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WSWS : News & Analysis : North America

Officially launching her Senate campaign, Hillary Clinton submits her right-wing "New Democrat" credentials

By Alan Whyte
11 February 2000

Use this version to print

Presenting herself as a “New Democrat,” Hillary Rodham Clinton on February 6 officially proclaimed herself a candidate for the US Senate from New York state. In explaining this label, she said, “I don't believe that government is the source of all our problems or the solution to them.”

Her husband, President Bill Clinton, who was sitting behind her, has utilized similar phrases to signify the abandonment by his administration of the Democratic Party's former policies of liberal reform. Under Clinton, the Democrats have sought to position themselves as the party of fiscal austerity, whose “responsible” policies have fostered the greatest Wall Street boom in US history.

This lurch to the right was symbolized by Clinton's 1996 signing of welfare “reform” legislation that imposed sharp cuts on recipients' benefits and established time limits beyond which they are stripped of all income assistance. It has also been marked by Clinton's support for capital punishment and law-and-order measures.

In a very calculated manner, the First Lady has sought to identify her Senate campaign with these policies, making her appeal first and foremost to the privileged upper-middle-class social layers that have been enriched by the extended boom in share values and corporate profits.

Mrs. Clinton spent much of her 32-minute announcement describing herself as a deeply caring person. Referring to her recent move to New York, she said, “I may be new to the neighborhood, but I'm not new to your concerns.”

Seeking to take advantage of her celebrity status, Hillary Clinton has made personality differences a central theme of her campaign, contrasting herself to her Republican opponent New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who, she charges, is deficient in the art of compromise.

However, in an interview published February 5 by the New York Times, she went out of her way to establish her right-wing credentials, declaring her support for the death penalty, a balanced budget and the 1996 welfare “reform.”

She complained that Giuliani has raised millions of dollars from right-wing sources by exaggerating the political differences between them. “There ought to be a big-print disclosure that he agrees with many of the positions that I've advocated,” she said.

Her campaign has been punctuated by such appeals to right-wing sentiment. For all her efforts to present herself as an advocate for children, for example, Mrs. Clinton has refused to take a position on whether six-year-old Elian Gonzalez should be returned to his father in Cuba. Last year she opposed her husband's grant of clemency to 16 imprisoned Puerto Rican nationalists. This past December she solidarized herself with Giuliani when he obtained a draconian court injunction against New York City transit workers who were threatening to go on strike.

See Also:
US Elections & Politics
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