First the heavy stuff:
I ran into this by Lynda Obst, an Obama supporter since 2004, “one of the most prolific and well know female producers, authors and commentators in the film industry,” in a Huffington Post column entitled “Women of My Generation Have Clearly Lost Their Minds.” The theme of the piece is the psycho-emotional unsavoriness of Hillary Clinton’s victim trip, and please remember I’m quoting a 50-something professional woman here:
And now she is the killer of Hope. (It was just too delusional to manage). We are not that multi-racial post-oppression society that shocked the world and for a moment was its wonder. We are, thanks to Hillary’s kitchen sink and staff, the same old America they thought we were. The racially charged, fractured America Bush & Rush left us with that Obama has the prescription to heal. The one that attracted us original believers during his miraculous 2004 convention speech then swept 11 primaries in a row and apparently had to be stopped (thanks, SNL). We are the broken polarized America she wants to rule, will do anything to rule.
That we have learned can’t be ruled…
The bitterness is understandable. I feel it myself.
It’s a response to the betrayal of possibility, the denial of love, really. That’s it, a denial of love: I’m only hurting you for your own good, etc. I had to suck up all this pain because the world is SHIT, so vote for me because the other guy is too good to be true. The Bad Mommy, the one who doesn’t love you because she hurts too much herself. Pretty damn dangerous stuff in a president, I’d say, and awfully depressing in one who thinks to lead.
On the OTHER hand — and there is always an “other hand”…
If someone comes along who touches something universal that makes people want to embrace a common good, this is exactly what you get by way of reaction. It has to happen. It’s going to get much worse, in fact. But fine! So what? This only means the thing is real: you can’t raise dust with an imaginary broom.
I’m going to quote a post now from Raging Universe in its entirety. That’s probably not ethical, but the post is only one paragraph long, and I expect the author won’t mind, especially if you pay his site a visit. It’s called “Obamaland.”
It struck me as odd and interesting last night while musing after Barack’s Mississippi win. People get all mucked up — in and out, on top of, and underneath one another, entwined, entangled, and everything — and they attempt to include him. But he’s usually gallivanting about in Obamaland, be it Wyoming, Alabama, Wisconsin, or wherever. Well, yes, he does touch base periodically to answer a query or debate some non-issues, but not for long. He’s some traveler. I bet he travels light.
Don’t analyze it.
Just keep moving, everything’s fine.
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Never mind the personal virtues or otherwise of Hillary, it’s her constituency we ought to treat with respect. Call it class loyalty on my part, but I always stick up for these conventional working-class folks, and since they’re sticking up for Hillary, it hurts me – and seems to me not only politically unwise but elitist – to demonize either her or them on account of how the poor dumb bastards don’t quite get the cosmic changing-of-the-guard vibes coming off Barack. Much as I like him for the kind of things you like him for, I have to admit that this comes more naturally when you’re well-educated or youthful (in years or point of view). If you’re neither of those things and if you’ve been a bit scarred by the struggle to raise your kids in a traditional way on a small pay-packet, you have different concerns. Scorn those concerns and we risk producing a cohort of McCain Democrats to replace the depleted ranks of the erstwhile Reagan Democrats. Maybe it doesn’t matter. We have to follow our hearts in politics as in all things, and we can’t worry too much about folks whose hearts go in other ways. As you said (I quote loosely!) a good fight is just fine.