2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Too bad that Hillary fucked over the org she went under cover for. They disavowed her. [View all]Jarqui
(10,122 posts)Nor have I followed her closely. I also know she's getting on - Hillary's boss in early 1970s
I do not know how well she knew Bernie and what he's about when she supposedly (I still haven't seen it) "endorsed" Hillary. I've always liked Bernie but I didn't know nearly as much about him before his campaign started as I do now.
Knowing how committed or uncommitted they are to what they stand for, I don't have much doubt after her remarks above, that Edelman would prefer Bernie's commitment to the causes most important to her. Unlike her experience with Hillary, she would know Bernie is much less likely to use welfare for women and children as a pawn in a political chess game with Newt Gingrich.
The Tragic End of the Woman Bill Clinton Exploited As Poster Child for Gutting Welfare
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/tragic-end-woman-bill-clinton-exploited-poster-child-gutting-welfare
In 2008, Sen. Hillary Clinton defended and strongly endorsed her husband's welfare reform while on the campaign trail. Welfare should have been a temporary waystation for people who needed immediate assistance, she said. It should not be considered an anti-poverty program. It simply did not work.
From Welfare Shift in 96, a Reminder for Clinton
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/11/us/politics/11welfare.html?_r=0
Many welfare advocates dispute Mrs. Clintons characterization. Since entering the Senate, they say, she has shown a predilection for compromise at the expense of the poor.
When the overhaul bill came up for reauthorization, Sandra Chapin, a former welfare recipient affiliated with a coalition called Welfare Made a Difference, lobbied Congress to allow more women to attend college while they received aid. Mrs. Clinton wouldnt have anything to do with it, Ms. Chapin said.
Ms. Chapin, now program director of the Consumer Federation of California, posted an e-mail message to a discussion board in February accusing Mrs. Clinton of having had a hand in devaluing motherwork in this country, and no doubt sending thousands of children and their families deeper into poverty.
As the saying goes, "a tiger cannot change it's stripes". Bernie has his principles. Hillary has her politics. If you've followed both some, that's not too hard to see. Like most of us, Marian Wright Edelman probably is plugged in to Bernie by now. In 1996, she had a first hand head start with what Hillary was about with welfare.
I think Marian Wright Edelman and her husband have been proven right on their position and what they feared would be the consequences. They knew that the real test of welfare legislation came when things got tough. And the Clintons helped make things considerably tougher for millions of Americans with NAFTA.
In 2008, Hillary's got caught blatantly flip-flopping on and lying about her position on NAFTA. As many would know, NAFTA sent a lot of American factory jobs to Mexico, China, etc. So these people who had developed a trade and worked all their life towards living off that trade in these factories, had no quick solution to finding another job unless they wanted to move to China and work for a dollar a day and a bowl of rice (price of Chinese labor in 1999). Americans in that position, and there were millions of them, needed more than (Hillary's words) "a temporary waystation for people who needed immediate assistance". Tragically, Bill Clinton gave away their jobs with NAFTA and they never got the help they needed from the welfare reform Clinton did. And Hillary is oblivious to it - or she'll blame it on George Bush.
And since I'm on the subject of blaming George Bush, a hunk of this collapse of the middle class that Bernie has been so concerned about and increased in poverty that the Edelmans were concerned about was brought to the United States by William Jefferson Clinton and his wife with NAFTA and their welfare reform.. It's not all the GOP's fault. A hunk of the economic collapse suffered during Bush's watch came from the house of cards economy Clinton left him. NAFTA delivered short term gain and long term pain - a gutting of the middle class - and they knew it would happen - turmoil, upheaval and job losses. Clinton enjoyed the short term gain. A bewildered Bush wasn't up to dealing with the longer term pain of NAFTA. We'll struggle with that for some time to come.