The Barefoot Accountant of Accountants CPA Hartford, Connecticut, LLC, presents the video and edited transcript of Farron Cousins’ op-ed, “Hillary’s Faux Populism is No Match For Bernie Sanders”, which appeared on Ring of Fire TV on May 18, 2015.
Hillary’s Faux Populism is No Match For Bernie Sanders
One of the biggest news stories of the past week is that Bernie Sanders, the independent Senator from Vermont, has announced that he is going to run for President as a Democrat, effectively challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Now what this means is that finally in this entire clown-car of Presidential candidates that we have seen from Rubio, Rand Paul, Hillary Clinton, and Ted Cruz, we finally have a candidate out there who actually cares about the American people.
Bernie Sanders has been out there for many, many years talking about issues that affect each and every one of us. He talks about income inequality, he talks about pay inequality, he talks about the right to marriage: everything that is important—not for millionaires and billionaires—but for the middle class, for the average working American.
And this is a huge step forward for America. I really think that Bernie Sanders’ candidacy, whether or not he succeeds in getting the nomination, [is significant in that] he still could pull the other candidates like Hillary Clinton a little bit further to the left.
And if you have been paying attention to some of the pundits out there, you noticed that Hillary Clinton is starting to sound a little bit like more like a populist. She is trying to co-op the Elizabeth Warren message, or the Bernie Sanders message, that we have to do something about these Wall Street banks that are screwing over consumers and taking all their monies, … and doing all of these illegal schemes.
But when you drill past her talking points, you can see the money behind Hillary Clinton. When she ran for Senate, her top donor was Wall Street, plain and simple. That is where her money came from. That is where her money is going to come from in this campaign.
There is no reason that we should believe her new populist message because it is a new populist message. This is not the Hillary Clinton that we saw four years ago; this is not the Hillary Clinton that we saw eight years ago. This is a brand new and improved, focused, tried Hillary Clinton.
It’s along the lines of what we saw with President Obama when he came out on the campaign trail in 2008. All these big messages about hope and change, reigning in corporate greed, ruling for the people, and then he gets into office: one of the first things he does is re-extend the Bush tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. He backed down from every fight the Republicans brought to him, and here we are six years later, in virtually the same position that we were when he was campaigning.
Obviously some things in many regards have gotten better. We did get the Affordable Care Act; it didn’t quite go far enough, again because he backed down from the Republican challengers but it’s a good start. So Obama has done a few really good things but overall it was all talk.
And that’s what we would get from Hillay Clinton. But that is not what we would get from a Bernie Sanders because these are not talking points for somebody like Bernie Sanders. He’s been out there saying these same things for decades. He means it. He understands it. He lives it. He knows it. Bernie Sanders is the real deal. And that’s why his candidacy is so important.
Accountants CPA Hartford, LLC