| The U.S. is 'headed to fascism,' says Ocasio-Cortez after tour of detention facilities at southern border Posted: 02 Jul 2019 12:58 PM PDT  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called the conditions at U.S. migrant detention facilities "horrifying" in an interview Monday evening and doubled down on her comparisons of the situation at the border to World War II.
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| Tucker Carlson Defends Don Jr. for Retweeting Birther-Style Kamala Harris Smear Posted: 02 Jul 2019 08:37 PM PDT  Fox News host Tucker Carlson has rallied to the defense of Donald Trump Jr. for retweeting a birther-style smear of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, arguing on Tuesday night that the presidential son was merely echoing the skepticism many black voters have of Harris.Following Harris' much-lauded primary debate performance last week, alt-right commentator Ali Alexander claimed that the California senator had no business commenting on racial issues because she wasn't an "American Black" but "half Indian and half Jamaican." Don Jr. would soon retweet—and later delete—Alexander's post, with a spokesman saying he had simply been surprised to learn of Harris' heritage. According to Carlson, it was not Don Jr.'s retweet that should have sparked condemnation—but Harris' debate performance. "Sen. Kamala Harris clearly thinks she can become president of the United States by calling other people racists," he said before showing a clip of Harris' standout debate moment, in which she took former Vice President Joe Biden to task for opposing school busing during the 1970s. "Oh, barf," Carlson muttered after playing the clip.Insisting that the media wants to pit "black against white" and "Kamala Harris versus Joe Biden," Carlson claimed that real life was "far more complicated than that." Stating that Biden's strongest voter constituency is black voters while Harris' is young, white and affluent, the Fox News host asserted that "many black voters appear skeptical of Kamala Harris." (Post-debate polls, however, show Harris gaining on Biden due to a massive shift in black support.)"One of them recently tweeted that Harris' life story doesn't bear much resemblance to that of most African Americans," Carlson said, referencing Alexander's tweet. "Her parents were from India and Jamaica. Donald Trump Jr. retweeted that observation, and for that, CNN denounced him as a terrifying racist."After showing footage of critics blasting Trump Jr. over the tweet, the conservative media star then took aim at CNN's Don Lemon for seemingly questioning whether Harris should identify herself as African-American several months ago. "This tape has been floating around Washington, and Don Lemon apparently has been calling other anchors—even on other channels—and asking them not to replay it because he's embarrassed of it," Carlson mockingly said. "But we think you have a right to see it and you can decide for yourself if Don Lemon is also an anti-black racist."During a CNN segment earlier this year, Lemon said Harris could brush away any criticism of her racial identity by saying "I'm black but I'm not African American," noting that Jamaica isn't America."Here's Don Lemon telling you that Kamala Harris is not an African American," Carlson concluded. "He thinks it's important that you know that, and yet that's not racist because Don Lemon is a democratic voter. That's the logic of identity politics."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| View Photos of our Long-Term 2019 Hyundai Veloster N Posted: 03 Jul 2019 09:08 AM PDT |
| Fire kills 14 Russian sailors aboard deep-sea submersible Posted: 02 Jul 2019 12:19 PM PDT  Fire broke out on one of the Russian navy's deep-sea research submersibles, and toxic fumes from the blaze killed 14 sailors aboard, Russia's Defense Ministry said Tuesday, although it released few details about the disaster or the vessel involved. The Defense Ministry did not say how many sailors were aboard the vessel during Monday's fire, whether there were any survivors or if it was submerged at the time. President Vladimir Putin, who came under criticism for his handling of the Kursk nuclear submarine disaster in 2000 that killed 118 sailors, canceled a scheduled appearance and immediately summoned Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for a briefing on the blaze, which was under investigation.
