I am something of a free trader, so this little bit of Clinton's is not only amusingly over-the-top, but more than a little offensive--playing off of a well-known quote about the Holocaust:
Mrs. Clinton’s version went like this: “They came for the steel companies and nobody said anything,” she intoned. “They came for the auto companies and nobody said anything. They came for the office companies, people who did white-collar service jobs, and no one said anything. And they came for the professional jobs that could be outsourced and nobody said anything. So this is not just about steel,” she finished.I'm through being anything other than bemused at Hillary Clinton's campaign. Seriously, though, she needs to stop with this sort of thing: the GOP is far better at conspiratorial analogies than the Democrats. It's bizarre. Who is the they here? Free traders? Republicans? Nazis? At least when the GOP goes off about Islamofascism we know who the "they" is. As with everything else--race, gender, class--the Holocaust is just another thing to be deployed for political gain. Has the woman no shame? Okay, need to revert back to bemusement. Obviously, I'm one of HRC's Nazis as a free trader, but what is Clinton in this analogy? That's right, she's got to be Oskar Schindler (pictured above), the man who saved thousands of Jews in the film Schindler's List. I suppose George W. Bush is Amon Goerth (or Hitler, maybe McCain is Goerth)? Clarification, please! Who is supposed to be Goering? Bill Richardson? Inquiring minds want to know!
Just as a public service, I'll toss around a few other great, great, tasteful historical analogies for Clinton to use:
- Clinton as Moses leading the children of Israel out of a free-trading Egypt. Rule of thumb: always good to have a mental image of Charlton Heston associated with one's self. Then again, he was a Republican. One of Pharaoh's minions. That will never do.
- Clinton as Iggy Pop, blasting the ears of free-traders with a new kind of music about fair trade. Iggy's awesome (well, at least during the Stooges era), but it might be too esoteric. Could also try the Ramones, Sex Pistols, Clash, etc., but Clinton probably doesn't want to seem too out of touch with the boomers, with their Eagles and Beach Boys and whatnot. Even though I'm sure one or two boomers had to have listened to the Ramones they've long forgotten that period. And I don't think America's quite ready for a punk rock president just yet.
- Clinton as Terry Malloy, the protagonist of On The Waterfront, bravely ratting on corrupt free-trade union racketeers. Okay, so this doesn't sound good, but maybe it could work? Okay, so it makes no sense, but saying free-traders are Nazis does?
- Clinton as John McCain, surviving years of torture at the hands of sadistic free-traders, for America. Well, why not.
