Abramson writes: "While the pundit class all said the Republican party was
being torn apart by this election, it is the Democratic party that is in
tatters. Now it must be rebuilt."
Hillary Clinton. (photo: Matt Rourke/AP)
The Clintons Turned the Democratic Party Over to Donors. Can It Recover?
By Jill Abramson, Guardian UK
23 December 16
While the pundit class all said the Republican party was being torn apart by
this election, it is the Democratic party that is in tatters. Now it must be
rebuilt
Hillary Clinton chose a bitterly ironic party location to thank her massive
donor network last week: the grand ballroom of The Plaza, once owned by
Donald Trump.
The people gathered for the glum get-together, including hedge fund managers
and media titans, had built the most formidable fundraising network ever
seen in American politics. They more than $4bn into various Clinton
campaigns and related political and charitable groups over four decades.
Many of them have been cutting huge checks since Bill Clinton's first
presidential campaign in 1992.
In 2016, they expected their $1.2bn infusion to catapult Hillary Clinton
back into the White House and were astonished, like the rest of the
country's elite, to see all that money go down the tubes.
I was not invited to the Plaza. (As usual for Clinton, press was banned).
But the Plaza gathering was a personal milestone for me, too, and the coda
to a long career reporting on Clinton Inc.
Back in 1991, I was one of the only reporters with Bill Clinton at one of
his early Hollywood shakedowns. I saw how he loved schmoozing with rich
people, how his body language literally changed as he mixed with the
ultra-rich. We were in the Beverly Hills mansion of movie producer Mike
Medavoy, whose home actually had a chandelier hanging in the outdoor patio.
I was told later by campaign aides that Hillary Clinton had particularly
hated the piece I wrote, on the front page of the Wall Street Journal,
pointing out how the couple stitched every station of their lives, from Yale
Law School to the once-famous Renaissance Weekends they attended on New
Year's Eve, into a fundraising juggernaut. She said the story made them look
like "we were using our friends".
But Bill and Hillary Clinton are the people responsible for turning the
Democratic party into the party of Wall Street and their glitzy friends.
During his time in office, Bill Clinton did little to change a campaign
finance system that has always been fundamentally at odds with the party's
egalitarian message.
The likes of Anna Wintour and hedge fund titan R Donald Sussman, are
certainly part of the reason why so much of middle America turned against
the Democrats in this election. (Though Trump, meanwhile, has surrounded
himself with billionaires, including three Goldman Sachs alums.)
Still, if not with the Plaza crowd, where will the Democratic party go?
While all eyes are focused on Trump, this is one of the most pressing
questions in American politics. While the pundit class all said the
Republican party was being torn apart by this election, it is the Democratic
party that is in tatters. It has to be rebuilt from the ground up for the
new, post-Clinton future. But the foundation for such a massive undertaking
is shaky.
It isn't just that Democrats are the minority party in Washington, it's that
they've lost state governments at all levels, from governorships to the
state legislatures. While the Democrats have focused on gaining and holding
the White House since 2008, the Koch brothers and their billionaire,
rightwing allies have been showering money on local candidates, too, and the
payoff has been huge.
One has only to look at the fracas in North Carolina, where the outgoing
Republican governor and his Republican legislature are undermining the
powers of the new governor, to see how effective the Koch network has been.
State governors, like Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, have always been where
the parties go looking for new talent but with so few blue states, the
pickings are slim for the Democrats. The only real bright spot for them are
the mayors of big cities, where their party is in control. But even there,
big-city problems are tarnishing potential younger stars like Rahm Emmanuel
of Chicago and Bill de Blasio of New York.
But talent is not even the party's biggest problem. It is the ideas that
animate the party. Somehow, Trump's promise to "Make America Great Again"
managed to win over the Republican coalition of religious conservatives,
non-college-educated whites and suburban voters needed to win the electoral
college.
Hillary Clinton did not have a cogent economic message. This was the most
serious failing of her campaign. It is also the biggest challenge facing the
Democratic party as it tries to rebuild with an alliance of Bernie Sanders
and Elizabeth Warren liberals and the financiers who have funded the party
since Bill Clinton's victory in 1992.
Of course, the Sanders-Warren economic message is at war with Wall Street
interests. So who owns the economic ideas that must rejuvenate the Democrats
as Trump and his new cabinet try to rip apart the social programs that are
the signature accomplishments of Democratic presidents from Johnson to
Obama?
How will the Democrats approach trade, another issue that deeply divides
Wall Street donors from the Democratic rank and file. Perhaps most
important, who are the best thinkers and activists who can begin to answer
these questions?
Everyone I have talked to in the party is still too stunned and angry over
Trump's upset win to really get their heads around the daunting work ahead.
Democrats are still obsessed with Russian interference in the election and
with blaming the FBI director, James Comey, for defeating Clinton. These,
too, are important subjects, but don't help shape the future.
In politics, as in life, Democrats should take comfort in the fact that
there can always be sharp and surprising reversals of fortune. On 2 November
1992, Donald Trump lost control of his cherished Plaza Hotel and had to file
for bankruptcy. The very next day, Bill Clinton was elected president.
