November 23, 2015

"Hillary Clinton’s push for a 'politics of meaning' culminated in a New York Times Magazine story Michael Kelly wrote, 'Saint Hillary.'"

"She appeared on the cover clad in celestial white. Kelly caught her in the act of dreaming, like her husband, about reviving America’s soul while reforming the body politic. What Kelly snidely called 'a mix of Bible and Bill Moyers, of New Testament and New Age,' and others called 'psychobabble,' sought a 1950s-style suburban stability tempered by the 1960s’ liberating openness. Kelly deemed it moralistic and judgmental, 'unintentionally hilarious Big Brotherism.' Burned, Hillary Clinton ignored the episode in her memoirs, and was more cautious in public thereafter, although her 1996 bestseller It Takes a Village raised these issues in a safer, more all-American Mom manner."

From a Daily Beast article by Gil Troy titled "Embrace the ’70s, Hillary!/Clinton has long been reluctant to talk about her work during the 1970s. She should instead be promoting it."

Here's Michael Kelly's original NYT article "Saint Hillary." Excerpt:
Any clearly expressed, serious proposal to do anything to improve public values runs immediately against the fundamentals of social liberalism that are the guiding ethos of Democratic policies.

Mrs. Clinton argues that the concepts of liberalism and conservatism don't really mean anything anymore and that the politics of the New Age is moving beyond ideology. But that is not at all true in the area of values where she seeks to venture. It is easy for social conservatives, who have been writing and debating for years about the moral values Mrs. Clinton is now addressing, to speak bluntly about what is morally right and what is not. Conservatism is purposely, explicitly judgmental. But liberalism, as defined by Mrs. Clinton's generation and those who came after, has increasingly moved away from the entire concept of judgment and embraced instead the expansion of rights and the tolerance of diversity.
(Michael Kelly, you may remember, was killed covering the war in Iraq in 2003.)

30 comments:

Etienne said...

The problem with Democrats, as I see it, is they want the moon, but are afraid to charge for it. (disclaimer: the GOP are criminal accomplices as well).

If people get the moon, they should tithe and they should tithe big.

You can't just continue printing money. Well you can, but no one speaks Latin anymore.

If someone wants the moon, I'll vote for them, only if they show me a way they are going to pay for it. Otherwise, it's just another Soviet Union scheme.

mccullough said...

Like many people who want to remake the world, the way she lives her life is a mess. Petty, greedy, and emotionally unbalanced.

eric said...

It's weird how memory works. I'd swear Michael Kelley was a frequent guest on the Hugh Hewitt show before going to Iraq and that he died of a blood clot in the leg for sitting too long in a humvee.

But that's not what wikipedia says. Odd.

n.n said...

The problem with liberalism is that it is unprincipled. The problem with progressive liberalism is that it is a degenerative ideology. Case in point: elective abortion, planned cannibalism, class diversity, devaluation of capital and labor, congruence, equivalence, social justice, displacement, quasi-science, quasi-religion/morality, unacknowledged faith, etc.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Kelly's pretty perceptive, but it's not a problem for just Hillary, of course.
Witness the focus on tolerance (lightly defined, amorphous, etc) as a metric for moral value--once you embrace moral relativism (in the reactive, Leftist sense) you can't very well condemn someone else's values, so you have to pretend their actual offense is against some universal value that just happens to line up with your own ideological beliefs.

Thus do the preachers of tolerance shout down opponents, call for blacklists, bully others while calling for safe spaces, and so on. I'm coming around to the view that it's not merely hypocrisy, it's more a cognitive failure (not just a bias, but a compartmentalization that prevents comparison). The annoying part is how sanctimoniously judgmental these folks are when denouncing others' judgmentalism.

damikesc said...

But liberalism, as defined by Mrs. Clinton's generation and those who came after, has increasingly moved away from the entire concept of judgment and embraced instead the expansion of rights and the tolerance of diversity.

...and proceeded to become the most judgmental harpies the Western world has ever seen.

Unknown said...

you say "unprincipled" like that's a bug.

Unknown said...

You say "unprincipled" like that's a bug.

campy said...

