JoB
Daniellep…
I am sure there will be some who will think this inappropriate on this thread.. but you opened a topic in a way that i think it might be possible to trade perspectives.. so i am going to try.
You said.. “What I hope you’ll take some time to think about is that, to me, it’s as important that people realize WHY Obama supporters don’t like Hillary as it is to know why we DO support Barack”
I have actually spent a lot of time thinking about this.. and reading everyone i can get my hands on who comments on it… so i know the reasoning.. but i can’t say that i actually understand it.
I do see what the Clinton’s and by association, Hillary, have come to be identified with by today’s media… and i understand fully that the young especially have no other context from which to evaluate her…
I even see how bitterly disappointed some are who saw the Clinton’s as just another broken promise… both Clintons. Bill for his personal lapses.. and Hillary because she didn’t make sure she could win the Health Care fight before she took it on.
Had she succeeded… this would have been an entirely different conversation.
but i think you are mistaken when you think that those of us who support Hillary don’t care about the same things you do…
which is why i see this entire storyline of party division as just another republican political gambit.
You and i are concerned about the same things.. we just see them being played out differently.
I too am an idealist.. starting in the early 60s… and i have lived my idealism with integrity.
I have invested in my community… in fact, in retrospect, i find my life’s purpose has been building community.
This is why i see the tactic of builing support for your candidate by tearing down the other as fundamentally wrong. That kind of divisiveness is counterproductive to my life work.. building community.
And, it is counterproductive to Obama’s message of unity.
Yet, it persists… and i think that is due more to manipulation than truth…
a desire for fundamental change and equality is not something new with this primary election. it is something many of us have been working towards our entire lives… and something we can collectively be proud of.
it is what both Jimmy Carter and BillClinton campaigned on and were unable to pull off working with a Republican congress…
It is what we all want… and have worked towards.
No, we didn’t get what we wanted yet… we are nowhere near achieving the dreams of our youth… but we have managed to create substantial change…
that change is why you expect so much today. so, when i look at the entire picture i see something entirely different than you..
i see how far we have come to have these two candidates… it is literally something that i could not have envisioned as a young democrat at the end of the 60s.
I was part of the group of young people who chose not to become part of the “revolution”…(counter culture… yes… revolution.. no)…
i believed then and still believe now that the process of revolution is ultimately unhealthy for women and children. I believed strongly in working from within to change the system…
i entered democratic politics. That is where i initially met a young and idealistic Hillary Clinton.
I only lasted through one political season trying to change the democratic party from within. But she stayed.
Your charge that she loves politics is true… That love allowed her to play in the least even playing field possible and to thrive in it… while still trying to get what she could out of the system for those she cares passionately about.
She really does have a 35 year history of working on issues important to women and children… you can check wikipedia.
what you see as selling out, i see as getting everything that could be gotten from the system at the time…
You fault her for not stepping up to the plate with heroism at what you perceive as her opportunity to do so. Yet, if she was the kind of woman who did that, she would not be a candidate for the democratic nomination now.
having lived in the system that produced her.. i understand all to well what was possible and what wasn’t. You expect far more from her than she can deliver… i don’t see that as a symptom of her failure.. but more a symptom of the collective success of our generation.
many of us have continued to live idealistic lives.. to change what we could when and where we could.. and we have changed some things… you can see possibilities that didn’t exist for us.
I say we because i have not been alone in my idealism or in my lifetime of activism. i try to keep it a secret, but i haven’t even just been among women:)
We too distrust the system. We too want real change. We just disagree about what will get us there.
It appears to me that all you can see is the system and that you have learned to identify Hillary with that system.
I see all kinds of evidence of that.. from the assumption of a Clinton/Bush dynasty to equating Hillary with McCain and looking for any evidence that she is one of “them”.
Yet, if you listen to her talk.. if you actually listen to more than the sound bits of one of her talks, you would find that she is one of us… and that when she isn’t busy defending herself.. which is difficult to find these days… she shares your ultimate vision for the world.
You want me to understand what Hillary is not.. how she has failed America and your generation… you think that her failures are something we somehow can’t see.
Speaking for those of us who support her from my generation, i can tell you that you are very wrong. We not only see her failures, but the failures inherent in all politicians.. even Senator Obama.
But I can also tell you that you are mistaken about many of the things you blame her for.
She played the only game there was well.. and now you fault her for playing the game.
I see the anger directed at Hillary. I see how public opinion has been manipulated to create that anger.. but no.. i don’t understand it.
Hillary is the first woman to play this game well enough to end up a candidate for President… against tremendous odds…
That you think it more important to hold her accountable for what you think she should have done or said than respect her for her accomplishments doesn’t bode well for another female candidate in my lifetime.
I won’t tell you that i don’t care whether she wins or loses, i feel as strongly as you do about Senator Obama… that the ultimate welfare of our nation hinges upon a Hillary Clinton presidency. I see that as the only path to real change.
But i have to tell you that i care more that the first female candidate for President be treated with the respect she deserves… if for nothing else than the enormity of her accomplishment… by every member of her political party.
the lack of basic respect for her candidacy and the unrelenting anger directed at her by Obama supporters is deeply divisive to our party… and to the causes we all hold dear.
i have spent over two hours carefully editing this post Daniellep.. because i wanted to say something that stood a chance of being heard…
I don’t know if i will ever be able to edit out my anger at the complete lack of respect that half of my party has shown to Hillary. I am personally deeply offended on more levels than i can say.
However I am writing in a attempt to say something beyond that… something i have learned as an elemental truth …
real change only occurs when you apply compassion and passion together…
I will admit to having fueled my passion with anger’s driving force in the past.. and occassionally i have won major battles that way… but i can’t see any instance that i have affected real long term change with my anger.
if i could pass along only one lesson from a lifetime of idealism… it would be that one..
i still have lingering hope that the blend of compassion and passion will fuel democratic unity creating victory this fall… and with that hope i write…
so that perhaps you can understand why i think.. why Obama supporters hate Hillary can’t be nearly as important as why they support Obama… if we are to win this fall.