As many of you know, I got interested in politics in large part because of George Bush’s ham-handed way of running the country. Ever since I flipped the switch I have been looking forward to the day when he would finally be out of office.
I’m still looking forward to it, but at the same time I’m concerned about the future.
Let me tell you why. I’m probably not telling you anything you don’t already know, but I’m going to tell you anyway, because sometimes the things you already know need to be said out loud.
Like most of you, I’ve been watching the polls as George Bush united America . . . against him. I have been looking forward to the day when the American public, tired of perpetual war, corporate welfare and the relentless destruction of the Constitution, would finally vote his sorry butt out of office. The day when they would look back on the last eight years and vote to never let anything like that happen again for a long, long time.
Now here we are looking at the light at the end of the tunnel, and seeing that it may indeed be the headlights of an oncoming train. We Democrats were supposed to be united around the idea that we could govern the country in a way that would benefit the common man, restore our faith in government, and hopefully roll back some of the excesses and abuses that had been heaped upon us. Instead it looks like we might be headed toward a showdown where the immovable Clintonian object meets the irresistible Obaman force.
Hillary Clinton was supposed to be the Democratic presidential nominee. The narrative of her inevitability had been building for years. She — and most of us — didn’t figure on that narrative being shattered in the person of one Barack H. Obama, a junior senator from Illinois. He has grabbed national attention by attracting people to his cause like ants to honey. He has managed to not only stay close in the states Clinton won, he leads in states won and he leads in pledged delegates, and he leads in red states and blue. At this point he looks more inevitable than Clinton.
People seem to want change. Right now Hillary Clinton seems to be the candidate of “not much will change.” Oh, all other things being equal, I suspect she would be a good President, but she would be a President who has spent enough time in The System to be a creature of it. And people are rejecting The System this year, which is one of the reasons Obama is getting so much support. But there’s this about being a creature of The System: You live inside The System long enough, and you begin to learn how it works. Not only that, if you’re skillful enough and have enough of what it takes to do so, you can manipulate The System to get it to do what you want. And the Clinton Machine is good at manipulating The System.
So now we have the very real possibility that the Clinton Machine, by manipulating The System, will be able to use the levers of high-level political power to have Hillary Clinton nominated as the Democratic Presidential nominee. Never mind the pledged delegate counts. Never mind the number of states won or the margins they were won by. Never mind the red states that he could flip to blue just by being there and making the people in those states think they matter. Never mind that polls show Barack Obama solidly defeating John McCain in the general election, while Clinton barely squeezes by or, worse, loses. Never mind all the people Obama has drawn into volunteering and donating and working, where Clinton hasn’t been able to get the same amount of enthusiasm among new voters. Never mind that the Obama movement can draw along Democratic candidates downticket in numbers the Clinton Machine can only dream of. Never mind that Obama inspires Democrats, Independents and Republicans alike, while the Republicans at least (and some Independents, and yes, even some Democrats) have a visceral dislike of Clinton. Never mind the lesson we will be teaching these political newbies about how you work hard to achieve a desired political result and the rug gets pulled out from under you by People who Know Better. No, that’s just collateral damage to make things be the Way Things Are Supposed To Be.
I can’t speak for anyone else out there. At the moment I can hardly speak for myself. I can’t tell you why I feel so fired up about all this. Maybe it’s the Obama Kool-Aid. I don’t know for sure. All I can tell you is that if I feel that after pinning my hopes, spending my money and working my tail off for Barack Obama, if I feel that the nomination has been stolen, the fire will go out. For me it will be a vindication that no matter what you do, no matter how hard you work, you really can’t beat The System. I will most likely go back into the apathy I got shaken out of, and other than maybe local races where there’s still some chance that I can have an impact, I will most likely stay there.
This isn’t the way it was supposed to be.
This was supposed to be about uniting behind a candidate that could once and for all lead us out of the quicksand the nation has been sinking into the past 30 years. And I’m optimistic that it will still be that way. If Hillary Clinton wins more votes and more pledged delegates at the convention than Barack Obama, I will vote for her and be happy to do so. If I feel that the American people have been manipulated out of their choice by the forces of maintaining the Status Quo, I will still vote for Clinton, because the alternative is far worse. But I will do so without enthusiasm, and with the knowledge that the Clinton camp was right. I really don’t matter. None of us does. Or as they say, unless you’re the lead dog, the view never changes.
I hope that doesn’t happen. I like to think that something I do can make a difference. I’d hate to be disabused of that notion.
I had an idea for a Sunday Griot story for this weekend, but it had to wait because I had to get this out. I hope it’s all a tempest in a teapot and everything sorts itself out amicably, and we go on to trounce McCain in November.
Because really, the alternative is not pleasant to contemplate.
I want to recommend your diary a thousand times. This is how many of out here in the never land of our society have been feeling for way toooooo long. You ahve it pegs and I really commend your words to put it down in reality. hugs….
Well hello Brenda, so nice to see you. Hugs right back.
I figured I couldn’t possibly be the only one who feels like this.
I like your tag line…I followed the same line-up….
