If a politician embraces a position that was offered as satire, does that officially make her “beyond satire”? A lot of people were taken aback by Hillary Clinton’s apparent contention that the Supreme Court would invalidate the explicit language of 13^th Amendment and reinstate slavery, if Brett Kavanaugh were to be confirmed as a justice. What other possible interpretation cold there be, of her words:

"You know, I used to worry that they wanted to turn the clock back to the 1950s. "Now I worry they want to turn it back to the 1850s. These will be urgent fights. The stakes could not be higher."

She was echoing the earlier offensive claim of Joe Biden to a largely black audience that Republicans want to “put y’all back in chains.”

But what she probably did not realize was that her line was cribbed from a June 30 satirical blog entry – before Kavanaugh’s nomination -- by Trump backer Don Surber, titled, “The generic editorial against Trump's next pick.” Taking a metaphorical bow, Don later noted:

Hillary's speechwriter may have lifted this passage (from his June 30 entry], "Most Republicans want to return America to the oppressive and conformist days of the 1950s when everyone had a job instead of welfare! President Trump has nominated a person who wants to return to the slave days of 1850s!"

She said: "I used to worry that they [the Republicans] wanted to turn the clock back to the 1950s. Now I worry they want to turn it back to the 1850s."

Well, I did encourage them to cut and paste it.

Of course there is always the possibility that Hillary has all along been having fun at our expense, as a satirical performance artist pretending to be legitimate politician when, in fact she is satirizing the dishonesty and venality of the Democrats, A quarter of a century ago, Ron Unz satirically posited the possibility that she was a deep cover agent of the right, as a former Goldwater Girl:

The following correspondence was found in the personal papers of a retired U.S. Senator from Arizona after his death in 1998.

Dearest H.,

Almost 30 years have gone by, and nobody suspects a thing! The strength of your determination still astonishes me. I never dreamed that the fiery “Goldwater” girl who visited me in my Chicago hotel room a couple of weeks after my landslide defeat in 1964 was serious. After all, when a teenage girl swears to go underground and dedicate the rest of her life to destroying American Liberalism and the Democratic Party, but from within, a crusty old politician like me assumes it’s a passing phase.. I’d certainly forgotten our conversation within a few weeks, though I was charmed by your spirited support.

How wrong I was. When I got your letter shortly after your husband was elected Attorney General of Arkansas in ’76, your name meant absolutely nothing to me. As an old male chauvinist, how could I reject a lunch request from a lady, even one who mentioned she was visiting Arizona to attend an ACLU conference. When we sat down, and you explained who you were and what you’d been doing over the previous 10 years, I thought you’d escaped from the loony bin. But then you showed it all to me, your pages of notes, your secret diary, your strategy outline, all perfectly authentic. The boldness of your plan floored me. If even just a few of our intelligence agents had been of your caliber, those damn commies in ‘Nam would never have stood a chance.

Imagine, “converting” to the Left at Wellesley, having your consciousness raised, learning to dress Left, act Left, talk Left, even think Left, all as a cover. Learning your lessons so well, you not only became a solid member of those college pinkos, but one of the leaders, student body president and a key figure at college conferences. With the contacts you made at those conferences you were able to evaluate which of those college leftists had the greatest political potential. You even slept with bums you personally and politically detested ever searching for the man to be your future instrument. Mata Hari has nothing on you.

Ron Unz's 1993 satire remains one of my all time favorite pieces of political humor. Read the whole thing.