Hillary Clinton urges grassroots movement against Trump's 'revolution to turn the clock back'

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Democrats to rebuild a grassroots movement to counter what she described as a “revolution to turn the clock back” under President Donald Trump, noting that many of the gains made by civil rights and voting rights movements are now under attack.

Thursday, speaking at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition annual convention in Chicago, Clinton said Democrats could not depend on the elected officials alone to reverse what she called a broader effort to roll back decades of social and political progress.

Hillary Clinton says Democrats must rebuild from the grassroots

During a conversation with Rainbow PUSH CEO Yusef Jackson, the son of the organization's founder, Clinton reflected on her long relationship with the Jackson family and expressed concern about what she sees as a reversal of gains made over several decades.

Clinton, a former secretary of state who lost to Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, also contended the Republican president in his current, second term has displayed "incoherence" and "unintelligent" foreign policy concepts, including launching a war in Iran that was "unmoored from reality."

Clinton, a former first lady and US senator, was born in Chicago and raised in Park Ridge. She spoke at Rainbow PUSH's South Side headquarters.

It was the first PUSH convention and her first since the death in February and funeral in March of the organization’s founder, civil rights leader, the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

The former Democratic presidential nominee argued that progress achieved through civil rights activism, voting rights campaigns, and community organizing cannot be taken for granted.

"I don't think in the 1970s and the '80s or '90s either your dad or certainly Bill and I thought we would be facing a concerted effort to turn the clock back."

"We have to reconstitute movements that moved us forward, that made it possible to claim we were trying to get to that more perfect union," she said.

"They were not led by politically elected officials. They were led by clergy, they were led by business leaders, they were led by civic organizers, they were led by young people. So we don't need to have a bunch of elected officials leading this new movement. We need to have it be from the bottom up, the grassroots, coming back to get organized and move forward again."

Former Secretary of State criticizes Trump's foreign policy

In addition to discussing domestic politics, Clinton sharply criticized the administration's handling of foreign affairs, particularly its recent actions involving Iran.

Clinton attacked Trump for "the damage that he has done to our institutions, to the rule of law, to our sense of unity as a nation, to our belief that e pluribus unum, out of many, one."

"He doesn't believe any of that, and so part of what we've got to do is elect leaders who have the heart of a servant leader, who are understanding that they have to serve the people, and that by serving the people, they will help all of us find a way forward that is going to benefit the country," she said.

But Clinton also said Democrats "probably took too much for granted" in believing their gains on civil and societal rights had been solidified despite a constant threat from "leaders who actually catered to the worst of our nature, not the best."

Clinton said Trump has made a "mess" of US foreign policy and said past presidents knew that engaging Iran in war would lead to that country's closing of the Straight of Hormuz and the resulting increase in supply chain costs to Americans.

"The idea that you could bully Iran, a theocracy that believes in its religious vision of what the Islamic Republic is supposed to be, is just unmoored from history," she said. "This is not a society that's going to be intimidated by Donald Trump."

"We've done a lot of damage to ourselves," she added. 

Clinton also argued that recent foreign policy decisions have strained relationships with US allies while providing reassurance to adversaries. She contended that America's global standing has been weakened by what she described as inconsistent decision-making.