Thinking about voting for Jill Stein (or any candidate not named “Hillary Rodham Clinton”) in November 2016? You probably already know that by next fall, a lot of your liberal friends and family members will be about as open to that discussion as loyal Ingsok members in 1984 were to Emmanuel Goldstein’s criticisms of Big Brother. Hell, a lot of those minds will have been thoroughly closed by the time people start voting in the primaries, and the Hillary machine has really geared up with its demonization of Bernie Sanders as a Crazy Unelectable Commie. Right now—the summer before her inevitable coronation—might be the last time you can talk to some of those people about the case against Clinton without being accused of being a stooge of Jeb Bush (or Scott Walker, or whoever). With that in mind, here’s a handy list of five facts to bring up in those conversations.
1. Many people know that Hillary Clinton is a life-long warmonger, from her humble beginnings as a Goldwater Girl to her Senate vote for the invasion of Iraq. What’s less widely appreciated is that she’s at least arguably a war criminal. She was one of the strongest voices in the Obama administration pushing for a war in Libya that even Attorney General Eric Holder and the President’s own Office of White House Counsel found to be in violation of the War Powers Act. There were several attempts on both sides to negotiate a cease-fire, and Secretary Clinton shut down the negotiations every time.
2. Hilary Clinton was one of the leading spokespeople for the administration that repealed Glass-Steagall. When an audience member at a recent Clinton speech asked if she’d restore it, she had him escorted out by security. Needless to say, she has yet to answer the question.
3. Think she’s going to start prosecuting Wall Street crooks (as she’s hinted she might, in the course of campaign-stop pandering)? Or that she’ll act meaningfully to protect the environment? Well, it’s safe to say that the hedge fund managers and fossil fuel lobbyists who are funding her campaign don’t share those worries.