have seen a lot of Republicans trying to take advantage of what they see as a wedge inside the Democratic party in the past few weeks, so especially when I see what looks like deliberate distortion I start to get suspicious.
I'm not a Democrat. I support Bernie Sanders who's running for the nomination. But I don't really associate with the party for the most part.
Yes, I wasn't saying that she's as conservative as Boehner on economic issues.
On economic issues, she voted against both of Bush's tax cuts for the rich while in the Senate, and now wants to raise taxes on the rich in general and make the tax system more progressive, she's in favor of a higher minimum wage, she's long been in favor of universal health care, and she's pushed for stronger labor rules to protect unions. I am interested in hearing her be more specific about what she wants to do in terms of income inequality, and I suspect she will as we get into the race, but her record on economic issues is overall pretty solid.
Eh. She also voted for free trade agreements, supports the TPP, and voted to lower capital gains taxes. I don't think she's willing to actually break up the banks. You can point to her support for Dodd-Frank, but Scott Brown also voted for it. It's not doing much, and not really scaring her beneficiaries.
Her health care plan was to the right of a single-payer system. She's gone on record as a candidate in 2008 as opposing this particular system.
What labor rules? Neither she nor Obama has signaled support for the Employee Free Choice Act (sounds like right-to-work, but it's not).
In terms of financial regulation, labor, and health care, she falls short. Simply being against the Bush tax cuts isn't enough.....
Anyway, if I can speak on a tactical note, I don't think you're going to help Bernie Sanders by bashing Hillary (especially not in such extreme terms as you were using in the other post). Everyone understands that Bernie is farther to the left then Hillary, you don't need to convince anyone of that, and those of us who are that far on the left will support him for that reason. If Bernie is still in the race and looks like he's got a shot when the primary election eventually gets to my state, I think I will probably vote for him in the primary (although there are a few issues of his that I'm uncomfortable with, so we'll see). But if Bernie is going to win, he's going to have to get credibility with a much larger audience on his own, and going to have to build a base beyond the far-left. Bashing Hillary doesn't help him do that; overall, we don't really want to see this primary election go negative, that doesn't help anyone except Republicans.
It depends on what you mean by "negative". When it comes to things like Benghazi, and other personal things, it's better he leave it off the table. But when people see two Democratic nominees they'll say "aren't they similar, by virtue of party"? It's necessary for him to differentiate himself from Clinton. If that means criticizing her positions, that's what should be done.
I'm not speaking in extreme terms. If I have the evidence to back it up, I think that's fine.
Bernie Sanders has won elections by 30+ points in Vermont, both times. Now, that means he expanded most definitely beyond liberals in the state. A Vermont moderate is different from an Ohio moderate, but he can definitely branch out.
Like I said, she's argued we should cut the military budget
No. She never has said this. You're just making baseless assertions now.
she wants to make peace with Iran
Maybe right now. Certainly wasn't taking that tone a few years ago, more or less even a few months ago......
Nor has she changed that much on most issues; the issues where she has changed, gay marriage and marijuana, are both issues where something like 30% of the country has changed their minds over the past 10 years, so it's not really that surprising that she has as well.
She's changing in the midst of running for elected office. That's quite suspicious.
On economic issues especially, she's always been pretty liberal, significantly more so then her husband. In fact, they were often attacked for that when Bill was president, where Hillary was accused of dragging her husband to the left by Republicans.
Bill Clinton was the best Republican President we had. The fact she's to the left of him doesn't say much.....
You're tossing around a weak definition of liberal. Most Democrats in this country are really in the center, and that includes Clinton.