A hill of beans.

• Author: Emord, Jonathan W.
• Position: WORDS IMAGES - Hillary Clinton

WHETHER you are a Democrat, Republican, or Independent, you should be troubled by the fact that, in every campaign, Hillary Clinton fundamentally remakes herself, adopting a new persona in an effort to capture the changing electorate. True, all candidates hone their messages, but Clinton's transformations are radical makeovers. Given the number of iterations of Clinton over the years, we really should ask: will the real Hillary Clinton please stand up?

Clinton is a liberal Democrat, but she always has avoided any clear articulation of her policy positions on a host of key issues. She has a very narrow group of elites advising her, but she desperately is trying to fashion herself as a populist, as "every man," fully appreciative of what it is like to work a nine-to-five job for a minimum wage. She feigns familiarity with the common struggles of those in the service industry--who work in fast food restaurants, convenience stores, grocery stores, hotels, and shopping malls--but her lifestyle is that of a jetsetter and her society is with national and international figures.

This duplicity is rather transparent. There is in the latest remake a rather disturbing condescension. By not projecting an image of herself that is, well, herself, and by choosing instead to feign fraternity (sorority?) with the common man, Clinton is, in fact, preying upon what she perceives to be the ignorance of those who receive her..

The fact is, however, Clinton comes from privilege, having been First Lady and having amassed a fortune since the old days in the Arkansas Governor's mansion with her husband Bill. There is nothing wrong with wealth in a capitalist society, of course, unless you think (as Hillary does) that capitalist society is itself evil and that government should divide the nation based on income, redistributing it from those who have to those who have not. The Robin Hood argument has a rather hollow ring to it when you discover that Robin Hood is as wealthy as King Richard the Lion-heart. Aware of that, Clinton tones down the jewelry, eats a burger and fries, and shops at J.C. Penny's for campaign season.

Because her campaign aims to encourage middle class and poor Americans to think of her as one of them, her current remake aims to cast her as a soccer mom, a kindly matron from the neighborhood, a person like you, and not a rich former First Lady, senator, and Secretary of State whose shoe collection and wardrobe is worth more than your annual...