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| North Korea says US 'hell-bent on hostile acts' despite wanting to talk Posted: 03 Jul 2019 09:23 PM PDT  North Korea's mission to the United Nations accused the United States on Wednesday of being "more and more hell-bent on hostile acts" against Pyongyang, despite President Donald Trump wanting talks between the two countries. In a statement the mission said it was responding to a U.S. accusation that Pyongyang breached a cap on refined petroleum imports and a letter that it said was sent on June 29 by the United States, France, Germany and Britain to all U.N. member states urging them to implement sanctions against North Korea. "What can't be overlooked is the fact that this joint letter game was carried out by the permanent mission of the United States to the U.N. under instruction of the State Department, on the very same day when President Trump proposed for the summit meeting," the statement said. Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to set foot in North Korea on Sunday when he met leader Kim Jong Un in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas. The pair agreed to resume stalled talks aimed at getting Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons program. Donald Trump became the first sitting president to step into North Korea Credit: Susan Walsh/AP The North Korean U.N. mission said the June 29 letter to U.N. member states "speaks to the reality that the United States is practically more and more hell-bent on the hostile acts against the DPRK, though talking about the DPRK-U.S. dialogue." North Korea is formally known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The U.N. Security Council has unanimously boosted sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke funding for Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, banning exports including coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, and capping imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products. The United States, backed by dozens of allies, told a council sanction committee last month that North Korea had breached an annual U.N. cap of 500,000 barrels imposed in December 2017, mainly through transfers between ships at sea. Washington wanted the 15-member North Korea sanctions committee to demand an immediate halt to deliveries of refined petroleum to North Korea. However, Pyongyang allies Russia and China delayed the move. The letter from the United States, Germany, Britain and France cited by North Korea's U.N. mission - and viewed by Reuters - was actually dated June 27. Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, expects nuclear talks to resume in mid-July Credit: Susan Walsh/AP It urges all U.N. member states to comply with Security Council sanctions requiring the repatriation of all North Korean workers by Dec. 22, 2019. "It is quite ridiculous for the United States to continue to behave obsessed with sanctions and pressure campaign against the DPRK, considering sanctions as a panacea for all problems," the North Korean U.N. mission said on Wednesday. Following Sunday's meeting between Kim and Trump, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said a new round of denuclearisation talks would likely happen "sometime in July ... probably in the next two or three weeks" and North Korea's negotiators would be foreign ministry diplomats. The United States and other U.N. Security Council members have said there must be strict enforcement of sanctions until Pyongyang acts, while Russia and China have suggested the council discuss easing the measures. "All U.N. member states will have to keep vigilance against deliberate attempts by the United States to undermine the peaceful atmosphere that has been created on the Korean Peninsula in no easy way," the North Korean statement said.
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| A Teen From a 'Good Family' Allegedly Bragged About Raping a 16-Year-Old. Now a Judge Is Under Fire for His Leniency Posted: 03 Jul 2019 11:41 AM PDT  The judge denied a request to try the boy as an adult. An appeals court reversed his decision
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| NASA tests abort system on astronaut capsule built for moon missions Posted: 02 Jul 2019 06:25 AM PDT  "It looked like a complete mission success to me," said Blake Watters, a launch-abort-system propulsion engineer at Lockheed Martin Corp , Orion's manufacturer. Using Orion and NASA's Space Launch System, which is being built for a debut flight in late 2020, the U.S. space agency is aiming to return humans to the moon by 2024 in an accelerated timeline set in March by the Trump administration.
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| Vice President Pence called back to White House over undisclosed emergency Posted: 02 Jul 2019 08:37 AM PDT  Pence was on his way to New Hampshire to discuss the state's opioid crisis when Air Force Two was recalled.
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| Is the Betsy Ross flag a symbol for hate groups? Depends on who you ask Posted: 03 Jul 2019 04:13 AM PDT  The Betsy Ross flag has emerged as a flash point after Nike decided not to release shoes featuring the flag. Here's the history behind it.
