DNC 2016 Marks the End of Bill’s Party

When Hillary Clinton accepted the Democratic nomination for president Thursday, she made clear just how little the party of President Obama looks like the party that nominated her husband.

The Democratic Party of Obama is a far cry from the New Democrats Bill Clinton led out of the wilderness in 1992. Obama has not just spent almost eight years transforming America — he also has thoroughly remade his party into a vessel of liberalism not seen since the George McGovern days in the 1970s.

The address stands in stark contrast with the acceptance speech her husband delivered in 1992 … He called for “a government that understands that jobs must come from growth in a vibrant and vital system of free enterprise.”

Gone are most of the conservative Southern Democrats and moderate Blue Dog Democrats that made up a significant chunk of the party in the 1990s and even into the first decade of the 21st century.

There is almost no Arkansas politics left in the Democratic Party at all — it has been wholly subsumed by Chicago.

Most of Hillary Clinton’s speech, which ran nearly an hour, was markedly devoid of substance. But behind the platitudes and clichés, the former secretary of state made clear to the delegates in Philadelphia and the country that she intends to continue Obama’s leftward lurch. She specifically addressed her socialist former rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and the party’s ultra-liberal platform.

“We wrote it together; let’s go make it happen together,” she said.

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Clinton’s speech took a harsh tone against the wealthy and big business. She pledged support for the idea that “the minimum wage should be a living wage,” promised to expand Social Security, and blasted executive bonuses.

“It’s wrong to take tax breaks with one hand and give out pink slips with the other,” she said. “And I believe Wall Street can never, ever be allowed to wreck Main Street again.”

But Clinton suggested that she would pressure banks to approve more loans.

“Way too many dreams die in the parking lots of banks,” she said.

Channeling her inner Sanders, she said she would work to make college tuition-free for the middle class, debt-free for all, and “liberate millions of people who already have student debt.”

She promised to “build a path to citizenship” for illegal immigrants.

“I believe that when we have millions of hardworking immigrants contributing to our economy, it would be self-defeating and inhumane to try to kick them out,” she said.

And, in an acknowledgment that the Democratic Party’s obsession with identity politics, she vowed to fight what she regards as America’s ingrained bigotry.

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“So let’s put ourselves in the shoes of young black and Latino men and women who face the effects of systemic racism, and are made to feel like their lives are disposable,” she said.

The address stands in stark contrast to the acceptance speech her husband delivered in 1992. Bill Clinton made no mention of immigration or Wall Street’s evils. Though he proposed higher taxes on the rich, he also called for “a government that understands that jobs must come from growth in a vibrant and vital system of free enterprise.”

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Clinton promised to “end welfare as we know it” and tried to get to the right of then-President George H.W. Bush on law and order, criticizing him for not doing enough to fight the war on drugs and crime. He also called for his party to turn away from its government-can-solve-everything mentality.

“But, my fellow Democrats, its time for us to realize we’ve got some changing to do too,” he said. “There is not a program in government for every problem, and if we want to use government to help people, we have got to make it work again.”

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During a State of the Union address in 1996, Clinton bragged about increasing the number of border agents by 50 percent in order to crack down on illegal immigration and signed an executive order to deny federal contracts to businesses that hire illegal immigrants. It would be hard to imagine Hillary Clinton giving that speech.

Justin Holmes, a political science professor at the University of Northern Iowa, said Bill Clinton’s record —which included signing welfare reform, the Defense of Marriage Act, and his famous line that “the era of big government is over” — seems out of step.

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“He was liberal for his time, but the culture has pulled to the Left,” Holmes said.

Christopher Devine, a political science professor with the University of Dayton, said Hillary Clinton has moved along with her party — changing her positions on gay marriage, criminal justice issues, and trade.

“She’s shown a willingness to move where her party is going — or opportunism, you might call it,” he said.

Devine said Hillary Clinton has the same pragmatic instincts as her husband. Her selection of Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine demonstrates a reach to the center, for instance. But even that illustrates how different today’s Democratic Party is, Devine said.

“Tim Kaine, compared to 1992 Bill Clinton, is quite a bit more liberal,” he said.