‘Trump, Clinton equally right-wing warmongering shields of big business’
Americans have to choose between two equally right-wing pro-war candidates, says Jerome White, presidential candidate for the Socialist Equality Party. He says Trump promotes xenophobic, anti-immigrant lines while Clinton’s a complete tool of Wall Street.
A new report by the Wall Street Journal shows that US Democratic Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton received millions of dollars for her campaign from Wall Street.
RT: Why does Clinton seem to be the preferred candidate for Wall Street?
Jerome White: She has a long record, as did her husband Bill Clinton with very, very close connections to the most powerful financial institutions in the US on Wall Street. Under her husband’s administration they deregulated Wall Street; they lifted the Glass–Steagall Act, and allowed the immense building-up of the financial bubble that produced the financial collapse of 2008. As the Obama administration carried out the bailout of Wall Street, the Clintons maintained very, very close ties. As we all know, she received hundreds of thousands of dollars - in fact millions of dollars and speaking fees - in the aftermath of the crash.
RT: Clinton is also likely to get more contributions now that Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have dropped out of the race. Will this have an impact on her stances on issues and, perhaps, presidency?
JW: After an entire primary process in which for the first the anger of millions of workers over the social inequality, over the domination of the entire political system by the financial elites was expressed. In the end essentially, what the American people have is a choice between two equally right-wing candidates, two pro-war candidates.
On the one hand, a billionaire, who is Donald Trump, who seeks to tap into the social anxiety and channel it along xenophobic and anti-immigrant lines; on the other, complete tool of Wall Street and of the Pentagon. In the end, the [Bernie] Sanders’ campaign, which tapped into this enormous anger – he is now committed to support Hillary Clinton, who he openly criticizes as a tool of Wall Street. But he as a Democrat now is supporting that very same tool of Wall Street.
RT: The fact she is supported by big corporations doesn't seem to be harming Clinton's ratings. Don't people care about this?
JW: You have two of the most-hated politicians in the US who are going to be facing off one another in the elections. The fact is that there is deep hatred for Clinton and for Trump. But we live in America, in an entirely bought-and-paid-for political system that excludes any genuine opposition.
I am running as the Socialist Equality Party’s candidate for president in the US and the ballot access laws are thoroughly undemocratic. So, as I said, the population - the working class - is confronted with two equally right-wing warmongering shields of big business.
RT: Do you have any idea why Clinton makes statements about "the Wall Street threat" while she receives huge contributions from America's big bankers?
JW: The Democratic Party has long played the role of claiming to be the spokesman of the oppressed, of working people. But it is the second party of finance capital. In this case it is now the primary party of finance capital. So certainly Clinton is going to, as Obama did, present themselves [sic] as being sympathetic to the victims of Wall Street. But in fact if you look at the Obama administration over the last eight years, the greatest transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top has occurred in US history.
Whatever the phony rhetoric about Wall Street – none of the criminals from 2008 crash have ever been held accountable. The reports today are that the hedge fund owners have made massive increases even if the industry itself had problems last year, one of the hedge fund recipients, or owners, Ray Dalio made $1.5 billion last year. George Soros, major funder for the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton, made $700 million last year alone.
You have an oligarchy in the US in which is financial elite, which is totally unaccountable, can carry out crimes, dictates policy, dictates domestic policy… That is why they claim as no money for pensions, schools, or decent wages. Yet they can expand trillion of dollars on bailing out the banks and trillions more for war against Russia, or China, or in the Middle East; wars that defend the same financial aristocracy as the war against the working class in the US.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
