Thursday, February 14, 2008

Don't Sit Out the Fight

I've been reading my comments and the posts and comments on other pro-HRC blogs and I have noticed a disturbing trend.

Too many good Democrats are sounding like petulant "Obamacans".

Listen up - there is no reason to vote for McCain. NONE. Don't go making stupid fucked up threats about how you'll vote McCain if Golden Boy Barry finagles the nomination. That is what the Republicans and Republican leaning Independents who crossed party lines and voted Obama to screw over Hillary want to hear. They want you to stay away. They want you to behave like the bratty, self-centered "come to Jesu-- I mean, Obama" thugs who bully and threaten Hillary supporters in caucuses. They want to disgust you and convince you to stay at home.

Hillary would be the first one to tell you the fight is more than one individual. That was part of what she was getting at when she said that MLK needed LBJ. A single individual is not enough to fight against the organized, entrenched Movement Conservatives. It takes a concerted effort by groups of people to do what is right.

The Golden One's greatest strength is also his Achilles Heel. His worshipful crowd is turning out for him personally (Am I the only one who keeps thinking of The Life of Brian and the followers chasing Brian around, waving shoes?), and not for the party. If they become disenchanted with Barry, there is nothing else about him, his campaign, or the general political cause to keep them around. One of the reasons why Hillary still has the largest core of supporters of any candidate of either party is because we support her for reasons that go beyond merely liking the candidate.

Hillary Clinton represents the best of the Democratic stance - loyalty to the base, dedication to public service beyond electoral office, total wonky command of all issues and policies, and an unflappable, clear-eyed understanding of just what she is up against from the Right. She is a Democrat in the FDR mode, ready to make the government work for us.

Cynical old bitches like me, well, we've long ago outgrown any romantic notion of politics, we believe in people who are dependable if not totally hawt, and we have had a lifetime to see how overall policy has affected our lives. That's why we turn out for candidates who don't make our knees knock but are mighty good for the retirement account. Of course, with Hillary, my heart goes pitter-pat and my bank account in nodding is agreement, but I digress.

One of the strategies of the Right in encouraging intra-party hostility among Democrats is to dishearten, disgust and discourage Democratic voters from turning out at all. We can't win down-ticket races, from Senators and Representatives to mayors and city council members, if we don't show up to vote. The Obamacans have already declared that they don't give a flying fuck about the party if The Precious doesn't get the nomination, doing their best to blackmail the party elite into backing them for fear of losing downticket votes.

HRC supporters are better than that. We don't believe in fairy tales and ponies for everyone. We believe in progressive policies and the need to never give up the struggle because we've had a set back. We're not just here for the celebrity of the week. We're here for the long haul, fighting back the peoeple who walk out of Congress rather than uphold the rule of law, or who park truck bombs in front of Federal buildings, or who lie like rugs to get through a Senate hearing, then flip America the bird and say torture is just dandy. We are fighting the party of racism, class warfare, forever war, hypocricy, lies, and criminality.

As such, I admonish Hillary voters to stay true to our girl and pledge to go to the polls in record numbers in November and vote Democrat from the top to the bottom of the ticket. Yell out that you are going to vote, that you support the liberal cause, not Daily Kos, and that your choice will be counted. Then be sure to cast your presidential vote for Hillary Clinton, even if you have to write her in.

Send a message to the haters out there that you will not be silenced and you are ready to fight.

Anglachel

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I will vote for Hillary in the fall one way or the other. I will never vote for Obama. I will never vote for McCain.

David said...

It is in the nature of Messiahs that you have to elect them before they implode (cf. the career of Jean Bertrand Aristide in Haiti). Except for the matter of health care, there is hardly any daylight between the positions of these two candidates.

The only difference I see is that Hillary can actually implode *before* the general election if she tries a putsch at the convention via an attempt to seat Florida and Michigan ghost delegates and heavy-handed plays for the super delegates she needs to thwart a BHO majority cf. alternet.org/election08/77106/

I don't know why there is so much projection directed at these candidates. It seems Bush has truly deranged our people as well as the process of government.

Anonymous said...

Wow, David. You need to read the news, not Daily Obama!