Yes there are many of us out here that have been feling this way fo so long. I have almost given up hope…..but like you I have the same feeling about it all….I am glad you put it down in words this way…You are so very acurate in what you say. Thank you….
People here have been saying, “Wow, maybe we’ll really get to have a say in it this year”! There’s some genuine enthusiasm going for a change and it would be a shame for their idealism to get squashed. I’ve been a state convention delegate a couple of times and the only useful thing we did was hold up signs for the pre-selected candidates’ media events. Did I mention our primary is May 6th?
People in this country are saying “well, hold on just a darn minute here. We’re sick and tired of it and we’re not going to take it anymore”
So help me God, if Billary are the nominees at the end of this process then I will officially be done with the so called political process. This race is so tight I believe each campaign has family campaigning for them in Hawaii. Are you kidding me? The state no one ever pays attention to because it is a given Dem state? This is going to get ugly folks no matter what we say or do.
Billary will bring the repug base out in droves. No doubt about it.
Worse than that, a lot of Democrats will stay home rather than vote for a candidate that was forced on them — and that’s in addition to the Democrats who aren’t willing to vote for Clinton in the first place.
Also available in orange.
Omir, as always, great to read your work, and you have touched a spot that even goes deeper.
Here in the good-ol-boy South, there is another fear taking over. I’m hearing a lot of old time prejudiced ol boys saying they’ll vote for McCain, just because the other candidates are either a “woman, or a black”
It is sad that these people can not see the light and let go the past. These people are long time Democrats, and carry some influence among the ranks.
I know some will say, then we don’t need that type, but the truth of the matter is votes are at stake, and a future of a nation rests still amongest strong predudice.
Let us hope that the visit from Obama, with Edwards over the weekend is not just a endorsement, but the best thing that could ever happen to enusre a nomination, would be the two running together.
This would change some of the ol-boy engrained predudice, at least enough to help the party to get over the top.
Then after seeing that a person, not a gender nor colour can make a difference, will shed some light to some otherwise mostly darkened areas in their minds.
I’m steadily revoking these thoughts with words, and trying to remind them of what has happened since the BushCo macine took power. It is tough, but the best reminder to them is, “look in your wallet” how far does it go? That, sometimes brings them back, at least their thinking….and that in itself is a task with some of these ol’-boys….. ; )
peace
Hello IP, so nice to see you.
I remember reading a telling comment on some blog or another from a woman in Tennessee. She said that either Obama or Clinton could have trouble winning there, though not because Tennesseeans are prejudiced (though no doubt there’s some of that). They are very conservative in the sense of “resistant to change,” and would probably vote for the second or third woman President, or the second or third black President — but the idea of the first was kinda new to them and they wouldn’t be quite ready to go there just yet.
That doesn’t mean that Obama or Clinton shouldn’t campaign there anyway (although Clinton’s campaign strategy strikes me as passing Tennessee and other Southern states to go after bigger fish). They shouldn’t expect miracles, though.
In am not saying that Hillary and Obama are the same, but they are both totally corporate. Totally. Restoration of the republic by political means is NOT on their agendas, nor is it in the cards.
Look at the candidates that cannot even get media coverage, DESPITE STILL BEING IN THE RACE. They are too extreme to even mention. So dig for it: What is too extreme to even mention? Two things off the top–the US dollar is in trouble from which it will never recover (even if Paul’s solution to this fact won’t work either) and corporations have “too much control”–which can no longer be even mentioned in public.
Well, if that is the boundary of political discourse, what can be discussed that is actually relevant to our national fate? NOTHING. Nothing whatever. Politics is dead. Past dead.
But also, I have to agree with James Howard Kundtsler: Americans don’t really want change, they want to keep their cars going, and of all the things in the world, that is the one guaranteed NOT to happen. The age of cheap energy is over. It is not coming back. Ever. But nobody wants to believe that. So we are now converting food to fuel to put in our SUVs. Food prices are doubling but what of that? Got to keep those cars running! Even if people are starving in the streets–which soon they will be. But there is just one problem, and it is not that people are starving. It is that there will never be enough ethanol to keep the cars going, even if we grow no food at all.
Hillary? Obama? McCain? There is a good deal of disagreement within the powers that be about how to conduct America’s resource wars. But about the WHETHER to conduct the wars–there is no disagreement whatever. “Input” from the peasants is not welcome–nor needed: There is nothing to discuss.
Adjust your thoughts and actions accordingly.
But what will you and all the others do if Hillary squeaks out a win and actually gets more votes than Obama when you add up all the popular votes, state by state? Or what if she wins more pledged delegates? Do we then accuse her of cheating?
I actually think the bandwagon is on a roll and Hillary will not win. And if she should win, I would imagine she’d make quite a good president. She has advantages over Obama, and vice versa. I’ll be satisfied with either, although I do want our candidate to win.
They both have some negatives when it comes to the general campaign, or I should say, some questions which will only be by the actual election: Is there as much Hillary Hatred as some progressives think? and Will some people vote their latent racist attitudes when they actually confront the choice?k