Rush Limbaugh got tremendous mileage out of that article when it appeared.

madAsHell said...

It's weird how memory works. I'd swear Michael Kelley was a frequent guest on the Hugh Hewitt show before going to Iraq and that he died of a blood clot in the leg for sitting too long in a humble.

That was David Bloom dying from a blood clot.

Sammy Finkelman said...

You could make that Michael Kelly 1993 article about Hillary Clinton single page:

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/23/magazine/saint-hillary.html?pagewanted=all

In older New York Times articles that are aplit on the Internet, there is a menu option to go to Single Page.

By the way, the Wall Street Journal is now offering a 2 month special for $1. Of course it will probably be around $35 amonth later,but someone could use this now.

Todd said...

tempered by the 1960s’ liberating openness

Has this individual any clue at all as to who Hillary is? Have they lived entirely under a rock and were fed little snippets of liberal pablum on what is "Hillary"?

The only thing about Hillary that is anything close to "liberating openness" is her contempt for the truth. Everything else about her is as closed as Ft. Knox.

Brando said...

I find it so odd that a person as corrupt and power-hungry as Hillary could at the same time be so incredibly dull.

Bob Ellison said...

"Politics of meaning" was the dumbest thing to come out of Hillary's mouth, and that's saying something.

Sammy Finkelman said...

I remember something else Michael Kelly wrote in The New York Times Magazine. This was in 1994. (I collected quotes)

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/31/magazine/the-president-s-past.html?pagewanted=all

Clinton's career began while he still a student at Hot Springs High School, where he was president of his junior class, the Beta Club (for academic achievers) and the Kiwanis Key Club. By his late teens, Clinton was already a semi-professional politician, so greatly in demand as a civics club speaker and leader of charitable fund drives that his high-school principal had to limit his engagements in order to protect his schooling.

- Article by Michael Kelly in the New York Times Magazine of July 31, 1994, page 25.

Now that might not seem like too much to you.

But now read this:

In his later years, he was a big contributor to charities,
particularly for young people.


- Associated Press obituary of resident Hot Springs, Arkansas "retired"
gangster Owen Vincent (Owney the Killer) Madden's in the Saturday, April 24, 1965 New York Times.

I can't seem to find this online. I copied this from the microfilm, long ago.

Well, maybe here it is: (I don't know if you need to be asubscriber to see this)

http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/04/24/97194668.html?pageNumber=1

You need the continuation on page 16 and then have to page up:

It's the 5th compelte paragraph on page 16 in his obituary - righty before it proceeds to give a more complete biography.

Bill Clinton was a « leader of charitable fund drives »

Putting two and two together, what does this mean?

It means that Bill Clinton was raising money from Vincent Owen (Owney the Killer) Madden!! Madden was promoting him.

Sammy Finkelman said...

The Godfather Part I, continued...

Now, you say, of course, who was Owney "the Killer" Madden?

« Here, because Owney Madden is so unknown and was so important for
the history of crime in America, we must pause and describe certain
things about him. He was the big stick that allowed [Damon] Runyon to
loll with the worst murderers. In turn, Runyon made him the founder of
organized crime in America..... »

- Damon Runyon, A Life by Jimmy Breslin (Ticknor and Fields, 1991) pages
107, 109, 110.

When Owen Vincent (Owney the killer) Madden, died in April, 1965. . .

« Owen Vincent Madden, Prohibition whiskey baron, nightspot owner,
killer, and gray eminence in our community for many years, was laid to
rest in a handsome casket, as his obituary noted, amid a profusion of
flowers. The local politician who spoke the eulogy recalled that "this
community's prosperity and welfare were uppermost in the heart of this
man, who for thirty years gave his all to Hot Springs. We know not and
care not what they said about him in New York, Chicago, or Washington."
Mourners in snappy clothes appeared from all over the nation, and his
pallbearers, as was only fitting, included such respected local citizens
as the chief of police. »

- The Bookmaker's Daughter by Shirley Abbott (Ticknor and Fields, 1991)
page 273.

