I promised this rant to my revered son.I DO like Barack. I'll vote for him when (maybe not if) he secures the nomination. C'mon. It's a no brainer. I do have questions about his preparedness to lead, but they are offset by the fact that he has generated so much excitement, across so many generational, racial, ethnic, and political lines--that he has the opportunity to attract the very best to his administration. Will he choose well? Don't know. But he has an unparalleled opportunity to choose from the best public servants, and Americans seem ready to stand by him.
Hillary...let me look back thought my myopic lens. I am a die-hard liberal. I have voted exactly two times for a man who won the presidency--same dude, name is Bill. In the interim 24 years I have watched my supposedly forward-thinking, youthful, liberal generation elect one A-hole after another, to my unending chagrin. And I do mean A-hole. And I do mean unending. Exactly one man--aided by his incredible, apparently singular, and utterly disrespected but f-ing brilliant partner--upset the apparent natural order of things...If you are asking me to turn my back one the one person of my gender and my generation who stands for everything I believe in--forget it. I remain loyal. I'm from Indiana, the land where electabilty has never mattered to a liberal.
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when your generation elects some A-hole demagogue--or more likely, one A-hole demagogue after another (Think it won't happen? Look at your parents, for God's sake!) who chooses to reignite a cold war, throw women in prison for declaring sovereignty over their own bodies, tax the poor and support the rich...remember Hillary. Maybe, just maybe, you missed an opportunity.
7 comments:
Here's the deal "changeling"(or should I call you Ms. Changeling). You seem to believe that Bill and Hillary are interchangeable. They are not. Bill is also f-ing brilliant AND he had the persona to inspire and, yes, lead. Plus, he seemed to have the capacity to listen to advice. Hillary was not an adviser and spent most of her time in the White House working on a health care plan that failed to capture the confidence of the nation and did not offer one iota of accommodation or possibility of negotiation to any critics...even within her party. Not only has she seemed to show an inability to take advise, I believe that her temperament is such that she is prone to rage and being a blamer. A slightly longer stint in the Senate does not inspire me to choose her. I won't suffer any second thoughts about whether I am holding her to a different standard than a man...because I am not.
You think Hillary is the antithesis of the corpocratic a-hole demagogue? Hillary Clinton embodies to me the corpocratic A-Hole demagogue, completely incapable of inspiring or motivating anyone, committed to this unengaging political machine that alienates youth. That is precisely why Barack Obama is developing the momentum that is going to carry him to a victory in the primaries: he is demolishing a myth about the American masses-- and my generation in particular-- that we are politically "apathetic." But it stands that no candidate intends or promises to rip down the divide between the people who make decisions and the masses in the way that Barack does. I have a hard time understanding, despite your justifications, what is so motivating about Hillary. She has an inconsistent voting record (see: Iraq), voted for military occupation of Iran only six months ago, and has a divisive campaign strategy, with a staff that pulls stuff like this:
http://drudgereport.com/flashoa.htm
(You'll be seeing that on the news tonight)
Personally, I can't wait for a definitive statement to be made about my "apathetic" generation when we stand together and demand a competent, inspiring black man to rethink American politics.
You go E-man!!! Ya!! What he said, too!
see also:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/opinion/24rich.html?ei=5087&em=&en=3e9996b4403c243c&ex=1204088400&pagewanted=print
Hey! Get your own blogs! =D
"I have voted exactly two times for a man who won the presidency--same dude, name is Bill. In the interim 24 years I have watched my supposedly forward-thinking, youthful, liberal generation elect one A-hole after another, to my unending chagrin. And I do mean A-hole."
Wait a minute. What interim 24 years? It hasn't been 24 years since you voted for Bill. And didn't you vote for Jimmy Carter in 1976? He is no A-hole.
Ahhh...you've figured out my dirty little secret. No, I did not vote for Carter; I voted for Ford. I was young and stupid. I don't think Ford was a bad man or even a bad interim leader, but you're absolutely right--Carter was a great man (if an imperfect President). I did vote for Carter when he lost to Reagan.
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