Hillary Clinton Versus Bernie Sanders
24 February 2016By Saeed Qureshi
With a backlog of the double-digit defeat in the New Hampshire primary,
Hillary Clinton bounced back with a renewed vigor and robust confidence during
the sixth debate of the Democratic Party race and the second exclusively
between Mrs. Hillary Clinton and Senator Sanders. The debate was held on
February 11, 2016 at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Milwaukee is the
largest city in the State of Wisconsin.
While both the candidates were quite aggressive and assertive in dishing out
their plans and policies as the next president of the United States, Mrs.
Clinton appeared to be more composed, persuasive and eloquent. She responded
to the jabs of her Democratic opponent in a rather calm and unruffled tone. In
response to the personal salvo from Mr Sanders such as ''Secretary Clinton,
you're not in the White House yet,'' Hillary chose to deflect it by ignoring
those comments.
Comparing the merits of both the democratic contenders, one may point out that
Sanders if elected would be a fresh entrant into the power corridors as well
as occupying the highest and most prestigious position of the president of the
United States.
If elected, Mr Sanders would be the first Jewish president of the United
States. Mr. Sanders is known as a proponent of socialism. He may face stiff
resistance from well entrenched super duper private enterprises and business
cartels in implementing his socialist agenda. There could be hurdles in his
way from the Congress where the Republicans most of whom are the sponsors of
huge businesses and financial enterprises who in tandem with their Democratic
cohorts may oppose Sanders' agenda of change. Senator Sanders' socialist
manifesto encompasses no tax breaks to billionaires and ''creation of millions
of jobs for low-income kids so that they're not hanging out on the street
corners.''
In his debates Sanders' entire focus has been on overhauling the economy,
taxation on the affluent classes and expanding health-care. It means that in a
capitalist economy based upon free enterprise, he wants to expand and enlarge
the role of the government and diminish the overbearing influence of the huge
business enterprises like Wall Street, Insurance companies, banks as well as
industrial and business cartels. He wants the Medicare and other social
services to be under the control of the government partially or wholly.
This is like a revolution although it cuts across the influence and rip- off
by the wealthy classes and cartels. His plan to extend and expand the
government network would entail huge additional government spending for which
he would increase taxes on the affluent sections.
Mrs. Clinton if elected would be the first female president of the United
States of America. She is a moderate and wants to bring about changes in the
present set up of governance for which she claims to have ample experience and
a package of far reaching reforms for the economic uplift of the country and
for extending more benefits and services to the people.
In Mrs. Clinton reckoning, Mr. Sanders' package of plans would cost the
national exchequer additional trillions of dollars or 40 per cent over the
existing spending. She alleged that Senator Sanders was not being truthful in
revealing the cost of the programs such as his proposed expansion of
government healthcare.
On the volatile issue of the immigrants both seems to on the same page. Both
support a benign policy about immigration and maximum accommodation of the
uprooted people from civil war ridden societies. But their perceptions and
plans differ in regard to their settlement.
Mr. Sanders criticized Mrs. Clinton for telling CNN in 2014 that the children
who entered the United States from Central America should be sent back, which
was taken by the Latinos with a great deal of bitterness. But Mrs. Clinton
clarified that she was not against the children coming into United States. She
merely wanted to convey to the parents that they should not send their
children to America alone who invariably fall into the hands of smugglers.
During their debate a quite interesting situation developed. The moderator of
the debate asked both the contenders to name their role model leaders. Mr.
Sander named Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. In comparison
Hillary mentioned the legendry South African leader Nelson Mandela and Mr.
Obama. This was interpreted as a race based choice: Sanders for white leaders
and Hillary for none-whites.
Bernie Sanders is a very experienced person as a senator. In case of victory
he would be one of the senior presidents. His advanced age (74) may hamper his
decision making prowess. He is earnest about his ground breaking reforms. But
first of all it depends on his being elected as the president. Secondly, would
the ground realties be favorable for him to move forwards with his watershed
program and policies?
On the contrary Hillary Clinton is relatively younger (68). She possesses a
reservoir of experience first as the first lady and second as the secretary of
state in foreign affairs. By virtue of her being the Secretary of State
(2009-2013) during the first tenure of president Obama, Mrs. Clinton lays
claim of having wider and extensive experience in the domain of Foreign
Affairs. Mr. Sanders rebutted this claim of her by censuring Mrs. Clinton's
2002 vote to authorize the war in Iraq and also being responsible for the
consequent ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in Libya. He alleged that her
myopic and erroneous judgment on Libya and Iraq led to civil wars in those
lands which are still raging.
Over the most pressing question of discrimination against African-Americans in
employment, education, housing and the criminal justice system, Both Mrs.
Hillary and Sanders seemed to be on the same page. Yet Secretary Clinton went
beyond by denouncing the faith based discrimination especially against the
Muslims whom she overwhelmingly portrayed as the first line of defense for the
United States.
It appears that Mrs. Clinton is focused on reinforcing her support among the
minority population to dilute the influence and relative popularity of Senator
Sanders among the youth, minorities and underprivileged, low income groups and
working classes.
The writer is a senior journalist, former editor of Diplomatic Times and a
former diplomat. and other articles by the writer
can also be read at his blog www.uprightopinion.com
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