Hillary marching towards the cliff
Hickory dickory dock, Pillory Clinton is determined to turn back the clock, now borrowing $6.4 from herself in her Energizer Bunny effort to convince us we’re not ready to elect an African-American. That’s her message. She can disguise it with talk about Barack Obama’s inexperience and empty eloquence, but the message is we’re not ready to put racism behind us.
This quintessential power elitist and Washington insider will seemingly pillory the Illinois senator for anything she thinks will stick, including his so-called elitism, which is a scintilla of her own. In the name of giving us a real choice, she has buried the real issues under a heap of non-issues, such as her guileful gas tax holiday and the Jeremiah Wright flapdoodle. In the guise of being ready on Day One to take over she has demonstrated not only a startling hubris and pettiness but Washington dirt-mongering as usual.
She has invited us to wallow in polarization, preference for easy answers and empty slogans. She has turned springtime into a slog in the mud, showing us she can mock her opponents and us too for being so wrongheaded as to think an eloquent, consensus-building African-American can lead us, but she can’t heal wounds or lead us anywhere on Day One except back into the abyss of paralysis politics. Better than most, she knows nothing can be achieved in Washington without seeking consensus, and yet she has chosen to try to march us off a cliff.
She has, in short, proven what we feared at the outset, that she is a divider, not a unifier.—DM
I won’t be voting for either one, but if I were, I would be concerned about his empty words and do-nothing record. Why is it 90+% blacks can vote for Obama and that’s not racism, but if 90% of the whites notice he’s not up to the job, that is? But, Karl Rove says he’s got it, so she probably ought to listen to him and save herself some money for her retirement. She’s going to need it if he implements all the taxes he’s planning for “the rich.”
Thank you, Norma. I think any time we vote on the basis of color, we’re headed in the wrong direction. Obviously you and I disagree, but I hear you and respect your viewpoint.—DM
I think both candidates have much to offer–in fact, there is very little difference between them in terms of the key issues. I think Hillary’s “nit-picking” of Obama is simply her attempt to differentiate herself from him—what else can she do when Obama is the charismatic media darling while she is carrying around the less savory aspects of her husband’s legacy and those darn ovaries? Let’s face it—most Americans don’t want a woman or a black in the White (Man’s) House, and this election has made clear the underlying sexism and racism that still exists. I’m not surprised that Hillary is losing—as racist as this country is, black men won the right to vote before women. Seems to me that, in terms of our faith in a woman’s ability to lead, women are still at the back of the political bus, stereotypically speaking. Perhaps Hillary’s lending money to her campaign is merely evidence that she believes in herself–isn’t that why men run and fund themselves? Perhaps the public is having a hard time adjusting to a woman who fights rather than dabbing demurely at her eyes with a little lace hanky and gracefully, meekly, bowing out of the race. I’m one of the Dems who hoped for a Clinton-Obama ticket–she’s got more experience and knows the politcal ropes a bit more; then, after her two terms, Obama would have his eight years as president . . . I know, I’m a dreamer. Anyway, congratulations on the Wick Poetry Prize–great inspiration for those of us who are no longer eligible for the Yale Younger Poets Prize!
Thanks, Michelle. There is nothing I would like more than to see a woman in the White House. Now, not four years from now. That said, I just don’t think it should be Hillary Clinton. I also want to see an African-American in the White House, preferably an African-American woman.
I agree with you that Senator Clinton had to find ways to differentiate herself, and clearly it was logical for her to turn to a populist theme, particularly as John Edwards had broken that ground. But I wish she had refrained from the race issue.
I agree we are a society tarnished by racism and misogyny, and I pray every day that this is the year we will muster the decency and intelligence to repent.
Thanks, too, for mentioning the prize. There is part of me that still doesn’t believe it. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our politics were as courageous as much of our poetry is? I’m not sure how courageous my own is, but I find in old age I have less trouble laying a steady gaze on people and their actions.—DM