Juno News - November 13, 2018


Clinton 2020 speculation a reminder why political dynasties must end


Episode Stats

Length

3 minutes

Words per Minute

175.94238

Word Count

627

Sentence Count

39

Misogynist Sentences

3


Summary

Will Hillary Clinton run for president in 2020? Is it a possibility? Andrew Lutton answers the question and much more in this episode of the True North Initiative's new podcast on political dynasties and the power of political family.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 So I had a really weird dream the other day. Some former Hillary Clinton advisor said that Hillary Clinton is going to run again for president in 2020.
00:00:11.520 What's that? Nope, not a dream. Apparently that actually happened.
00:00:16.040 Mark Penn, a longtime Clinton advisor, said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that Hillary Clinton was going to prepare herself and ultimately run for president in 2020.
00:00:27.220 Now, a couple of things to point out here. Number one, he's not speaking from any place of authority.
00:00:33.600 It's a prediction, not a declaration that he's able to really speak to with any sense of truth.
00:00:40.220 And I think in many respects, it's like so many people in Washington or in Ottawa.
00:00:44.840 Everyone wants to make it look like they're on the inside a little bit more than they are.
00:00:49.260 And in this case, he certainly succeeded if he was looking to get some publicity because most people weren't talking about Mark Penn a week ago,
00:00:56.280 but now things are a little bit different.
00:00:59.300 But the discussion still very much holds water.
00:01:02.620 Will Hillary Clinton run for president again? And would that be a good thing?
00:01:06.680 Well, there's a lot of dispute about whether Bernie Sanders, say, could have won had he been the Democrat nominee in 2016.
00:01:14.760 And I'm not convinced he would have.
00:01:16.440 I think that the narrative would have been different.
00:01:18.160 But ultimately, I think there was enough going on that Donald Trump was the one destined to win,
00:01:23.740 given who he was, his approach to the campaign, and the state of affairs in the United States of America.
00:01:29.980 In 2020, things could shake up differently theoretically.
00:01:33.560 But you have to understand that Donald Trump, despite how the media is convinced that there's no way he could survive even until 2020,
00:01:43.120 let alone be re-elected in it, a lot of the things that they're saying about him now are the same as what they were saying about during the 2016 election.
00:01:51.320 So if we make 2020 a redo, Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton part two,
00:01:57.100 I think it's safe to say we're looking at four more years of Donald Trump.
00:02:01.160 But there's a cautionary tale that comes out of why so many people are hell-bent on discussing whether Hillary is running again.
00:02:08.920 And that is that political dynasties are still alive and well.
00:02:12.480 And it's not just for the Democrats.
00:02:14.180 You have Bill Clinton, then Hillary Clinton.
00:02:16.340 You've got George H.W. Bush, then George W. Bush, then Jeb Bush.
00:02:20.660 You look in Canada, you've got Pierre Elliott Trudeau, then Justin Trudeau.
00:02:24.620 Even on the Canadian political media Twittersphere,
00:02:27.660 every now and then people joke about whether Stephen Harper's son, Ben Harper,
00:02:31.640 who's quite a prolific tweeter now, will eventually run for prime minister.
00:02:36.260 And I think it's, in some cases, just a lark that people go on.
00:02:40.200 But more broadly, we have to get out of this idea of what people have characterized as the monarchical presidency
00:02:46.600 or the monarchical premiership in Canada.
00:02:49.500 Whereas we look at political leadership as something that gets passed from generation to generation
00:02:55.400 instead of something that's meant to be a reflection of the population,
00:02:59.420 not of, well, quite frankly, what you'd see in the royal family.
00:03:04.220 And Hillary Clinton has other problems than simply coming from a line of political pedigree.
00:03:09.100 But many of those problems, the corruption, the scandal, the untouchable nature,
00:03:14.200 are things that stem from having a family that has such power in the political world.
00:03:19.500 The way we break through this is by not creating these cults of personality
00:03:24.560 around political leaders and prospective political leaders.
00:03:28.440 And that's true in the U.S. and it's certainly true in Canada.
00:03:31.660 For the True North Initiative, I'm Andrew Lutton.