Hillary Clinton Calls for Forced 'Deprogramming' of Trump Supporters
Hillary Clinton has morphed into an authoritarian caricature.
During an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour released on Thursday, the former secretary of state and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee revealed her true colors when she speculated on how best to deal with supporters of former President Donald Trump.
“At some point, you know, maybe there needs to be a formal deprogramming of the cult members,” Clinton said. “But something needs to happen.”
Addled by demonic hatred, and never having recovered from her loss to Trump in the 2016 presidential race, she went further than any major U.S. political figure has ever gone in suggesting gulag-style “deprogramming” for tens of millions of Americans.
Amanpour began by asking if Clinton envisioned a possible “coalition” with “pragmatic Republicans” moving forward.
Never mind that that coalition already exists. Exasperated voters call it “the establishment.”
Clinton seized upon the question as an opportunity for wistful reflection on the serene good ol’ days of establishment rule.
“That’s the way it used to be,” the former first lady said.
So what changed? What was so different about those days of unimpeded establishment plunder?
“But there wasn’t this little tail of extremism waving, you know, wagging the dog of the Republican Party as it is today,” Clinton said.
Alas, that dog-wagging, unthinking, extremist tail of American voters remains transfixed by its leader.
“And sadly, so many of those extremists — those MAGA extremists — take their marching orders from Donald Trump,” Clinton said.
The repellent former secretary of state added that Trump “has no credibility left by any measure.”
Furthermore, she described Trump as “only in it for himself.”
Then Clinton wondered why, in light of Trump’s ongoing legal battles, voters have not yet abandoned the former president.
“And when do they break with him?” she asked.
That question led directly to her “formal deprogramming” comment.
Viewers can almost see the twisted remark building in her train of reasoning. It is as if she said to herself, “After everything we have done to Trump, how can they still support him?”
Clinton’s authoritarian arrogance presents us with two possible responses.
First, we could dwell on the sinister nature of her comment and put ourselves on guard.
That comment exemplified what historian and philosopher Hannah Arendt once called “the banality of evil.”
Indeed, the most striking thing about the entire Clinton-Amanpour exchange was the casual way the women bandied authoritarian remedies.
“And how do you do that?” the CNN host asked in response to Clinton’s “formal deprogramming” suggestion.
“Because you said you have to defeat them by defeating their leader. Their leader is Donald Trump. Even you have said that you expect him to be the Republican nominee. How does this change at all?” Amanpour said.
In a healthy political society where journalists held powerful people to account for megalomaniac behavior, she would have challenged Clinton’s “formal deprogramming” comment.
Instead, Amanpour treated “formal deprogramming” as a practical problem. That told us everything we needed to know.
Second, we could mock the former first lady and her hatred.
Lingering resentment from her electoral defeat has transformed Clinton into Dolores Umbridge of “Harry Potter” fame.
In J.K. Rowling’s classic series of novels, Umbridge represented the sinister, bureaucratic and ultimately authoritarian “Ministry of Magic.”
At one point, Umbridge assumed control of the wizarding school, where she delivered “Ministry-approved” lessons designed to keep students ignorant and defenseless. All the while, she demanded “order.”
But Potter and other students rebelled, leaving Umbridge defeated and disheveled — a comic authoritarian figure.
Clinton has Umbridgian qualities.
After all, the former secretary of state had the backing of the entire establishment, our version of the “Ministry.” Clinton had every major institution on her side, from intelligence agencies to all forms of media.
Still, she lost. The “students” rebelled.
For their part, people associated with the Trump campaign appear to have adopted something closer to the first possible response.
According to The Hill, Trump-affiliated super PAC spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt used Clinton’s comments to remind everyone of Trump’s past warnings.
“President Trump has said countless times that they are only coming after him, because he stands in their way from coming after you — and Hillary Clinton just confirmed that to be true,” Leavitt said.
“Tens of millions of Americans will reject the Democrat Party’s re-education camp agenda in November 2024 when we make Donald Trump the 47th President of the United States,” she said.
The “Democrat Party’s re-education camp agenda” — Trump’s campaign cannot repeat that phrase often enough.
Indeed, the Democratic Party and the entire establishment want things to return to the way they used to be.
Clinton demands “order” and wants to put the students in gulags.
That did not work out well for Umbridge.
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