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| It's Time to Formally End the Korean War Posted: 03 Jul 2019 03:38 AM PDT  Last night, President Donald Trump did what no other sitting U.S. president has done—he stepped foot onto North Korean soil and greeted North Korean chairman Kim Jong-un. And in typical Trump fashion, he staged a second dramatic crossing over the military demarcation line at Panmunjom with Kim, stepping together onto South Korean soil and greeting South Korean President Moon Jae-in before having a fifty-minute meeting in the South's Freedom House.Leaving the DMZ, Trump said, "We moved mountains," and that working-level talks led by U.S. special representative Stephen Biegun would get started right away. "The meeting was a very good one, very strong . . . We're not looking for speed, we're looking to get it right."To get it right, the first step the Trump administration should take is to offer North Korea a security guarantee, whether in the form of an end of war declaration or a non-aggression pact. It may have been, after all, what convinced Kim to meet Trump at Panmunjom.One year ago, armed North and South Korean soldiers faced off. There were guard posts, landmines and speakers blasting propaganda across the DMZ. Today, the speakers and guard posts are down and many landmines were removed in the process of searching for the remains of U.S. soldiers who fell during the war. The fact that North Korean, South Korean and American security details could even stand side-by-side at Panmunjom is testament to the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Summit where Moon and Kim announced to the world, "there will be no more war on the Korean Peninsula and thus a new era of peace has begun." This agreement was the foundation for the Singapore Declaration, where Trump and Kim promised to establish new relations toward building a lasting peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
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| Joe Biden's backing drops by third in new polls after debate clash with Kamala Harris Posted: 02 Jul 2019 11:33 AM PDT  Support for Joe Biden's presidential bid has dropped by a third after he was repeatedly challenged in the first debate between Democrats seeking the party nomination for the next US election, according to two polls. The proportion of Democrats who said they would back Mr Biden, the former US vice president, to be their party's candidate in 2020 dropped from 32 per cent in May to 22 per cent according to a CNN poll. That was mirrored by a surge in support for Kamala Harris, the Californian senator who confronted Mr Biden over his race record at the debate. She has now moved into second place according to the poll. Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator who was also widely seen to have performed well in the first debates in Miami last week also substantially increased her support. Another poll released on Tuesday by Quinnipiac University showed similar movement, with Mr Biden dropping from 30 per cent support before the debate to 22 per cent and Ms Harris rising to second place on 20 per cent. Polling experts urge caution at over-analysing results, with surges in support after campaign debates often not lasting long and repeated surveys needed to establish a trend. However the sharp change suggests that Mr Biden, who has enjoyed a substantial lead on all rivals to the Democratic nomination over the last two years, is being pegged back. Around 650 Democrat voters or independents leaning that way were asked in the CNN poll to say which candidate they would most likely support for the nomination, with the names being listed randomly. Mr Biden came top with 22 per cent of those asked backing him. He was followed by Ms Harris on 17 per cent, Ms Warren on 15 per cent and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders on 14 per cent. The second night of the Miami debate saw Ms Harris, whose mother is Indian and father is Jamaican, challenge Mr Biden over his historic positions on civil rights issues. Their clash was the stand-out moment of the debates and was repeated often on US cable news channels in the following days. In a separate development, Hunter Biden, Mr Biden's son, has opened up about his struggles with addiction in an interview with The New Yorker magazine, including his use of alcohol and cocaine. The younger Mr Biden said: "Everybody has trauma. There's addiction in every family. I was in that darkness. I was in that tunnel – it's a never-ending tunnel. You don't get rid of it. You figure out how to deal with it."
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| 'Help': Photos from US migrant detention centres reveal despair and overcrowding as people go a month without showers Posted: 02 Jul 2019 01:29 PM PDT  Conditions at five US migrant detention centres in Texas have been described as a "ticking time bomb", as photographs emerged of people crammed in their dozens into cells far too small for the purpose.Official investigators found thousands of people had been in Border Patrol custody for longer than the agency's own 72-hour limit, while some had not been given access to showers for a month. Children at three of the five centres had no access to showers.Two sites did not give child detainees hot food until inspectors arrived, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) representatives were forced to leave one centre early because "when detainees observed us, they banged on the cell windows, shouted, pressed notes to the window with their time in custody, and gestured to evidence of their time in custody".One man was pictured holding a scrap of cardboard bearing the words, "Help 40 Days Here". He was among 88 men being held in a cell designed for 41, the DHS inspector general's office (OIG) said.In a report on conditions at several Border Patrol sites in the Rio Grande Valley released on Tuesday, OIG added that "at one facility, some single adults were held in standing-room-only conditions for a week". Most single adult detainees were still wearing the clothes they arrived in "days, weeks and even up to a month prior".And despite rules ordering Border Patrol agents to recognise people's dietary and religious needs, "many" adults were being fed only bologna [processed sausage] sandwiches. "Some detainees on this diet were becoming constipated and required medical attention," OIG's report said.Images showed children sleeping on the floor in chain-link cages with only foil blankets for comfort. Inspectors said overcrowding had become "dangerous" and quoted a senior manager at one facility as calling the situation a "ticking time bomb", and a hazard for both staff and the people detained.It comes just weeks after the watchdog rapped Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials over "egregious violations" of standards at two of their facilities, where staff were found to be serving spoiled food.Donald Trump's administration has faced criticism for its handling of the flow of people trying to enter the US from Latin American countries. Mr Trump has called the asylum system broken, saying that some take advantage of it with frivolous claims.The OIG report noted that the Rio Grande area of Texas had seen a 124-per-cent increase in attempted border crossings in the last year. Border Patrol facilities were holding about 8,000 people during the inspectors' visits in June, with 3,400 detained longer than the 72 hours permitted. Of those,1,500 had been held more than 10 days.Eight hundred and twenty-six of the 2,669 children at Border Patrol's facilities had been held longer than the 72 hours generally permitted under the customs agency's standards and a prior court finding.Of the 1,031 children held at the centralised processing centre in McAllen, 806 had already been processed and were awaiting transfer to Health Department custody. Of those, 165 had been in custody longer than a week. More than 50 were less than seven years old.
