The Hill To Climb for Hillary Clinton Who Clinched Democratic Nomination

Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton became the presumptive Democratic nominee as she secured the delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination. It is the first time that a female candidate stands to be nominated by a major U.S. political party for president. If she beats presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump in November’s elections, she will become the first female president of the United States. There is no doubt that Clinton, who has served as secretary of state, first lady, and U.S. senator, is a well-prepared presidential candidate, but she seems to have a long way to go. Judging from the atmosphere revealed in the course of the race for the White House up until now, the most important question is whether she will be able to overcome the anger that Americans have with “Washington politics.” The American middle and lower classes are frustrated by slow income growth and increasing wealth disparity. The Gini coefficient, which expresses the degree of income inequality, for the U.S. was 0.40 in 2013, with the U.S. ranked fourth among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries, and it has constantly increased. The reason why socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders has been in such a tight race with Clinton is because the voters consider it difficult for establishment politics to solve such problems and they instead focused on the alternatives.

It is highly likely that the voters’ demand for easing polarization will grow during the presidential race. Despite her reputation for being a progressive capitalist, it is uncertain whether Clinton will be able to break down the wall of privileged giants given the fact that she has walked the path of the mainstream elite. She has to embrace the leftist policies proposed by Sanders, including breaking down financial giants, providing health care for all, and restriction of free trade, while reflecting the demands of workers and the young, but it may not be easy for the power groups around her to accept them with ease. Clinton herself is alleged to have ties to Wall Street giants, a privileged force, as she received $675,000 for three speeches at Goldman Sachs in 2013, for instance. Contrary to her perfect image, Clinton’s credibility was damaged by her use of a private email server for her public work as secretary of state. In terms of foreign policy, she is putting an emphasis on the enhancement of military cooperation with U.S. allies and the United States’ intervention in civil societies of other countries. This has led to criticism against the candidate for pushing the U.S. into a new Cold War with her hawkish foreign policy. This is also why the U.S. military-industrial complex expects her win.

Solving economic inequality is becoming central to the U.S. presidential election this year. Polarization in Korea is as serious as that in the United States. We need to keep an eye on how the U.S. presidential candidates approach the vulnerable social groups that are marginalized in the market economic system.