Maybe I'm just too young to remember, but I've always been baffled by how the Clintons cause conservatives to literally start frothing at the mouth, even more so than Obama. The chud hate for Obama is understandable because he masqueraded as a progressive reformist. But, its more confusing with the Clintons because they are both right wingers.

Bill Clinton destroyed the last vestiges of the New Deal movement within the Democratic party and made it a fully neoliberal party, slashed welfare spending with Republican support, deregulated banks, and signed the crime bill which led to the mass incarceration of black people.

Hilary Clinton is a right wing warmongerer who made racist dog whistles during the 2008 campaign. Hell, she didn't even come out in favor of same sex marriage until like 2013.

  • invo_rt [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Agree with a lot of the analysis here. Also wanted to add that the Clinton years were coincided with Newt Gingrich's term as the Speaker of the House. Fuck the two party system, but that ghoul had a radical effect on "the norms" by ramping up partisanship. See below for quotes from smarter people:

    "According to Harvard University political scientists Daniel Ziblatt and Steven Levitsky, Gingrich's speakership had a profound and lasting impact on American politics and health of American democracy. They argue that Gingrich instilled a "combative" approach in the Republican Party, where hateful language and hyper-partisanship became commonplace, and where democratic norms were abandoned. Gingrich frequently questioned the patriotism of Democrats, called them corrupt, compared them to fascists, and accused them of wanting to destroy the United States."

    "University of Maryland political scientist Lilliana Mason identified Gingrich's instructions to Republicans to use words such as “betray, bizarre, decay, destroy, devour, greed, lie, pathetic, radical, selfish, shame, sick, steal, and traitors” about Democrats as an example of a breach in social norms and exacerbation of partisan prejudice."

    "Boston College political scientist David Hopkins notes that Gingrich's view 'directly contradicted the conventional wisdom of politics... that parties in a two-party system achieve increasing electoral success as they move closer to the ideological center... Gingrich and his allies believed that an organized effort to intensify the ideological contrast between the congressional parties would allow the Republicans to make electoral inroads in the South. They worked energetically to tie individual Democratic incumbents to the party's more liberal national leadership while simultaneously raising highly charged cultural issues in Congress, such as proposed constitutional amendments to allow prayer in public schools and to ban the burning of the American flag, on which conservative positions were widely popular – especially among southern voters.' "

    TL;DR it was a conscious political choice by the GOP