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| I asked Latinos why they joined immigration law enforcement. Now I'm urging them to leave. Posted: 03 Jul 2019 03:04 AM PDT  Latinos make up half of American Border Patrol agents. But it's not self-hatred driving them to work for agencies deporting their communities.
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| The Latest: New Hawaii prostitution law is 1st in the nation Posted: 02 Jul 2019 06:04 PM PDT ![The Latest: New Hawaii prostitution law is 1st in the nation]( "The Latest: New Hawaii prostitution law is 1st in the nation") Hawaii is the first state in the U.S. to remove a requirement that a person be a victim of sex trafficking to have a prostitution conviction erased. Hawaii Gov. David Ige signed the measure into law Tuesday. The new law tosses prostitution convictions for those who avoid additional convictions for three years, even if they can't show they have been victims of sex trafficking.
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| Hungary passes controversial science sector reform bill Posted: 02 Jul 2019 03:57 AM PDT  The Hungarian parliament passed a bill Tuesday enabling the takeover of research institutes by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government, which is accused by critics of seeking to control key institutions and sectors. The bill, approved by 131 of lawmakers in the 199-seat assembly, gives Orban's nationalist, anti-migration government control of a vast network of research institutes currently run by the two-century old Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA). Orban's critics say that since coming to power in 2010 he has tightened his control over most key institutions in Hungary, including public media, the judiciary and the education sector.
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| Presidential hopeful Booker vows to end 'moral vandalism' of Trump immigration policy Posted: 02 Jul 2019 03:08 AM PDT  Booker, 50, is among some two dozen Democrats seeking to take on Republican U.S. President Donald Trump in next year's election. Trump has made clamping down on illegal immigration the centerpiece of his domestic policy agenda. "On day one of my presidency, I will take immediate steps to end this administration's moral vandalism," Booker said in a statement.
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| Secret Facebook group appears to show US border agents mocking death of migrant teenager Posted: 02 Jul 2019 03:12 AM PDT  Members of a Facebook group for US border agents reportedly mocked the death of a migrant child in custody and posted racist comments about congresswomen inspecting the facilities. In one post, the group of current and former border patrol agents referenced a news story about a 16-year-old Guatemalan who died in Border Patrol custody, with comments underneath such as "Oh well" and "If he dies, he dies." Another post contained a mock-up of the Democratic congresswoman engaging in oral sex with a detained migrant. The existence of the Facebook group, named "I'm 10-15", was revealed by the non-profit news site ProPublica. 10-15 is Border Patrol code for "aliens in custody." The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency said on Monday that it has launched an investigation into the group, appearing to confirm that some of its employees were involved. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has drawn criticism for comparing the border detention facilities to "concentration camps" Credit: AP In a statement the CBP said it had been "made aware of disturbing social media activity hosted on a private Facebook group that may include a number of CBP employees." Members of the group also posted derogatory comments about female Hispanic lawmakers, including fake sexually explicit photo montages of Ms Ocasio-Cortez, who has been outspoken on the treatment of migrants in US facilities. The members discussed throwing burritos at the Hispanic members of Congress who were visiting a detention facility in Texas on Monday. Border Patrol chief Carla Provost denounced the "inappropriate" posts in the Facebook group and the CBP, which oversees the Border Patrol, said it had launched an investigation. "These posts are completely inappropriate and contrary to the honour and integrity I see - and expect - from our agents day in and day out," Ms Provost said. "Any employees found to have violated our standards of conduct will be held accountable." Asked about the @CBP agents @Facebook group with derogatory and vulgar comments, @POTUS (who may not be familiar with what the questioner was referring to) replied: The Border Patrol -- they're patriots. They're great people. They love our country. They know what's coming in."— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) July 1, 2019 The group was created in August 2016 and has some 9,500 members. ProPublica said it was able to link the participants in the controversial posts to seemingly legitimate Facebook profiles belonging to Border Patrol agents, including a supervisor based in El Paso, Texas, and an agent in Eagle Pass, Texas. The website said it has provided the names of three agents who appear to have participated in the online discussions to the CBP. Ms Ocasio-Cortez, who has been a frequent critic of the CBP, said the revelations would not impact her planned visit to facilities housing migrants along the US-Mexico border on Monday. "There are 20,000 TOTAL Customs & Border Patrol agents in the US," Ms Ocasio-Cortez said in a tweet. "9,500 CBP officers sharing memes about dead migrants and discussing violence and sexual misconduct towards members of Congress," she said. "How on earth can CBP's culture be trusted to care for refugees humanely?" Now I've seen the inside of these facilities. It's not just the kids. It's everyone. People drinking out of toilets, officers laughing in front of members Congress. I brought it up to their superiors. They said "officers are under stress & act out sometimes." No accountability.— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 1, 2019 The New York representative also decried the conditions she found at the migrant facilities she visited. "It's not just the kids. It's everyone. People drinking out of toilets, officers laughing in front of members of Congress," the congresswoman said. "This has been horrifying so far," she said. "It is hard to understate the enormity of the problem." "We're talking systemic cruelty w/a dehumanizing culture that treats them like animals," she said. Border Patrol officials have said they are overwhelmed by the numbers of refugees crossing the southern US border. Arrivals of undocumented migrants have surged in recent months, with 144,000 taken into custody in May alone.
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| North Korea: Trump tries to undermine peace with sanctions Posted: 03 Jul 2019 03:59 PM PDT  Three days after the U.S. and North Korean leaders held a historic third meeting, North Korea's U.N. Mission accused the Trump administration Wednesday of talking about dialogue but being "more and more hell bent" on hostile acts. A press statement from the mission pointed a finger at U.S. efforts to exert "overt pressure" and have the world's nations implement U.N. sanctions.
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| The 25 Best-Selling Cars, Trucks, and SUVs of 2019 (So Far) Posted: 03 Jul 2019 07:30 AM PDT |
| Know This: A U.S.-Iran War Would Not Be Fought Only in Iran Posted: 02 Jul 2019 10:11 AM PDT  Residents in northern Cyprus were surprised on July 1 when a S-200 missile slammed into the side of a mountain in the wake of an Israeli airstrike in northern Syria. Israel has targeted Iranian bases and weapons transfers to Hezbollah more than a thousand times in the last seven years. Iran has threatened to respond, but Tehran now faces larger concerns as it wrestles with Washington and seeks to raise tensions in both the Gulf, Iraq and Yemen among its allies and proxies.An arc of simmering conflict runs from the waters off Cyprus to the Gulf of Oman where the U.S. Global Hawk was downed in June, to Abha in Saudi Arabia which has been targeted by Iranian-backed Houthi drones. It is a frontline that stretches three thousand miles and marks out the potential flashpoints between the United States and its allies against Iran and its allies and proxies. Viewing the region through this complex map of interlinked conflicts is the best way to see the current U.S.-Iran tensions in the context in which they have grown. It also reveals the possible ways Iran and its proxies might strike at the United States and its allies. In some cases these conflicts have already broken out.
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| Stonewall veterans return to New York City to celebrate Pride, 50 years after raid Posted: 03 Jul 2019 01:43 PM PDT  Five veterans of the Stonewall riots returned to NYC to discuss their experiences as LGBTQ activists 50 years after the initial raid.
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| Vegas police fire officer who hesitated during mass shooting Posted: 03 Jul 2019 01:47 PM PDT  A veteran Las Vegas police officer who froze in the hallway of a casino-hotel as a gunman carried out the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history has been fired from the force, police said. Officer Cordell Hendrex was fired from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department on March 20, police spokesman Officer Larry Hadfield said late Tuesday. Police union president Steve Grammas said Hendrex was fired because of his actions during the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting that left 58 people dead and hundreds more injured.