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Hillary Clinton. (photo: Matt Rourke/AP)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/21/clintons-democratic-pa
rty-donors-recoverhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/21/clin
tons-democratic-party-donors-recover
The Clintons Turned the Democratic Party Over to Donors. Can It Recover?
By Jill Abramson, Guardian UK
23 December 16
While the pundit class all said the Republican party was being torn apart by
this election, it is the Democratic party that is in tatters. Now it must be
rebuilt
illary Clinton chose a bitterly ironic party location to thank her massive
donor network last week: the grand ballroom of The Plaza, once owned by
Donald Trump.
The people gathered for the glum get-together, including hedge fund managers
and media titans, had built the most formidable fundraising network ever
seen in American politics. They more than $4bn into various Clinton
campaigns and related political and charitable groups over four decades.
Many of them have been cutting huge checks since Bill Clinton's first
presidential campaign in 1992.
In 2016, they expected their $1.2bn infusion to catapult Hillary Clinton
back into the White House and were astonished, like the rest of the
country's elite, to see all that money go down the tubes.
I was not invited to the Plaza. (As usual for Clinton, press was banned).
But the Plaza gathering was a personal milestone for me, too, and the coda
to a long career reporting on Clinton Inc.
Back in 1991, I was one of the only reporters with Bill Clinton at one of
his early Hollywood shakedowns. I saw how he loved schmoozing with rich
people, how his body language literally changed as he mixed with the
ultra-rich. We were in the Beverly Hills mansion of movie producer Mike
Medavoy, whose home actually had a chandelier hanging in the outdoor patio.
I was told later by campaign aides that Hillary Clinton had particularly
hated the piece I wrote, on the front page of the Wall Street Journal,
pointing out how the couple stitched every station of their lives, from Yale
Law School to the once-famous Renaissance Weekends they attended on New
Year's Eve, into a fundraising juggernaut. She said the story made them look
like "we were using our friends".
But Bill and Hillary Clinton are the people responsible for turning the
Democratic party into the party of Wall Street and their glitzy friends.
During his time in office, Bill Clinton did little to change a campaign
finance system that has always been fundamentally at odds with the party's
egalitarian message.
The likes of Anna Wintour and hedge fund titan R Donald Sussman, are
certainly part of the reason why so much of middle America turned against
the Democrats in this election. (Though Trump, meanwhile, has surrounded
himself with billionaires, including three Goldman Sachs alums.)
Still, if not with the Plaza crowd, where will the Democratic party go?
While all eyes are focused on Trump, this is one of the most pressing
questions in American politics. While the pundit class all said the
Republican party was being torn apart by this election, it is the Democratic
party that is in tatters. It has to be rebuilt from the ground up for the
new, post-Clinton future. But the foundation for such a massive undertaking
is shaky.
It isn't just that Democrats are the minority party in Washington, it's that
they've lost state governments at all levels, from governorships to the
state legislatures. While the Democrats have focused on gaining and holding
the White House since 2008, the Koch brothers and their billionaire,
rightwing allies have been showering money on local candidates, too, and the
payoff has been huge.
One has only to look at the fracas in North Carolina, where the outgoing
Republican governor and his Republican legislature are undermining the
powers of the new governor, to see how effective the Koch network has been.
State governors, like Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, have always been where
the parties go looking for new talent but with so few blue states, the
pickings are slim for the Democrats. The only real bright spot for them are
the mayors of big cities, where their party is in control. But even there,
big-city problems are tarnishing potential younger stars like Rahm Emmanuel
of Chicago and Bill de Blasio of New York.
But talent is not even the party's biggest problem. It is the ideas that
animate the party. Somehow, Trump's promise to "Make America Great Again"
managed to win over the Republican coalition of religious conservatives,
non-college-educated whites and suburban voters needed to win the electoral
college.
Hillary Clinton did not have a cogent economic message. This was the most
serious failing of her campaign. It is also the biggest challenge facing the
Democratic party as it tries to rebuild with an alliance of Bernie Sanders
and Elizabeth Warren liberals and the financiers who have funded the party
since Bill Clinton's victory in 1992.
Of course, the Sanders-Warren economic message is at war with Wall Street
interests. So who owns the economic ideas that must rejuvenate the Democrats
as Trump and his new cabinet try to rip apart the social programs that are
the signature accomplishments of Democratic presidents from Johnson to
Obama?
How will the Democrats approach trade, another issue that deeply divides
Wall Street donors from the Democratic rank and file. Perhaps most
important, who are the best thinkers and activists who can begin to answer
these questions?
Everyone I have talked to in the party is still too stunned and angry over
Trump's upset win to really get their heads around the daunting work ahead.
Democrats are still obsessed with Russian interference in the election and
with blaming the FBI director, James Comey, for defeating Clinton. These,
too, are important subjects, but don't help shape the future.
In politics, as in life, Democrats should take comfort in the fact that
there can always be sharp and surprising reversals of fortune. On 2 November
1992, Donald Trump lost control of his cherished Plaza Hotel and had to file
for bankruptcy. The very next day, Bill Clinton was elected president.
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nto-siti-web/socialize
