In slogging through [Hillary Clinton’s State Department memoir Hard Choices], one is reminded of why the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency is so dreary. The dreariness begins with the real possibility that Jeb Bush will be her opponent, setting up another contest between two dynasties, one of which ‘exploited its vast wealth to obtain political power, while the other exploited its political power to obtain vast wealth’, as Glen Greenwald recently put it. Nothing could more clearly illustrate the merger of economic and political power in the oligarchy that dominates American public life. Were Clinton to win, her victory would ensure the continuation of business as usual in Washington.
In fairness, absent significant evidence to the contrary, if Jeb Bush were to win, it would also herald “the continuation of business as usual in Washington.”
I’m rereading Galbraith’s inestimable “The Great Crash”. My greatest fear of the either/or Clinton/Bush continuation is that it will signal a further deferral of the absolutely necessary and in any other age completely unpartisan reform required to halt the continuing slide to outright oligarchy.
That’s about where I am as well.
Reblogged this on 8th Congressional District Ohio.