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| Alert level raised for Hawaii volcano due to rumbles, quakes Posted: 02 Jul 2019 03:56 PM PDT  An eruption of Mauna Loa, the world's largest active volcano, did not appear to be imminent. The increased seismic activity indicated a shift in the "shallow magma storage system" under the mountain, the Hawaii Volcano Observatory (HVO) said in an advisory. Yellow is the second level on the Hawaii Volcano Observatory's color-coded alert chart, above green, which is used to indicate "background, non-eruptive state." Orange signifies a volcano exhibiting "heightened or escalating unrest with increased potential of eruption." The highest alert level, red, indicates that an eruption is imminent.
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| Democrats’ Leftward Turn Was a Reaction to Hillary Clinton Posted: 03 Jul 2019 03:30 AM PDT  The consensus view on the right is that Hillary Clinton was a primary reason for Donald Trump's success in 2016. But not all conservatives agree about why that was.For devotees of the Trump-as-savior narrative, Clinton -- and all the allegedly nefarious forces at her beck and call -- was a uniquely formidable opponent. Defeating her required a different kind of Republican, one who'd be willing to fight as dirty and as tough as the Democrats. This was a "Flight 93 election," and Trump was the hero we needed to storm the cockpit.Others on the right see it differently. It wasn't so much that Trump was the one person who could beat Clinton, but that she was the one candidate he could beat. In other words, it was only thanks to the fact that she was so unpopular that Trump had a chance. Trump-reluctant Republicans and independents could be persuaded that he was better than Clinton -- when presented with a binary choice.The latter seems vastly more plausible for the simple reason that Trump didn't have to convince those voters that Clinton was unlikable and a little scary; he simply had to exploit their pre-existing opinion of her. Indeed, Trump's continued obsession with bashing Clinton points to how central she is to his identity.This has consequences for 2020 because the White House's entire strategy boils down to making Trump's opponent more unlikable than he is. If Trump wasn't responsible for Hillary's unfavorable numbers in the first place, it remains to be seen whether he can Hillaryize another Democrat.It may not be all that hard, though, because the Democrats are doing everything they can to keep the Flight 93 panic alive on the right. They're doing this by running so far to the left that many Trump-skeptical Republicans feel as if they have no choice but to vote for him again. (I hear this from my fellow conservatives every day.) Democratic candidates have openly praised socialism, the Green New Deal, the abolition of private insurance, voting rights for incarcerated felons, federal funding of abortion late into pregnancy, confiscatory "wealth taxes," and even the right to sex-change operations paid for by taxpayers.And here is where I think Clinton's true historical significance isn't being recognized. Again, conservatives (including yours truly) invested a lot of time and energy in shaping public perceptions of Clinton. But the blame -- or credit -- doesn't just go to the right. Clinton herself did much to help the effort. She was never the natural politician her husband was. She lacked his gift for reading the electorate and speaking to voters' concerns. She collected all of her husband's baggage without any of her husband's skill at deflecting criticism. She wasn't very likable.This was a huge advantage for Bernie Sanders in 2016. He came way closer to beating Clinton in the primaries than most people thought he would by tapping into the passion of the base and the frustrations of other Democrats who didn't relish a Clinton dynasty and disliked both Hillary personally and the corrupt practices of the establishment she represented. She ran on the implied claim that it was simply her "turn" to be president -- a poisonous framing in a populist moment (just ask Jeb Bush). In retrospect, not being Hillary was almost as big a boon for Sanders as it was for Trump.If the Clinton machine had not scared away more talented and resourceful politicians from running in 2016, it's possible that someone other than Sanders would have captured the passion of the party, just as Obama did when he toppled Hillary as the inevitable nominee in 2008.But that didn't happen, and as a result, the Democratic party got the message that Sanders-style socialist populism was the key to success, just as the GOP has concluded that Trump-style nationalist populism is the future of the right.Sanders' frustration at no longer being the undisputed voice of the base is palpable. "They said our ideas are crazy and wild and extreme," he recently complained. "And now it turns out all of the other candidates are saying what we said four years ago."He's right.Of course, there are larger historical forces at work here, but it sure looks like Hillary Clinton's candidacy was an inflection point, because it galvanized not only the GOP's turn toward nationalism but the Democrats' turn toward socialism. She'll never be president, but she's made history nonetheless.© 2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
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