Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is not a Democrat. She is neither a liberal nor a progressive.

She masquerades as a progressive social justice champion that gets things done, but she’s essentially no better than Donald Trump.

When you step back and objectively assess the foundation of their history and character, you’ll see parallels.

Their biggest strength is name recognition.

They’re both huge icons who have had to make no effort in introducing themselves to the general public.

Their campaigns are about themselves.

Nothing about either of them suggest they’re selflessly interested in being a servant, rather than a monarch.

After all, Clinton is the woman who, in 2011, said the United States should “start thinking of Iraq as a business opportunity,” for American corporations.

She doesn’t seem to care about the 241,000 militiamen and civilians who died.

Clinton and Trump accumulate and respond to wealth.

Forbes estimated Trump is worth over $4 billion, and Clinton averages between $11 and $53 million, depending on how many Goldman Sachs speeches she gave in a year.

In the last democratic debate, Clinton challenged Bernie Sanders to name a time political contributions have changed her vote.

My favorite occasion, though not the only one, was when as First Lady she fought vehemently against a bill that would have made it harder for working-class Americans to climb out of bankruptcy.

When she was elected to the Senate and took campaign contributions from credit card and insurance companies, she favored the bill and voted to pass it.

Fortunately for Trump, the bill didn’t affect his ability to climb out of the four bankruptcies he’s filed.

Both of these candidates seem like the everyday Americans I want representing my personal lower-to-middle-class interests.

The only thing making Clinton better than Trump is social justice, but only because fighting for equal rights is “cool”.

She campaigned for Barry Goldwater, who opposed the Civil Rights Act, opposed gay marriage until three years ago and can’t even get the feminist vote, according to Time Magazine.

In my article last week, “Hillary Clinton has No Soul,” I outlined how her foreign policy experience is synonymous with deadly.

Trump wants to kill the families of terrorists.

Clinton’s experience is as useful as Trump’s lack of it.

They each have about as much combined foresight as a paper sack, and they both flip-flop on issues.

All of this in comparison to Sanders’ principle message of defending the middle class.

From the beginning, he’s been right about the Iraq War, the Panama Papers, NAFTA and LGBT rights, and defended the same basic principles.

He’s worth less than a million dollars, and his campaign is funded mostly by ordinary Americans, whose average contribution is $27.

By his positive favorability ratings from various sources, he’s the leader America so desperately needs.

If we fail to elect him, we fail only ourselves.

thshowal@indiana.edu

@TherinShowalter

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