During approximately the 1955-65 period things were such in Hot Springs,
Arkansas so that the city was nicknamed Little Vegas - but it was all kept
out of the national press, even though slot machines were on many street
corners. (by the way, his step-uncle was a big person in the political machine,
as Michael Kelly says:

« He made his Buick dealership "a gathering place for powerful, politically savvy men in Hot Springs," Kelley writes. "The big wheels." »

- Article by Michael Kelly in the New York Times Magazine of July 31, 1994, page 24.

Besides being a Buick dealer, he owned slot machines:

« "Just through talk, every person in town knew what was going on," said
Clay White, who for 23 years was an FBI agent based in Hot Springs and
is now the town's sheriff. "The violations of the law were more or less
accepted,"White said, adding that even Clinton's uncle Raymond, who
owned the local Buick dealership "ran some slot machines that he had
scattered throughout town." »

- July 20, 1992 Macleans Magazine.

It was in this mileau that Clinton got his start in politics - a job in
a 1966 Gubernatorial primary campaign, and a patronage job in Washington
with Senator Fulbright.

There wasn't much publicity about all this organized crime there, you know:

When Joseph Valachi, the first important Mafia informer, testified before Congress in September, 1963. . .

« . . .Senator McClellan visited him privately in the D.C, jail,
just before the hearings began. According to Valachi, he requested
that he please skip any mention of Hot Springs, in McClellan's
home state, and the Senate testimony contains no reference to that
then-notorious city. »

- The Valachi Papers by Peter Maas, (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1968) page 20.




chickelit said...

"Saint Hillary"

Nothing like putting the "hag" in hagiography.

Bilwick said...

"Mrs. Clinton argues that the concepts of liberalism and conservatism don't really mean anything anymore and that the politics of the New Age is moving beyond ideology."

When "liberals" talk like that, hide your wallet.

damikesc said...

I find it so odd that a person as corrupt and power-hungry as Hillary could at the same time be so incredibly dull.

Nixon was also dreadfully dull. Hillary is a less competent (WAY less competent) Nixon.

Lewis Wetzel said...

". . . has increasingly moved away from the entire concept of judgment and embraced instead the expansion of rights and the tolerance of diversity."
Not so. It's a redistribution of rights to groups the Left sympathizes with away from the groups the Left holds anathema.
There is no greater enemy of the Bill of Rights than the modern Leftist.
Freedom of the press? Gone.
Freedom to bear arms? Gone.
Freedom of religion? Gone.

Martha said...

'The politics of meaning' trope first appeared in Hillary's 1969 Wellesley commencement address—intellectually incoherent at the time when I, a Wellesley junior biochemistry major, heard first heard it.

Hillary in the 1969 Commencement address:
The "prevailing, acquisitive and competitive corporate life," she said, "is not for us. We're searching for more."

And then Hillary evolved into one of the most acquisitive and competitive political people in the world.

Big Mike said...

The good news for Republicans is that we can focus on identifying the person who can best lead the United States without having to take into account who the Democrats put up. Based on the latest polls nearly any of the Republican candidates could beat Hillary Clinton -- heck, based on the latest polls my neighbor's cat could beat Hillary Clinton. And it's a pretty nasty cat, even by feline standards.

Sebastian said...

"Mrs. Clinton argues that the concepts of liberalism and conservatism don't really mean anything anymore and that the politics of the New Age is moving beyond ideology"

True, in a way. It has moved beyond ideology to be set into institutional stone. Don't like SSM? Tough luck, you paleocon: we found it in the 14th. No turning back the clock once Progs told us what time it is.

The Godfather said...

Hillary! ought to be easy to beat: She's old, she's been around forever, she's a lousy liar, she carries a huge amount of baggage, she's never won a competitive election, etc. But I thought even Romney could beat Obama in 2012, and boy was I wrong. I really would hold my nose and vote for Tromp if he was the Republican candidate against Hillary!, but I think that's a risk we shouldn't take.

Besides, just before the Democratic Convention, DOJ will indict Hillary!, and the party will turn to Joe Biden. The Republicans need to be ready to pivot. Rubio or Cruz.

mikee said...

