My apologies to the Bard, but that is how I am beginning to view this political season. I am tired of the sniping back and forth between Obama and Hillary. I am tried of everyday turning on Keith Olberman and hearing that yet again, these two opponents are launching cheap shots at each other. I am tired of hearing that one of their camps says something negative about the other and then tries to retract it. Case in point the whole plagiarism "scandal" that surrounded Obama and Deval Patrick. Sure Obama stole some of Patrick's ideas and sure he did not always credit him and yes that is the definition of plagiarism, but both camps have stolen ideas and phrases from previous campaigns and other candidates. Hell, if they did not steal ideas from other candidates and pass them off as their own, there would be no reason for us to vote for anyone as none of these candidates are that original, they jut steal from others what sounds good or what will get them voted into office. But I am also tired of the Obama camp launching criticism against Clinton for racism when he and his camp has been sexist, so neither of them are in the right in this instance. I cannot stand Huckabee or McCain, but at least their differences have been over policy and have not resorted to personal attacks. There may not be a lot of differences between Clinton and Obama, but surely there are some. For one thing, I think they differ on gun control. Obama has said that he is a firm believer in the second amendment and that people have every right to bear arms, this was right after the NIU shootings too, so this is very recent and after very tragic circumstances. While what I can find seems to indicate that Clinton is much more in line with my thoughts on gun control of trying to get rid of them or at least make it significantly harder to get guns. If I were part of the Clinton camp I would have been screaming my gun control policies from a fucking mountaintop. Fuck the NRA, they aren't going to vote for you anyway so come out and talk about your gun control policies, unless they aren't that different from Obama's.
I am tired of the fighting among Obama supporters and Clinton supporters. I have seen horror stories of Obama supporters yelling down Clinton supporters at caucuses, but Clinton supporters have been as vehement in attacking Obama supporters from what I can see. The real danger is not whether Obama and Clinton like each other after this campaign, it is whether the Democratic party likes itself after this campaign. If we become so split that we cannot reconcile, we do nothing more than hand McCain and the Republicans this election. The Repubs have plenty of time to help to fix some of these wounds where if this Democratic infighting goes on all the way to August and the convention we have basically 2-3 months to pull a splintered party back together. As supporters of our candidates, we need to show support without demeaning or belittling the other candidate, the Republicans do that enough without our help.
Finally, I am tired of feeling like at this point, I am deciding between the lesser of two evils. At first I supported Kucinich and if he hadn't wanted Ron Paul as his VP and had he not seemed to go a bit overboard, in my own eyes, at debates about attacking the rest of the candidates, I might have been able to support him, but then I couldn't anymore. So then I decided to support Edwards, yeah I knew this was a possible lost cause already as was Kucinich, but I wanted to vote my conscious. I thought that Edwards might be able to fight longer than it turned out he could, might have been able to really affect some of the voters and make the debates about the issues and not personal attacks between Obama and Clinton, but alas he dropped out. So now I am left with two candidates who I don't really like all that much, but who I flip flop back and forth between who I dislike less. Each of them has their issues with me and so, as a progressive, I am tired of the sound and fury of this campaign especially as it signifies nothing.
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4 comments:
You are not alone in that sentiment.
Indeed, I think you will find in the blogsophere a big desire to turn the page and move onto other issues. I, for one, allowed myself one week of Hillary-bashing and now my goal is to reveal McCain as the fraud he is.
I really believe that Hillary is finished. I can't believe I'm saying that because I hardly ever make predictions, but if anyone comes out looking better, if you compare candidates, it's him. He has not taken overt cheap shots and gone negative on her and the sense the nation has is that her campaign is desperate and is going negative in an effort to tear him down.
When Obama was behind, he never used these same tactics. But then again, he was never seen as a legitimate threat to her supposed sure-thin nomination, either, so they didn't step up their attacks until it was too late. And, my friend, it is too late for them.
They risk destroying the party, yes, but they also risk destroying their own legacy in the process. If they drag this thing out and go too negative they will hand the nomination to the GOP but they will also have effectively destroyed Bill's legacy as President and tainted it and they will have ruined her chances of ever being able to run again.
The Clintons are crafty people, but their best bet is maybe to hang in there for Ohio and Texas. Right now, she would probably lose Texas and might even lose Ohio. If she loses both, she should do the right thing and concede gracefully so that we can focus our attention on McCain, where it needs to be right now.
In my opinion, she needed to concede last night, but the Clintons are stubborn people and fighters and they will not go gently into that good night.
But the way I'm going to deal with it is that I'm not going to play Obama versus Clinton in my own blog or in my own blog comments.
My attention is on McCain and if the media and the mood of the country is any indication, we are already weary of this pointless bickering between the two of them.
Spin it any way you want, and you know who I favor, so that's how I'm spinning it, but right now I'm going to just focus on a common enemy that unites us.
Boxer I wrote a semi-related post about this topic in January.
It was about the beginning of the sniping between Obama and Clinton and the beginning of the sniping between bloggers.
For the record- then as now - I will vote for the Dem, but I don't support either Obama or Clinton right now. I am not against them, but I have zero enthusiasm for either one.
Anyway, if you are so inclined, read my post and the comments. What a shitstorm. I don't think you were in on it- lucky you.
Some of our blogfriends (Tengrain, DCup) know I still feel wounded by some of what happened.
Anyway- I love the way your wrap it up in that last paragraph.
Great post Boxer.
Great post!!!
I've been saying this for weeks, (but as mt readership is like 8 people I'm pretty sure I'm not making an impact)
November!!!!
Well put, Boxer. Sadly, because of the back and forth manner and the horrible, drooling media coverage of the campaign, I've mentally checked out on it.
I'll let it have room in my head again after the conventions.
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