Clinton not an antidote to Trump’s rightwing faux populism: Analyst

US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is not an antidote to Donald Trump, who is stirring up “racist and fascist rightwing faux populism,” according to an American writer and political analyst.

Daniel Patrick Welch made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Thursday while commenting on a statement by European Parliament President Martin Schulz who has warned about the implications of the possible victory of the US Republican presidential nominee in the November election.

In an interview with Der Spiegel published online on Thursday, Shulz said, “Trump is not only a problem for the EU but also for the whole world.”  

Schulz, a German center-left Social Democrat, also expressed concerns over the future of Europe if Trump gets into the White House.  He said Trump’s presidency would spur copycats across Europe, and that’s why he prefers Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton over Trump.

Shulz is almost right

“I would say in Shulz’s case he is almost right,” Welch told Press TV.

“One of the scariest things about Trump is this idea of copycats. Who comes afterwards? He may be just an opportunist, but stirring up this racist and fascist rightwing faux populism doesn’t bode well for the future. What if you had a raft of Berlusconis, of fake rightwing populists in Europe who would merge with the far right to promote a resurgence of fascism like we saw in the 1930s?” he asked.

“The problem is that he only goes halfway. He’s not right in his conclusion. It is ridiculous—and, I think, demonstrably stupid, to think that Hillary Clinton is some sort of antidote or alternative to this,” the analyst observed.

Welch rejected the notion that Trump is not part of the US establishment. “He is a part of the establishment. He’s a billionaire—he’s been part of the establishment for a very long time.”

He said the term “politically incorrect” is a codeword in the US politics and media “for just being racist and saying things that are completely indefensible and really provocative and hateful toward immigrants, and promoting this rise in fascism and racism that we’re seeing across Europe and across the United States.”

“That said, one of the things that promotes Trump’s candidacy is Hillary Clinton herself. There would be no chance for a Trump candidacy were it not for the likes of Hillary Clinton, what she represents personally as well as her machine driven, soulless candidacy, this idea—you have this fraud of a person, marching all of these credentials, saying how she is experienced, she is ‘so’  experienced,” he argued. 

Clinton’s experience

Welch said Clinton’s “experience” as secretary of state is a recipe for disaster.

“You know what she is experienced at?” he asked. “Killing little kids! Laughing at the execution of foreign leaders.”

“She is experienced at calling black men ‘predators’ and being part of the bulwark that established the predator incarceration state that black people live in now in the United States, for the destruction of welfare, for the wall that she voted for, for the exclusion of immigrants that this raft of Democratic-led deportations that leads Obama to be called the Great Deporter,” he said.

“It’s a joke to say that she is somehow fundamentally different. And the red-baiting and Russophobia that comes with it is really dangerous, and another thing entirely when it comes to Hillary Clinton,” he concluded. 

Scourge of redbaiting and American Exceptionalism

Welch continued off camera about what he called the “vicious scourge of redbaiting and American Exceptionalism.”

“Clinton and the Democrats are engaging in a very dangerous strategy, trying to redbait Trump and demonize Russia. The purpose is twofold: first, to paint Trump as un-American and unfit to be president because he is insufficiently saber-rattling against Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is recast as the latest Adolf Hitler,"  the analyst told Press TV through Facebook messenger.

"The second goal, which is even more dangerous, is to soften up US public opinion for actual war with Russia, for which the elites are chomping at the bit. It is so sad and manipulative,” he said. 

“The political class thinks we are stupid, and to a large extent they are absolutely right. Bob Dylan wrote the famous lines over 50 years ago: ‘I’ve learned to hate Russians all through my whole life….and accept it all bravely with God on our side.’ Absolutely nothing has changed in all this time," the commentator pointed out. 

"The notion of American Exceptionalism is nothing short of an extremist, fundamentalist religion, the belief that God is smiling down as the Indispensable Nation launches war after war on whatever enemies are in its way. It’s pathological, a supremacist ideology that has caused far more death and destruction over the years than [Takfiri] extremists could ever dream of. Americans need to wake up,” he concluded. 

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