Hillary! is impossible to beat, because to beat her you have to have more votes than her, and then you have to have more votes than those found for her, after you announced how many you had.

To beat Hillary your margin of victory has to exceed the Democrat margin of fraud.

That isn't going to happen where it counts, in Ohio and Florida. She has the electoral votes to win. God help us all.

Hillary! is old - but fraudulent votes don't care, and neither does Hillary!
Hillary! is a lousy liar, but she lies all the time!
Hillary! has a huge amount of baggage, but she does not care about it!
Hillary! has never won a competitive election, and does not plan on participating in one this time around, either!

As to Biden, he is loved only when not heard or seen. The moment he appears and opens his mouth and beclowns himself, he is again loathed as the corrupt idiot he is.

J. Farmer said...

Michael Kelly is a strange irony. He gained a lot of prominence from his covering of the First Gulf War. He would later reference this knowledge in his enthusiastic support for the 2003 Iraq War. He also made some of the most painfully wrongheaded predictions of post-Saddam Iraq. Not quite as embarrassing as Richard Perle's, but pretty close. I think he imagined something along the lines of the cosmopolitanism of Beirut. I first became aware of him when I wrote a paper for a high school journalism class about the Stephen Glass scandal. If you've ever seen the movie they made about it, Shattered Glass, he is played by Hank Azaria. Kelly was an unbending supporter of Glass' every time someone called bullshit on one of his fantastical articles. That same trait would lead him to disaster just a few years later. A tragedy. That fatal well-intention that leads men to do the wrong thing for all the right reasons.

Brando said...

"Nixon was also dreadfully dull. Hillary is a less competent (WAY less competent) Nixon."

See, I found Nixon fascinating. Not in a "what an electrifying personality" sort of way, but more in a "what a gloriously awkward, strange man who I can't help but want to read more about".

Hillary though is just so incredibly bland, even while being corrupt and incompetent and fascist-esque. I would think someone like that would be interesting, at least.

Brando said...

"I really would hold my nose and vote for Tromp if he was the Republican candidate against Hillary!, but I think that's a risk we shouldn't take."

I can't stand Trump, but even I'd vote for him over Hillary. But I think a significant number of voters wouldn't do the same, and I can't imagine him improving on Romney's numbers. The GOP can only beat her if it nominates someone who can pull in the broadest possible coalition.

"Besides, just before the Democratic Convention, DOJ will indict Hillary!, and the party will turn to Joe Biden. The Republicans need to be ready to pivot. Rubio or Cruz."

I'm not counting on that--I have a feeling DOJ is simply not going to indict (though I would break out champagne if it did). The Dems are holding their nose and they're going to back Hillary, if only because they're afraid of what the GOP puts up. The GOPers now would be wise to consider how they're going to build a majority in key states. Otherwise, we can argue over Cruz, Rubio, Trump, Fiorina, etc., and all we get for our trouble is figuring out who gets to top out at 45% while we settle in for four awful years of corrupt incompetence.

Bilwick said...

I've thought that if I were an MSM reporter, and knew I was going to lose my job anyway, or found I was dying of cancer, or for whatever reason no longer gave a damn, I would close out my career by asking Hillary at a press conference: "So if you get the nomination, about how much of your acceptance speech will be lies? The usual amount, more? Less?"

And then follow up that with, "How much stuff do you plan to take away from us for our own good, anyway?"

But first I'd make sure my cat would be safely hidden with friends.

SukieTawdry said...

In 1974, she staffed the House Judiciary Committee, which was considering impeaching President Richard Nixon. When Nixon’s resignation made the impeachment question moot, Hillary Rodham followed her heart to Arkansas.

Well, not exactly. Hillary was one of only a handful of the approximately 200 young lawyers serving on the Committee who was denied a recommendation by their supervisor because he judged her deceitful and dishonest. Without that recommendation, her chances of getting another job in government were nil. Also, she flunked the DC bar. Thus, it was on to Plan B and Arkansas where she hitched her stalled wagon to Bill's rising star. When Bill was elected attorney general, she was hired by the Rose Law Firm. When Bill was elected governor, she was made partner.