jac's: an election 2008 diary: spoils of war

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

spoils of war

From the YouTube page featuring Hillary's speech:

DanishDog (4 hours ago)
this is heartbreaking ... Hillary, don't ever go away!

mike50333 (4 hours ago)
What? It's heartbreaking that Hillary's made a 100% undeniable, manipulative-less endorsement of Senator Obama?!

It's heartbreaking that Hillary has passed the torch over to Senator Obama?

It's heartbreaking that Hillary has urged you dumbasses to support Obama?

That she's said enough to the foolish bickering and ignorance? That it's time to RECLAIM OUR NATION?!

WHAT THE HELL IS SO "HEARTBREAKING" ABOUT THIS? IT'S NOT LIKE SHE CAN'T RUN AGAIN IN FOUR OR EIGHT YEARS, GET REAL YOU SPAZ!

Here's what's so heartbreaking: I don't expect there will be a Democratic party after this.

Oh, they'll keep the name. But the party of FDR is dead. Obama is obviously out looking for Republicans to add to his party, and he's willing to trade Democrats to get them. And Hillary Clinton is cheering.

What I don't understand is what Hillary expects will happen next. Does she not get that we want honest elections - and that to fail to stand up for honest elections is a betrayal?

We are getting very clear messages from the Democratic leadership telling us that we are not wanted by the party, that our loyalty will be rewarded with sewage - and here she is throwing her reputation behind telling us to just ignore those signals and continue to be happy Democrats.

This is how the Great Powers of old Europe treated lesser beings. They traded nations. I see you one Hungary and raise you a Turkey. Here - you take Belgium. (But can I have your old Pokemon deck?)

This time it pisses me off to be treated as the spoils of war, handed around by people playing god games*.

We supported Clinton, and she rewards us by telling us: who cares how you feel? McCain is terrible! Shut up and do what you are told! Vote for Obama! Be loyal Democrats!**

She had an immense amount of power and I would like to know whether she got anything in return when she gave that power away.

It wasn't Hillary who lost out when the DNC rigged the primary. She might have lost her chance to be President, but that's not the issue here. It isn't all about her desires or her career ambitions. It was about our nation. It was about the idea that this was founded as a nation where leadership would be determined by the people, not the aristocracy. The primary was stolen from us.

It may have been a violation of Hillary's rights - but what is far more important is that it was a violation of democracy.

Who will fight for us?

Who will stand up for us, in the face of corruption?

Sorry, Hillary, I'm not voting for Obama. And if you don't take action - to stand up for those who stood up for you - you are going to be the loser, in the end. If you're just going to be the DNC's bitch, well, sorry to see it, forgive me for not wanting to join you on all fours, kay?

And if Hillary's got some deep long-range plan (as some hopefuls seem to think), I will apologize when I see I was wrong.

I have heard it said too many times. Gore lived to fight another day. Colin Powell did the best that he could. At what point do we stop excusing those with influence when they fail to use that influence? With high rank comes responsibility - but they've got a pretty sweet deal now, when those of us who would hold them accountable are too busy making up excuses.

I am sick of all those good reasons why cowardice is appropriate.

Everyone stand up and cheer when Hillary Clinton says she is proud to support Barack Obama. All those complaints about election irregularities are all taken care of now. She just made his nomination honest, the way Gore made Bush's honest, because that's what Democrats do: they cave to corrupt political tactics, and sell out the people who looked to them*** to fight for what is right.
________________________________________
*maybe I'm just mad because I appear to be in Republican territory now - when they redrew the boundaries of the nations and the fiefdoms, they left me out.

I don't want to be a Republican.

I formally consider myself abandoned by my party.

**unconditional love is what this election is all about, isn't it? Because unconditional love has done so much for us - hasn't it?

***and gave them money

4 comments:

Unknown said...: Myself, I believe (okay, want to believe) that O will have to step down before November; there will just be too much muck coming out. Hillary will still be standing, and her speech last night defused a lot of internal party opposition to her. (For laughs, I went over to Kos and read the comments: grudging, condescending respect -- it's a start.) And if she had come out openly against him now, her supporters in the party would be purged starting now; they need to be there to help wrest the controls back. Plus, she laid out traditional Democratic policy positions that the other Dems have been running from. (Did you see the New Yorker article about the New Democratic Party? It's about dump the working class.)

