Since she launched her presidential campaign a few weeks ago, Hillary Clinton has been trying to depict herself as a populist, fighting for the little guy. She has described herself as a “champion,” saying that she is going to fight for the rights of everyday Americans against the corporate interests of Wall Street. However, Hillary Clinton has never been a class war crusader. Far from having a history of fighting to protect regular, everyday Americans from the predators on Wall Street and in Washington, Clinton has spent her career hobnobbing with the very wealthiest Americans.

However, Clinton has been making headlines with her so-called ‘populist’ positions and policy statements – this is an aspect of Hillary Clinton that we have not seen before, but she seems to be staking out a firm position as an opponent of Wall Street. Hillary Clinton and her family are one of the richest and most powerful families in America. She has publicly complained about hedge funds, while her son-in-law is a hedge fund manager. She has spoken about income inequality and talked about how scandalous it is that CEOs make so much more than the workers in their companies, while Clinton herself charges $300,000 to give a single speech! In less than an hour of talking, Clinton takes in six times what the average American earns in a year.

Hillary Clinton has never been a populist. She is a wealthy former attorney with friends in high places who has received plenty of support from the wealthiest Americans, as well as from wealthy donors in other countries. Hillary Clinton has proven that she is painfully out of touch with the experiences of real Americans, and that her interests truly do lie with the wealthiest 1%. But if this is the case, why is she insisting on talking about being a champion, complaining about income equality, and saying she will fight for the little guy? There is an obvious answer – she knows that this is what people want to hear.

Americans are fed up and furious with this state of affairs. My entire campaign is based around the concept that we need to get Americans back to work and earning better salaries again, and I have written many blog posts on the costs to our country of the last several decades of financial banditry from Wall Street and their crony politicians in Washington. And mine is not the only voice saying these things – Americans are angry and the [mainstream party] politicians can no longer afford to ignore us.

Hillary Clinton is dressing herself up as a populist because she knows that this is the message that America wants to hear. I, for one, do not believe that America will be fooled. She may end up receiving the Democratic nomination, and she may even become the President of the United States, but that will only be because Americans have been taught that they have no other options. Nobody believes that Hillary Clinton is a champion of the people.