Hillary Clinton

2022 is a midterm election year in the USA. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be up for grabs. The Republican Party is predicted to retake the senate. If affirmed it is likely that efforts will be made to jail Hillary Clinton and others closely associated in their near 5-year false and malicious disinformation campaign accusing President Trump of working with President Putin devising and implementing plans to subvert American voters enabling Trump to defeat Clinton. November 2022 might well be a pivotal period in political history.

1996: President Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, (DOMA) a law that defined federal marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

2000: Running for the Senate she said: “Marriage has got historic, religious and moral content that goes back to the beginning of time, and I think a marriage is as a marriage has always been, between a man and a woman.

2004: In a Senate debate she said that she believed that marriage was: “a sacred bond between a man and a woman and she took umbrage at anyone who might suggest that those who worry about amending the Constitution are less committed to the sanctity of marriage, or to the fundamental bedrock principle that exists between a man and a woman.”

2007: Hillary Clinton answered a questionnaire for the Human Rights Campaign. About whether marriage should be made legally available to two committed adults of the same sex she entered that she was “opposed” though she supported civil unions. In a follow-up debate, she was asked “What is at the heart of your opposition to same-sex marriage?” Her reply was: “I prefer to think of it as being very positive about civil unions. You know, it’s a personal position. How we get to full equality is the debate we’re having, and I am absolutely in favour of civil unions with full equality of benefits, rights, and privileges.”

2012: President Obama reversed his previous position and announced his support for same-sex marriage

2013: Announcing she would run for President in 2016 she announced her support for same-sex marriage stating: “LGBT Americans are our colleagues, our teachers, our soldiers, our friends, our loved ones. And they are full and equal citizens, and they deserve the right to citizenship. That includes marriage. That’s why I support marriage for lesbian and gay couples. I support it personally and as a matter of policy and law, embedded in a broader effort to advance equality and opportunity for LGBT Americans and all Americans.”

2013: At St. Andrew’s University in Scotland in her first foreign visit since she announced she would run for President in 2016, she received a doctor of laws degree for her work as a politician and diplomat in championing the causes of education, human rights, democracy, civil society and promoting opportunities for women around the world.

2014: She was grilled about her ever-changing positions on gay marriage and was asked: “Would you say your view evolved since the ’90s or that the American public evolved, allowing you to state your real view?” She replied: “I think I’m an American and I think we have all evolved.”

2014: Scottish Independence Referendum: She told the BBC’s Jeremy Paxton: “I would hate to have England lose Scotland. Rebutting her unwelcome interference Alex Salmond said Scotland: “was not England’s property to be lost it is one of the oldest nations in the World deciding its own future.” Sturgeon made no comment.

2015: On the day of the Supreme Court hearing oral arguments about same-sex marriage bans in a handful of states in April, she changed her “H” logo to rainbow-coloured and tweeted the message: “Every loving couple & family deserves to be recognized & treated equally under the law across our nation.”

2016: Her current support of gay marriage and the LGBT community is based on nothing more than political expediency. She had zero interest in supporting gay rights until it was no longer risky to be an LGBT advocate.

2016: It is unusual for political leaders to express their opinion on other country’s elections while campaigning is still underway. Neutrality is usually observed but Nicola Sturgeon broke with political tradition and ‘fervently’ endorsed Clinton’s bid for the American Presidency saying: Hillary Clinton would be “a great president.”

2016: Clinton released a video to the UK media attacking Donald Trump’s credibility at the time he was visiting his newly revamped Turnberry course. The video which was set to bagpipe music featured Sturgeon who said Trump was not welcome in Scotland and Michael Forbes, who challenged Trump’s bid to build his Meanie Estate golf course in Aberdeenshire.

Comments: Ever the political opportunist she opposed same-sex marriage as a candidate for the Senate, while in office as a senator, and while running for president in 2008. She expressed her support for civil unions starting in 2000 and for the rights of states to set their own laws in favour of same-sex marriage in 2006. Then as polls showed that a majority of Americans supported same-sex marriage, Clinton’s views changed, too. She announced her support for same-sex marriage in March 2013.

Andrew Sullivan, former editor of The New Republic, in a 2014 blog post wrote: Clinton opposed gay marriage until public opinion shifted in its favour. Supporters have focused on the argument of her having an evolving stance, but as a high-profile Democrat for the past few decades, Clinton played a role in obstructing progress for LGBT rights. In addition to DOMA, her husband Bill Clinton signed the HIV travel ban into law, which disproportionately discriminated against the LGBT community. He also signed the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. “As long as marriage equality hurt the Democrats, they were against it. Now it may even hurt Republicans, they’re for it. So Hillary is for it now.”

She voted for and strongly supported the Iraq War for years until she finally apologized and admitted in 2014 it was a mistake. But she has not learned. An apology isn’t enough when she continued with her war hawk tendencies, invariably pushing for regime change and perpetuating U.S. military conflicts abroad. As one of the most high-profile Democrats in the Senate, Clinton’s Iraq stance played a central role in manufacturing consent for a war we now know was launched from baseless accusations. During her service as secretary of state, Clinton supported every war demanded by the military-industrial complex.