Doing Clinton: Good for Business

Doing Clinton: Good for Business

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A few weeks ago I argued that rightwing talk show hosts like Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and Joe Scarborough could go out of business if they didn’t have Bill and Hillary to kick around. As if to confirm my point, within thirty minutes of posting that item, a producer from the O’Reilly Factor called to book me on the show. (Topic: O’Reilly’s bashing of Hillary!)

So this morning, when I noticed a tiny squib in The New York Times reporting on Bill Clinton’s remark last night at Harvard’s Kennedy School that Congress should modify the ammendment that barred him from seeking a third term, I wondered how long it would take for Hannity, O’Reilly and Scarborough to jump all over the story. Answer: by10:30 am, a producer from Hannity & Colmes was on the phone. “We’re doing a segment about Clinton’s speech last night,” he said. “Hannity wants to get all over it.”

I’m not a gambling woman, but I’d bet an awful lot that this troika of Clinton bashers will devote a large chunk of their programs tonight to this burning issue.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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