The left’s troubling embrace of GOP anti-Clinton talking points
by John Aravosis
The fact that many on the left are now embracing GOP talking points in order to attack Hillary and Bill Clinton is troubling. To wit: A new story in Salon about Bill Clinton’s “odious” presidency, which echoes a lot of what I’m hearing from a number of supporters of Bernie Sanders of late.
Don’t be mistaken, Sanders didn’t start this. Over the past several years, there’s been a growing movement by some on the left — who have become more vocal and more powerful of late — to eat our own. They regularly question the loyalty of progressive colleagues who’s political purity was proven decades ago.
Which takes us back to this notion that the 1990s were a terrible time, and that Bill Clinton’s presidency was just awful.*
I came out in 1991, and started working as a fellow for Senator Kennedy, on gay rights issues, in early 1993. I worked on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, ENDA, HIV/AIDS and more. And on gay rights and HIV, Bill Clinton was a god-send. No, he wasn’t perfect — he gave us DOMA and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and I was supremely ticked about both. (Though it’s important to remember that we got DADT because Clinton tried to repeal the policy altogether — something unheard of before he got to office — and did so inartfully.) But President Clinton also gave us openly gay and openly HIV+ senior administration officials, and an openly HIV+ speaker during prime time at the Democratic convention. Keep in mind, we’re talking 1992 and 1993, nearly 25 years ago. These pro-gay moves were unheard of at the presidential level.
Bill Clinton appointed openly-lesbian Roberta Achtenberg(Jesse Helm’s “damn lesbian”) to HHS, even though the GOP opposition was fierce. He appointed the first openly-gay US ambassador, Jim Hormel. He also finally protected gay federal employees. Up until Bill Clinton came around, for example, you couldn’t be openly gay at the State Department. That rule was why I turned down a commission in the US Foreign Service in 1989. I passed both versions of the Foreign Service exam and was offered a position, and I said no because I’m gay. So, just on gay rights and AIDS, what Bill Clinton did was beyond historic.
Here’s a list of some of the gay and HIV accomplishments — again keep in mind, this was over 20 years ago, following the Reagan and Bush presidencies, when being gay was not acceptable:
*1997, Clinton endorsed adding sexual orientation to the Hate Crimes bill.
*Appointed first-ever openly-gay US ambassador.
*Ended discrimination against gays in the federal workforce.
*Endorsed ENDA.
*Issued first-ever presidential gay Pride Month proclamation.
*Worked to stop discrimination against people with AIDS.
*Opposed anti-gay ballot initiatives in Colorado and Oregon.
*Fought discrimination against people with AIDS in the military.
*First administration to help asylum-seekers based on sexual orientation.
*Fought harassment of students based on sexual orientation.
*Appointed more than 150 openly-gay appointees to his administration.
*Appointed first-ever White House gay liaison.
(First president to speak before a gay organization.
And on HIV/AIDS, the list is just as long. You can read it here.
I can appreciate that some people like Bernie more than Hillary. And that’s fine. But rewriting history, and eating our own, is wrong. Such an approach does a disservice to the truth; which as usual, is far grayer than some advocates would like you to know.
Disagree with Hillary on trade or the Wall Street bailout if you will. (Though personally, I believe we’d have gone into a depression without the bailout.) But let’s stop pretending Bernie is a saint and Hillary the devil. They’re both politicians. They both have a spotty record, depending on the issue. Both will have a difficult time getting things done with a GOP congress. And both are better than Trump.
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* Attacking a woman because you don’t like the job her husband did 20 years ago is also a right-wing talking point. And a little bit sexist, too 🙂
This is cross-posted from AMERICABLOG. AMERICAblog was created by John Aravosis, a former writer for the Economist with a joint law degree (JD) and masters in foreign service (MSFS) from Georgetown University, and twenty-five years experience working in national politics in Washington, DC. AMERICAblog launched on April 24, 2004, and quickly became one of the most influential political blogs in the United States, with monthly traffic exceeding 1.5 million page views and 700,00 unique readers (Google Analytics).