Progressives: We Know Its Hard but Hold Nose Back Hillary Clinton

We know some readers will find it hard to vote for Clinton. Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C.  Clintons enduring ties to Wall Street and corporate CEOs mean that progressives will have to continue to push her on trade financial regulation taxation and public investment. The Nation also stands ready to support (Senator & liberal darling Elizabeth) Warren and others in making sure Clintons cabinet officials and economic advisers are subjected to a searching scrutiny said the editors of The Nation the countrys leading progressive voice as it went all-in last week and finally endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton for president. Holding its nose the countrys leading liberal voice backed Clinton while also condemning her foreign policy and ties to Wall Street.

The reason? The Nations endorsement for Clinton can be summed up in two words: Donald Trump.

Said the editorial We know that some readers will find it hard to vote for Clinton.

But it added:

Over the past eight years progressives have learned the hard way that voting for hope and change doesnt always deliver hope or change. So while voting for Clinton may be necessary it is hardly sufficient.

In fact the influential publication said that it will watch Clinton like a hawk and urge allies like Sen. Elizabeth Warren to weigh in when a President Clinton gets too far out of the progressive line.

On almost every issue you can think of Clinton is so much better than Trump that comparison seems like a meaningless exercise. This does not constitute a blank check or a wholesale endorsement. Clintons enduring ties to Wall Street and corporate CEOs mean that progressives will have to continue to push her on trade financial regulation taxation and public investment. The Nation also stands ready to support Warren and others in making sure Clintons cabinet officials and economic advisers are subjected to a searching scrutiny said the editors.

And they added:

Clintons hawkish foreign-policy reflexes also raise grave concerns. She has frequently embraced positions to the right of President Obama and has been embraced in turn by a rogues gallery of neoconservative and liberal- hawk advisers who together personify a failed bipartisan foreign-policy consensus.

She has backed regime change from Honduras to Libya to Syria upholding the view that America is the indispensable nation entitled to police the world. Her blinkered view of Israel and Palestine offers no comfort to those who long for a just peace in the Middle East. Instead of seeking to engage Russia an essential partner in resolving the crisis in Syria and the conflict in Ukraine as well as combating nuclear proliferation and addressing climate change Clinton seems intent on deepening a new Cold War.

Even as we endorse her we understand that it will be incumbent on us to challenge President Clinton to break her hawkish habits and move toward a new and progressive realism.