The New York Times has reported that Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for president, has made a curious campaign promise. She intends to, if it is consistent with the needs of national security, open up the X-Files, in effect. That means that she has vowed to reveal all the government knows about UFOs, alien contact, and the existence of extraterrestrial life in the universe.
The question arises, even if she is really a true believer that aliens have landed on Earth and that the government has covered it up, why would she do that?
The number of people who believe in UFO conspiracy theories cannot be large enough that they need pandering to. Besides, if she wants to know what the government knows about UFOs, she can ask her husband, the former president, when he makes one of those rare conjugal visits.
To be sure, as the Times points out, the 1990s, dominated as it was by the Clintons politically, also saw a resurgence in interest in UFOs and aliens. Besides the already mentioned show, “The X-Files,” 1996 was the year that the smash hit alien invasion movie “Independence Day” came out. A sequel, set in an alternate universe where the aliens did attack Earth in 1996 and Bill Pullman, who played a George W. Bush like former fighter pilot character, was president instead of Clinton is set to premiere this summer.
One other fact that the Times did not mention is the fact that the Clinton Administration was the venue of a whole slew of conspiracies and cover-ups that did not involve, so far as anyone knows, aliens. From Whitewater to Travelgate, to the unseemly parade of Clinton victim paramours, the 1990s was an era of conspiracies, albeit not as cosmic as alien contact.
Maybe Ms. Clinton’s vow will give Donald Trump an opening. Trump’s strategy for winning the presidential election is to go relentlessly on the attack. He has already accused Clinton of enabling her husband’s infidelities and even trying to destroy his various women. Maybe Trump will accuse the Clintons of being Space aliens. In that way the alien and the birther conspiracies will merge, Agents Mulder and Scully, please take note.