All is not yet lost.; August 27, 2008 at 11:19 AM
jacilyn said...: Myself, I believe (okay, want to believe) that O will have to step down before November; there will just be too much muck coming out.

Me too, but what I believe really will happen is that Obama's friends (the ones pulling his puppet strings) will simply steal the election and set him up on the throne where Bush currently sits (only this time with a D behind his name "so it's all right").

Elections in America no longer seem to require actual voters to actually vote any given way. Those who are well-connected may simply choose the outcome they'd like in advance.; August 27, 2008 at 11:33 PM
Anonymous said...: I, too, am sad and angry. If she would have QUIT and not SUSPENDED her campaign in June, then I would have understood it was over. But, the message I got from the suspension was - please keep fighting for me because I still need you." So, I did. I pushed my group to contact superdelegates. To be "nice" in their letters and emails. Oh, they often got back insincere, snotball remarks. Like "stop the hate sent from Donna Brazile's blackberry"...
For months, we put up the obot idiotic rantings all because we believed in Hillary.
You BET - I am pissed. Mostly pissed at myself. I hope that Hillary will address this because up until it was just a couple of hours before - it seemed like we were going to get the shitty end of the stick AGAIN on the roll call. And - no surprise! - we did!
I don't know why she did for the party and not for the ones who got her there.
I will not support Obama as she requested. And, until he shows us a REAL certificate of live birth - I don't consider him really running.; August 28, 2008 at 6:38 PM
Anonymous said...: I don't want to vote for McCain, either. I have made a few friends who are McCain people but they use the word "liberal" like it's a dirty word or something. It's kinda funny because they ARE liberal and don't even realize it.
In any case, I have resolved that now that Obama is DNC's choice - I will vote for McCain.
I cannot help but feel that somehow the GOP helped orchestrate this outcome when they started McCain against Obama ads when the primaries were still going.
Then, big mouth Donna Brazile goes on national TV the Sunday morning BEFORE the last two primaries to say "we know who has won"... and, that she won't commit as a superD until after the primaries (as if we are so stupid as to not know whose camp she was in).
I sure would like to know what Hillary was thinking and hoping when she knew we were all still for her.; August 28, 2008 at 10:38 PM

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quote, unquote

...not just party officials, but also the intelligentsia that formulates the political philosophy and the echo chamber that shouts its approval, is running a campaign on little more than class resentment against former Democratic constituencies. (White) Race is elided with (working) class to create the ultimate clash of culture – to make racist demons out of people asking to have their material interests defended.

It is no less than the mobilization of resentment of the socio-economic winners against the losers. How dare you not keep us in power, when we have done so little for you and promise to do even less?

...

The ultimate shadow of Reagan is that you don’t win by defending losers, only by securing the interests of the winners. That is the dark heart beating in the chest of the Unity Democrats. They are done with the losers.
- Anglachel

They're just not used to somebody really smart. They’re just not used to somebody who’s really well educated. They just don’t know quite how to handle it. Cause if he’s as smart as Barack is he must not be from my neighborhood.
- Joe Biden
(on why "Republicans and blogs on the far right" are 'mischaracterizing' Obama)

One of the things I really like about PUMA is that, unlike an unfortunately growing faction of the Democratic Party, there are no loyalty oaths, no uniforms to wear, no hierarchical leadership structure to pay homage to or suck up to, and no demagoguery to reflexively swallow. I’ve read and participated in many disagreements on The Confluence, esp. recently with regard to voting McCain, and never once been told ’you’re not a true PUMA!’ or had ’you’re a Republican/bitch/trailer trash/freak because you disagree!’
- commenter, Corrente

Whatever Palin’s political impact, her cultural significance is profound. For better and for worse, she introduces a new and likely long-running cultural type to the national stage—the red-state feminist.
- Kay S. Hymowitz, City Journal

The vice-presidential candidacy of Sarah Palin is, in part, an effort to wrest the leadership of the feminist movement from the elite and militant left, and to put it in the hands of a silent majority of relatively traditional but ambitious women. It is a bold move to try to separate abortion from other issues generally associated with women’s rights.
- Conrad Black

I think we need to add a new term to the lexicon to sum up that prevalent bit of sexism. I'm calling it Penis Years* (not a coincidence that it echoes the term dog years.)

