Explain To Me...The Rest Of Us... How Resisting A Hillary Clinton Candidicay... Is Hating Hillary...

[Warren DeMontague]

68. I get armchair psycho-analyzed, as well as flat-out misrepresented, in other threads on this, and

I'm not even on a "team" at this point- it is entirely possible that I MAY vote for HRC in the primaries- but apparently even that stance- or mentioning things like the IWR vote, which I still have a problem with- is enough to get someone like me marked down on some folks' lists.

So I'm going to do a bit of armchair psychoanalyzing myself.

The most charitable interpretation, first: I do think some people are still deeply ...traumatized, maybe, is the best word-- by 12 years of Reagan-Bush, back between '80-'92. Back when it seemed we had been permanently locked out of the White House. Clinton- who, nevertheless only won his first term in a 3 way race, unlike Obama- seemed at the time like the long-overdue savior of our Party. Hell, he did to me. And honestly? I like Bill Clinton. I liked him then, I like him now. I liked and like Hillary, too. They are heavyweights in our party and should not be easily dismissed. And the Clinton years were far and away better than what came immediately before, or after- I understand nostalgia for those days, although I do think that in retrospect Clinton's presidency doesn't look as good as it did at the time, whereas conversely I think in the future Obama will get a much fairer shake from history.

But I do think some, many, people in our party feel that the Clinton name or magic is a talisman for victory, and maybe they're right. I suspect similar motivations are driving the GOP to run another "Bush". But the twice-election of Obama, like so many other things, proved that is not the truth, not for us. We don't need a Clinton on the ticket to win.

Next: I think there are many people who believe her connections and political ability make her hard, or impossible, to beat in the general. I am sympathetic to this line of reasoning, myself. Certainly she has been through having everything and the kitchen sink thrown at her, and she knows how to work the levers of power in DC.

Next: I think there are some people who HONESTLY believe she is the best candidate on the issues. I don't... quite understand this group as well, only because from where I sit she seems to have studiously avoided taking anything resembling a controversial or even identifiable stand on many of the major issues facing this country. Maybe this will change, once she is running an actual campaign. I hope so.

Lastly, I do think there is an element of over-the-top defensiveness around Hillary from some folks, for a variety of reasons. Maybe they still feel she was "robbed" in 2008-- there was certainly 8 years or more worth of bitterness floating around back then, wouldn't surprise me if some of it is still simmering. Maybe some people have excessively identified with her, emotionally, for reasons of their own personal issues or something akin. They see Hillary winning (or getting what she "deserves" since it's "her turn&quot as some sort of vindication, or payback, to some personal slight or life grievance of their own.

I also think many of these people have an attitude about Hillary, and the inevitableness they seem vested in promoting (again), which is sort of like Wile E. Coyote "don't look down" physics. "She would have been inevitable last time if people just hadn't argued that she wasn't!"... so this time no one must be allowed to entertain the idea that there may even be an actual, contested primary.

Other people seem to have gone completely off the rails as to what they seem to think a Hillary win would accomplish, completely separating from anything resembling actual expectations of what her administration would be expected to try to achieve- at this point, unless she tacks hard in a different direction during the campaign, it would probably be more moderate Democrat Clinton-style triangulation, but--- doubtfully any sort of bold or drastic change. I don't think that is a brash piece of speculation.


She may be the nominee, and if she is I will enthusiastically vote for her in the general. I may even vote for her in the primaries, but I absolutely do not understand what purpose browbeating people who aren't on board yet, serves.