2016 Postmortem
Showing Original Post only (View all)Dems, stop lying to yourselves about Hillary: Sure, she “gets s*** done” — atrocious s***, that is [View all]
The next line of attacks is designed to put Sanders supporters back on their heels: Clinton is a realist, warts and all, because she is a woman: YOU DONT LIKE THAT SHE PLAYS THE GAME? THAT SHE HAS TIES TO THE ESTABLISHMENT? FOR ONE THING, THATS HOW SHIT FUCKING GETS DONE. FOR THE OTHER THING, THE BIGGEST THING, A WOMAN DOESNT GET THE FUCKING OPTION *NOT* TO PLAY THE GAME.
To recap, Clinton voted to invade Iraq, backed job-killing trade agreements, suggested that black women on welfare were deadbeats who were sitting around the house doing nothing, called for more police and more prisons and more and tougher prison sentences for repeat offenders, and bases not only her campaign finances but her entire social universe on and amid the superrich who she resides among in Westchester and the Hamptons because she is a realist who can get things done.
Or because she had to do it this way because she is a woman. Or both.
No matter Sanders legion of women supporters, including many outspoken socialists. This argument renders those women invisible in an effort to inoculate pro-Clinton womens arguments from criticism. The fact that a Sanders supporter might also be a big fan of Elizabeth Warren, and in many cases initially lobbied for her to run for president, is also an automatic nonstarter, as Rebecca Traister made clear: spare me the wistful paeans to Elizabeth Warren
citing a fondness for her as a get-out-of-sexism card is a dodge.
Ad hominem attacks against Sanders supporters are on the rise after Iowa, and they are increasingly unkind. Clinton partisans are likely motivated by uncomfortable data points: 86-percent of women under 30 caucusing in Iowa said they support Sanders.
And so the sexism argument doesnt wash. But since opposing Clinton necessarily entails some unsavory or unfortunate motivation, there are other arguments to pursue. Like that young people, God bless them, are innocent of how the world works.
Bernies attractiveness as a candidate relies on the premise of purity a political value as ancient as politics itself, wrote The New Yorkers Alexandra Schwartz, dismissing her youthful cohort for their naivete before knocking them for not even being very cool young people to begin with. When his campaign tweets that its high time we stopped bailing out Wall Street and started repairing Main Street, you have to wonder why his youngest supporters, so attuned to staleness in all things cultural, are letting him get away with political rhetoric that would have seemed old even in 2012.
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http://www.salon.com/2016/02/05/dems_stop_lying_to_yourselves_about_hillary_sure_she_get_s_done_atrocious_s_that_is/