Our "Anti-Clinton" Bias (Explained)

By Marc Ash, Reader Supported News

11 April 16

’m not giving you a dime until you treat Hillary Clinton fairly, and admit what a phony Bernie Sanders is!”

We get at least five of those every day now. So why don’t we shift our editorial position?

I wrote an editorial in February titled, Dear Hillary, Do You Really Believe You Are “a Progressive?” The point of the piece was that not only were her positions clearly not progressive, in fact they were anathema to Progressives. Moreover, despite all evidence to the contrary, she seemed to actually believe in her own mind that she truly was a Progressive. The delusion being as significant as the actual positions themselves.

We at RSN are Progressives. Defining progressive politics begins with an understanding of a profound desire to achieve social progress. Not to be confused in any way with business as usual. The second component of the Progressive mindset is an impatience bordering on outrage with the totally unnecessary level of injustice that oppresses America and those its overlords view as their subjects.

Further, it should be noted that Progressives tend to be “high-information voters.” Progressives are by and large well educated, well read, and for the most part significantly more politically astute then the general electorate. That matters in the choice between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. Here’s a list of issues Clinton supporters do not even address as they are threatening to cut off their donations:

• Global Empire: Yes the U.S. and its corporate overlords have one. What the corporate overlords want is a representative in the Oval Office who will be willing to use the U.S. military to enforce the objectives of the empire. The Clintons, Hillary specifically in this case, are seen as far more compliant with that agenda than Bernie Sanders.


• TTP: It is impossible to imagine that the average Clinton supporter is in any way comfortable with Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) or the manner in which it was negotiated in secret. Hillary Clinton was for it, before she was against it. But she’s leaving herself plenty of room to do whatever she feels like, should she become president, including accepting the agreement as ‘the work of the last administration that we’ll do the best we can with.’ Progressives are not at all okay with that.


• Single Payer Healthcare: Nothing is more central to the Progressive domestic agenda than establishing a viable Single Payer healthcare system in the U.S. equivalent to what the rest of the Western World enjoys. Bernie Sanders is prepared to fight for it. Hillary Clinton has abandoned it entirely. It’s a flat-out no-brainer for Progressives.


• Reclaiming America from Wall Street: Bernie Sanders wants to confront corruption and illegality by America’s financial elite head-on. Hillary Clinton is accepting huge sums of campaign financing from them. Again, there is no grey area here. For a Progressive, that will not cut it.

The list goes on and on, but if you care about progressive issues and meaningful social progress there is no comparison between the two candidates.

We do not have an “anti-Clinton bias.” We have a commitment to social justice, and progress. It’s not about a favorite candidate, it’s about a better world.

Is that what you believe?

Marc Ash is the founder and former Executive Director of Truthout, and is now founder and Editor of Reader Supported News.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.