The Bill Clinton Legacy

THE DUOPOLY WATCH | Steven Jonas, MD, MPH

With Bill Clinton’s 70th birthday on August 19, and with, of course, Hillary running for President, there has been a lot of talk about his “legacy.”  The Democrats of course try to place it in the most favourable light, which requires that they mainly focus on what he said, not actually what he did.  As for the Republicans, they of course ignore what he did (for, as we shall see below, he mainly carried out Republican policies), and focus on Clinton-and-sex (some real, some not) and economic/money scandals like ”Whitewater,” which itself actually never came to anything.  Indeed, the real Clinton record, on issues of importance, is an ideal example of the Duopoly at work.  After all, Clinton was the chairman of the Republican-lite Democratic Leadership Council in the 1980s.  And so when he got to the Presidency, after running a campaign that for the most part covered up his true agenda, he proceeded to go DLC all the way. 

Despite all the “progressive talk,” “listening to Bernie,” and “listening to Elizabeth Warren,” there certainly are indications that if Hillary does become President she will follow a pathway similar to that followed by Bill, and indeed herself when she was ensconced in the White House.  There are those “Wall St.” speeches, the texts of which she still refuses to release; the “Wall St.” money she has pulled in; and indeed the Republican endorsements she is pulling in, in increasing numbers.  They cannot all be coming about simply because Trump is so awful (which of course he is).  And so, let’s turn to that “Clinton Legacy,” mainly on the domestic side.   

I am presenting the elements of it that I find to be most important, but not necessarily in order of importance, for some would think that some are more important than others.  However, I think that most persons, from “true Democrat” on to “true socialist,” viewing this particular list would agree that they are all negative to a greater or lesser extent.  Or at least they would agree that I just happen to have picked out a bunch of negative ones (but I did have a hard time remembering any positive ones).  And so, in no particular order, here’s my list.

Bill Clinton introduced us to Big Pharma advertising for prescription drugs on television.  The main purpose of these ads, at least as they are now constructed, would seem to be an attempt to protect the firms from charges of non-full disclosure when various pharmaceuticals come to suit.  But at the same time, with the visuals all the way through, and the often dream-like text about what the pills can do for you at the beginning and the end, the ads: a) reinforce the US drug culture: “take this pill; it will solve your problem; b) add to the pressure that physicians feel all the time anyway about prescribing; and c) attempt to make patient into self-prescribers.

Following a Reagan decision of 1987, Bill Clinton confirmed the elimination of what was called the Fairness Doctrine that governed the use by private parties of the publicly owned radio and television waves in the United States.  This is what has led to the dominance of US radio in particular by the right-wing political talk that so reinforces the Repub. political agenda.   (By the way, Obama reinforced this elimination in 2011.) 

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Source: The Greanville Post