Quote (IceMage @ Aug 10 2019 03:05pm)
It's just the loony extension of the populist argument, which is that politicians in Washington don't represent the people, even though they get voted in by the people. People like to think that politicians who think differently than they do are evil. And pretending a bunch of them are part of a pedophile ring maintains the illusion that they are different from normal folk.
Politicians are not presented to the voting population in a vacuum. They filter through parties, backed by a variety of interest groups, which have large operations on the ground.
It's not so simple to say "...even though they get voted in by the people" as if this somehow confers blame on the people for the result. Voter choice is severely constrained.
Political power does not live and die by the voter box. Influence takes several forms, as Pelosi has recently learned from AOC, and the ballot box & strict institutional authority are only a part of that. Once in power, it is possible to build influence that does not rely on the ballot box, and the Clintons fit into that camp. They get picked on because they've been in and out of power in a variety of forms for decades, and they've made themselves inordinately wealthy and well connected as a result.
Are they operating a huge pedophile ring? No, I would say probably not.
Are they corrupt? Unless your a pie in the sky idealist, almost certainly yes.