Hillary Clinton, speaking Monday night at the closing of Guild Hall’s Thinking Forward lecture series, concluded the evening with a message of hope, though not before telling her audience that “I don’t underestimate both the domestic and foreign efforts to destroy America.”
From international relations in Russia, China, Iran, and Israel to the MAGA political movement and the Trump administration, the former secretary of state touched on a wide range of concerns and issued some dire warnings in a conversation with Michael Froman, former U.S. trade representative and the current president of the Council on Foreign Relations.
While it is a foregone conclusion that Clinton has major differences with President Trump, who she said makes “impulsive, poorly-thought-out decisions,” there is one area the two agree on — Israel. She has publicly supported his 20-point peace plan for Israel, the Palestinian people, and Gaza, which calls for disarming Hamas and creating civilian leadership in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the plan, which Clinton claimed has been tentatively agreed to by Hamas leadership.
Both Clinton and Trump were frustrated by Netanyahu’s response. She said it lays bare “how seriously Netanyahu has damaged, first and foremost, Israel,” but also how people perceive Israel. Many Americans and Israelis alike are “disillusioned,” she stated, with the direction that country is headed.
Pushing back against Mr. Froman, who suggested that Netanyahu may not be the problem and that it could just be “status-quo Israeli politics,” the former U.S. senator replied that new leadership could change everything.
The audience erupted in cheers when she said a new Israeli government could easily end settler violence in the West Bank and enforce the rule of law. But, she added, it will take time and diplomacy. Recalling the Clinton-era disarmament agreement with the Irish Republican Army, “It took 10 years,” she said, and “steady, sober leadership from the top.”
Speaking of Congress, Clinton said it has “a lot more bipartisanship than we know,” because “Trump squashes it.” Should the leadership change following the midterms, she added, that bipartisanship could emerge publicly on such issues as Ukraine, relations with China, and an effort to “save the Department of Defense from Hegseth.”
“I doubt there’s real support for a trade war with Canada,” she said of the president’s ongoing threat to impose tariffs on our northern neighbors.
The former secretary was asked, in recognition of the fact that this year’s lecture series celebrates the nation’s 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, to imagine what the founders would have thought of the direction of modern America.
“I think they would be appalled,” she replied. “George Washington would be heartsick over what he is witnessing today.”
Today, she said, America is giving up its strength. Its future, and that of the Democratic party, lies with young people, most of whom, she maintained, are disillusioned by the realities of living here today.
“It’s not working for them,” she said. It is harder to “form relationships, start a family, buy a house, or even pay rent. Many young people are living at home with parents, and their expensive educations are not paying off with well-paying jobs.”
Those same young people, she added, are changing the face of the Democratic party, and the recent rise of Democratic Socialism “is the reality.” She cited the elections of Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City; Gov. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, and Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey), all on Election Day last year. The three, she said, are essentially sending the same message: that life is not affordable for regular people. “These are real problems,” Clinton said.
She called the rise of Democratic Socialism a healthy response, but cautioned that, “the jury is still out” on whether the new social programs will prove effective. Nevertheless, “If we don’t [make changes], people are going to walk away from democracy.”
The Trump administration’s calling the new Democrats “communists” and “socialists” to “demonize” them is ironic, she said. In fact, socialism “is for the rich under Trump”: The world’s first trillionaire, Elon Musk, “would not exist” had his companies not received hefty government subsidies.
On the flip side of those voting in progressive candidates, Clinton said, is a rising trend of a “virulent form of sexism and misogyny online.” She cited a 2006 study indicating that a majority of young men felt women should be equal in the workplace, sports, and education, noting that today, the same poll shows that majority has “fallen dramatically.”
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has set the example, she noted. He has pushed women out of leadership roles in what she called his “relentless quest for more testosterone.”
“There are always forces at work that want to turn back the clock on women,” Clinton said.
Hope and optimism keep her going, though. “Optimism is a moral choice,” she said.
She recalled the presidencies of the last two-term Democrats, her husband, Bill Clinton, and later, Barack Obama. Two men, she said, who started their lives as fatherless boys raised by single mothers, both of whom went on “remarkable journeys.”
“Hope was one of the reasons they ended up where they did.”
She ended the evening on that note.
“I hope very much that this country gets back to our senses.”