*Penis Years: Each year of any experience of a person with a penis is equivalent to five years of experience by someone without a penis.
- The Confluence
(alleging bias in the media's treatment of female candidates Clinton and Palin, as compared to the media's treatment of Obama)

Her greatest hypocrisy is in her pretense that she is a woman.
- Wendy Doniger, Newsweek

They believe that the Democrats are right in the same way, to the same degree, that 2 plus 2 equals 4 and the Earth revolves around the sun. They take the ‘rightness’ of liberal and Democratic views as such a given, that they are not even able to think within any other framework.

Conservatives, and I am one, understand that some people disagree with us and it’s up to us to sell our ideas and get their vote. Liberals think that their correctness is self-evident and that those who don’t agree are uninformed, stupid or evil. They should be lectured and if that doesn’t work, mocked or ignored.
- commenter, FT.com

[Democrats'] concern is real and admirable. The trouble is, they lack respect for the objects of their solicitude. Their sympathy comes mixed with disdain, and even contempt.
- Clive Crook, columnist

She added nothing to the ticket that the Republicans didn't already have sewn up, the white trash vote, the demographic that sullies America's name inside and outside its borders yet has such a curious appeal for the right....

...Palin was not a sure choice, not even for the stolidly Republican ladies branch of Citizens for a Tackier America. No, she isn't even female really....

...Palin has a toned-down version of the porn actress look favoured by this decade's woman, the overtreated hair, puffy lips and permanently alarmed expression. Bristol has what is known in Britain as the look of the teen mum, the "pramface." Husband Todd looks like a roughneck; Track, heading off to Iraq, appears terrified. They claim to be family obsessed while being studiously terrible at parenting. What normal father would want Levi "I'm a fuckin' redneck" Johnson prodding his daughter?

...Palin has it all, along with being vicious....
- Heather Mallick, CBC

Sarah Palin thinks she is a better American than you because she comes from a small town, and a superior human being because she isn't a journalist and never lived in Washington and likes to watch her kids play hockey.
- Michael Kinsley, TIME

...those numbers showing a 20-point swing in the support of white women have got to be in error -- unless of course, they meant to say ditzy white women, and the first adjective was omitted in error.
- commenter, TalkLeft

On the day McCain announced her selection as his running mate, Palin thanked Clinton and Ferraro for blazing her trail. A day later, Ferraro noted her shock at Palin's comment. You see, none of her peers, no one, had ever publicly thanked her in the 24 years since her historic run for the White House.
- Tammy Bruce, San Francisco Chronicle

One ''hot-button'' issue is whether a woman with young children could be a good president and still handle her domestic obligations, or would she become conflicted, so that, say, if the Russians were getting ready to launch nuclear missiles at us, and the president was supposed to get on the Hot Line, she would instead be seized by an uncontrollable maternal instinct to make a pediatrician appointment.I don't know about Palin. But I do know this: women in general are WAY better at work/home multi-tasking than -- to pick another gender at random -- men.
- Dave Barry

She was put on this earth to do two things: kill caribou and kick butt. She's all out of caribou.
- Jonah Goldberg
(enthusing over Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin)

And Hillary….I know you want to keep your job but for God’s sake woman how much abuse are you willing to take?
- Mountain Sage

There is always talk of conservatives loving to start cultural war when they are down, but I can’t say that I’ve found this any more sickening and disgusting than the liberals’ tactic of belittling and demonizing much of the population of this country. I’ve found it incredibly hard to get mad at their usual attacks on liberals when my fellow liberals attack with the same degree of ferocity, but in a different way. If they are stereotypically “cheerfully vicious”, than we are most definitely “blissfully smug”.
- commenter, Corrente