Who is being heavy-handed with Super Delegates? It is being reported that black congressman are being threatened by Jesse Jackson, Jr. with losing their seats if they don't back Obama. Sounds like someone trying to start a race war to me. If he is somehow successful in winning the nomination, that is going to be played over and over and over and over again by the wingnuts in the GE. It is just about guaranteed to give Obama a 49 state cataclysmic defeat! We better all pray that Obama doesn't get the nomination, because it really will not be pretty.

Anonymous said...

Yep, totally plan to vote for Hillary, not McCain, not DailyObamaMessiah.

Go Hillary!

Anonymous said...

I definitely plan to vote for the Democrats on the rest of the ballot. I'm hoping that Clinton will be the nominee to vote for but if not I'll still vote in November but just write in her name instead.

Anonymous said...

I wanted to comment because I am one of those who vowed to vote for McCain. It is a very difficult thing to think about. I don't want to vote for a man who will continue the Iraq war, undoubtedly involve us in other wars, and who will put more right-wingers on the Supreme Court. But how can I vote for Obama, a created illusion, embraced by would-be zombies and salvationists? How can I stomach the fact that the one time I really thought we could elect a truly capable candidate, she is snatched away from us by a bunch of New Age morons, self-hating leftists, and tricky Republicans who have learned how to game the Primaries?

I don't think that Obama will be a very good President. He'd be better than McCain, most likely, but not certainly. Maybe that's all that should matter. I should feel responsible enough to vote for the better of two, even though I absolutely hate how he has gotten to this point. Not just because my candidate may well lose, but because he would have won by playing the Republican game of saying little about issues, appealing to faith and dreams, and playing to racial animosities. He simply doesn't deserve this nomination--ideologically, ethically or morally. But I should vote for him anyway, I suppose?

Maybe I should, maybe I shouldn't. One has to stand for something, you know. I am so tired of seeing people I thought would be excellent Presidents defeated by the masses, the media and America's abiding love of tough talk, nice guys and wishful thinking. I suppose it will never end, and we have to just make the best of it; let the media choose our President for us once again. There are worse things, I suppose. But right now, I feel not only very angry, I feel that our votes for Obama was what he was counting on all along, with his, "I'll get Hillary's votes; but she won't necessarily get mine." Yes, because her votes come from Democrats who care about issues and the Party; his come from self-indulgent ideological Puritans who would just as soon vote for Nader as Clinton; or sit out another election and complain for four years. And can you imagine letting Kos win, act like a kingmaker, continue his incessant efforts toward ideological Kos-like purity? I can't imagine this right now. Maybe by November I'll feel otherwise. I usually do. But things haven't gotten any better for the country since I sadly voted for Carter in 1976.

David said...

CognitiveDissonance:

Glad you are looking ahead to the CE. Think we need to be chary of repeating Republican talking points. They will come back to bite us whoever the candidate is.
mediamatters.org/items/200802150018

Anonymous said...

Either candidate gets my vote.

Wow, David. You need to read the news, not Daily Obama!

As if right on cue. Even some of the harshest critics on Kos have said they are voting for Hillary. Too many people on both sides have made this way too personal and have already announced their intention to keep the fight going long after the general election is over.

It's politics people. It's not clean and it ain't pretty but that's the game. Obama is playing hardball underneath and selling Camay beauty soap above the surface. So what? I don't care for some of it but again...that's politics. And by that standard he's playing a good game.

Thankfully the offline world of Democratic voters have already said the most important goal is to put a dem in the White House. There's no doubt in my mind that if Hillary gets the nod then Kos and company regardless of their feeling are going after McCain hard.

Whatever diffrences are out there now, no Democrat in their right mind wants 4 more years of George Bush.

Anonymous said...

Hard to understand why all the good Democrats visiting this site say they won't be voting for the Democratic nominee for president in November, if it's Obama. Obama and Hillary are very, very similar on policy. Believe it or not, they have a similar # of years in elected office. People are getting carried away emotionally after a VERY tough primary season, and that's understandable. But come November, I have a feeling that people like yourselves, who care enough about the presidential race to vote, read and write thoroughly about it on the web, are not going to be able to support McCain, they are not going to write in a candidate who is not on the ballot, and they are not going to stay home. They are going to take a deep breath, and vote for the Democratic nominee: Barack Obama.