resolution models in place with their police departments.
He was introduced by an African-American elected official, St. Louis Comptroller Darlene Green, one of the leaders of the Clinton campaign in Missouri. Before joking that Bill Clinton has a future as a “house husband – a White House husband,” Green tried to rouse the crowd to action.
“We need Hillary to protect our rights, protect our jobs, protect our voting rights,” Green said. “We need to get to work to help Hillary to win.”
Missouri’s presidential preference primary is Tuesday, March 15.
