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Edited on Thu Feb-14-08 09:30 PM by Bucky
I say, good on ya, Senator. Clinton pitched her case to Edwards and then Obama pitched his case to Edwards. If Clinton prevails in the "Edwards Primary," I congratulate her. She's fighting a tough smart campaign and it doesn't bother me one bit that a fellow Democrat decides to support my candidate's opponent.
This is still America. And we here in DU are still part of the Democratic Party. We pick our sides, we fight like hell for our choices, we win or we lose, and then we come together when its over.
I read in another thread today I read an Edwards supporter saying he feared Edwards had sold out or cut a deal. In politics, there is nothing wrong with cutting a deal. The very purpose of a nominating convention is cutting deals. Edwards, like Clinton and Obama, is a politician. If he can't cut a deal, he sucks at his job. John Edwards does not suck at his job.
Another poster in a recent thread this evening accused Edwards of being a hell of an actor if he can endorse Clinton. If Edwards is just an actor, then a lot of his supporters are chumps for falling for his routine. But I saw Edwards and he's a different man than he was in 2004. It's not an act; it's a mission that he's fought for and done well at for his whole life. If, in his judgment, Clinton is who he prefers, then the credit is to them both.
We live in an age of dumbed down politics; and you and I meet here tonight in a medium that promotes responsibility-free rhetoric. Any old mook with a keyboard can pop his nose in here and vent his angriest, ugliest, most irresponsible, antisocial impulses on a discussion board and it appears equal to the posting of the most engaged and thoughtful political activist. Not surprisingly, a good number of the postings end up making the place feel like a pissing contest.
The anger you see being vented is not anger at you and it's not anger at Clinton or Obama, either. It's projection; it's anger at society, at personal woes, and mostly it's anger we should all feel at an ultimately unjust world. And behind that anger is fear... it's the fear we all feel that our democracy is slipping away from us, that our country--and therefor we its citizens--have the blood of countless Iraqis on our hands, that our world is being altered by callous bastards, that the opportunities our parents' generation left us will not be available to our kids because of the damage Bush and his corporate masters are doing to our economy. We have so much to be afraid off.
DU, and free speech in general, can help us vent that anger. So all the Clinton bashing and Obama bashing posts don't bother me. I know what they are. They are the heat and light of Hope trying to kick its way out of the shell of Fear that restrains it. If someone's gotta call my candidate shallow and disingenuous, I don't mind. Come November, she'll do what's right. If someone's gotta call Clinton a corporatist, I don't mind, cause she'll do what's right too. It's okay that we argue now; arguing is what citizens do when they care.
That's democracy for ya. I don't mind that either. In my heart, I know that once we've wrung out our shirt tails and toweled off our hair, 99% of us will leave this pissing contest and go vote for the Democratic nominee in November. Yes, even the silly folks who say they can't vote for the other candidate will do different in meatspace than they say in cyberspace. Because in the end, Barack Obama really is a candidate with experience and Hillary Clinton really is a candidate of change and hope.
I have my preferences, but all the Democrats who voted for someone else are not idiots. Voting isn't even the bottom line in our way of life. Democracy is only about 30% voting for the right person and 70% lobbying them and bitching at them till they do the right thing. I'm convinced anyone who our party nominates will be someone we'll have a decent chance at talking to. After eight years of wilful idiocy, how can things not get better?
Bucky Rea Houston Texas
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