What is it about Republican Conventions that bring out America's inner police state?
- Tennessee Guerilla Women

He's a one-trick (unity) pony, whose trick has been trotted out once too often. His sole and only schtick – standing at a podium in front of huge crowds and offering himself as their mirror – is already so yesterday that nobody can even work up much energy praising it anymore. Witness the speeches at this convention. All anybody could say on his behalf is that he isn’t John McCain.
- Falstaff (on Obama)

The reason that some of us will support Palin, even though we may not agree with all of her political positions, is that she is not an illegitimate candidate. She did not steal votes from her opponent. She did not smear us with charges of racism. She actually has a lot in common with some of us (mother, businesswoman, athlete, etct). And the man that will be her boss showed us that he is at least listening and aware of our presence. He didn’t flick us off his shoulder and tell us we weren’t needed. He didn’t play the abusive boyfriend and say “where else are you gonna go babe?”.
- The Confluuence

Party bosses fixed a title fight between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. In bare knuckles Scranton where I’m from, that’s tantamount to treason. So they better watch out when I come looking for a rematch.
- Steve Corbett, talk show radio host

All those years I took pride in my party loyalty and now I realize I was just a fool, because I was telling the Democratic party and candidates they could take me for granted and ignore my wants and needs. The could pursue their own agendas without interference from me, because no matter what they did (or failed to do) they could count on my vote.

If I had been more disloyal they might have offered to pay me for my vote instead paying me no attention. Who knows what I could have got in return for my vote? I might have universal health care right now instead of my current plan which is called “don’t get sick.” We might even have “Congressional oversight” of the Bush Mob.
- Klownhaus

Nancy Pelosi said not too long ago that she supported Obama because he has the judgment to be President. This is of course, like a homeless person giving advice on how to fix the housing crisis.
- Marc Rubin

The Republicans couldn’t have come up with a better way to destroy the progressive movement from within if they’d invented him. Which maybe they did.
- Reclusive Leftist

Resolved, that 18 million Americans voted for Hillary Clinton, more than any other presidential primary candidate in history, and they have a right to help shape the agenda and processes of the Democratic Party.
- Declaration of Objections

I know that candidates usually run toward the center during the general, but, damn, they don’t usually run all the way to the opposite goal!
- commenter, Corrente

who I am

I am an alienated former Democrat, who intends to vote independent from now on.

I took down my blogroll because I don't want to belong to any communities at the moment. I think groupthink is the biggest threat there is right now.

I always did like to play devil's advocate, and I think an honest debate is worth more than a hundred "right" opinions. Two hundred if it's lively.

I'm not ashamed to place myself near the center of the political spectrum. I have little respect for people who are way out on either wing, who see nothing but their own little bubble, and hear nothing because they can't listen to anyone but themselves and their mirrors.

I am an unashamed member of the low information bitter small town gun totin' hick crowd, though I've lived in cities too.

I've been a Democrat ever since I could vote, but I'm fed up with the sneering contempt liberals have aimed at everyone outside their little gated-community world.

To me, the word elitist brings up images of Brad Pitt on ice skates, and it is exactly how I think of the Democratic party. And, no, "elitist" has nothing to do with how wealthy you are. It is merely the opposite of someone who believes in equality (or, ironically, democracy), but who believes that 'some pigs are created a little more equal than others'.

I don't pretend to be particularly well-educated; I have no fancy degrees and I've learned (the hard way) to be very cautious of assuming a fancy degree is worth jack.

I care about eradicating poverty and I care about dignity for all (even poor people, trailer trash, Southerners, and Republicans). I care about education, equal access to opportunity, FDR's Four Freedoms, minimum protections for workers, and a fair shake for anyone willing to work hard and obey the rules.

I care about an honest dialog, and the idea that everyone ought to have a voice. I care about fair and honest elections. I am angry about how manipulative the media is. I care about procedures being followed and process being respected.

Also: when I comment on other blogs - which I don't usually do ever since I noticed someone going around posting this site as his or her personal link (??) - I use this Blogger account. If the name is the same as mine, but it's not a Blogger account - it isn't me.