Capitalism, Hillary-Style

Hillary Clinton has offered a long series of reasons why her 2016 was such a nogood, deplorable year, but the newest addition to the basket of excuses may be the best of all: It’s because she’s a capitalist.

Asked at a city event Wednesday if identifying as such hurt her with Democratic voters, she said, “Probably.”

“You know, it’s hard to know, but if you’re in the Iowa caucuses and 41 percent of Democrats are socialists or self-described socialists, and I’m asked, ‘Are you a capitalist?’ and I say, ‘Yes, but with appropriate regulation and appropriate accountability, ‘you know, that probably gets lost in the ‘Oh my gosh, she’s a capitalist!’ ”

Maybe there’s some truth there, at least when it comes to her difficulties beating proud socialist Bernie Sanders. Plainly, lots of Democrats — especially the “base” voters who turn out for caucuses and primaries — are small-s socialists.

As for Clinton being a “capitalist”: Well, yeah, if crony capitalism counts.

You know, the kind of capitalism that “earns” a potential president hundreds of thousands of dollars for speeches on Wall Street. Or the gobs of money donated to your family foundation in exchange for favors from the State Department you run.

If that’s the capitalism Hillary thinks cost her votes, she has a point.