2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: What's with the loony Hillary derangement syndrome? [View all]ellennelle
(614 posts)you've posed a false equivalence.
hillary's lifetime of service and achievement are precisely what is scaring people. her connections to folks like kissinger, blankfein, and larry summers are scary. even more scare are her "achievements" of lobbying to repeal welfare reform and install mass incarceration ("bringing...superpredators...to heel" , claw back glass-steagell, and promoting interventionism in bosnia, libya, egypt, syria, haiti (the list goes on; do research), and - most damning in my mind - founding the GD DLC!
these are not credentials in my book; quite the opposite. (and they are only a shave off the top; dig deeper and the hair stands up on the back of your progressive neck.) add to these points her history of waffling her positions - worse now than ever - along with the desperate and graceless way in which she has mismanaged her campaigns - in 08 and now - when her inevitability is threatened, and it gets harder and harder to admire her even for getting this far as a woman.
you worry about the GOP accusing bernie of being an unabashed socialist. at least he is up front about it, and supports that truth with factual data such as how much better off europe is than we are, and the truth of that does not seem to bother the millions who have flocked to support him. hillary cannot even touch that enthusiasm, and she sure won't get it from me.
moreover, and here is the kicker, if you think this thin argument against bernie - that the GOP will "chew him to shreds" with the socialist epithet, while ignoring the decades of sewage and overt ammunition they've been stockpiling against her - you are not only poorly informed, you are naive. the GOP is so eager to trot all that out against her, and can barely contain it until her "inevitable" win.
they got nothin' on bernie. he speaks truth, consistently and firmly, as he has for decades; he'll dance circles around any one of them in debates. hell, ALL of them, put together!
you cannot buy the enthusiasm and epidemic inspiration bernie generations. and the best part is, it's not about him, it's about the movement, the movement to remove all that the GOP and - sadly - hillary too have come to represent.
hillary - again sadly (i supported her and have defended her for decades) - generates no such inspiration. except some old white women.
of which i am one. but i steadfastly cannot support her. i'll only vote for her if i have to, but not with enthusiasm. and that raises such a mystery; why is the DNC leadership not stumbling all over themselves to harness that enthusiasm? that enthusiasm represents not just his profoundly crucial election (the stakes are so damn high), but the youth and future of the party! ignoring this fact seems the epitome of machinery stupidity.
in sum, the false equivalence you pose is that sanders supporters pummel hillary with complaints, but when hillary supporters hit us with complaints, we whine. the differences are listed above; we are hitting her with substance, real complaints and concerns, factual accusations and red flags (she is under FBI investigation, rightly or wrongly, ferchrissake!!!). hillary's camp has nothing but false berniebro and ... gosh, can't think of any other "equivalent" chum her team tries to stir up (rove style via david brock).
full disclosure: as i said, i have supported and defended hillary. in fact, it was not until about this time 8 years ago that i stopped; her terrible mismanagement of that campaign turned my stomach. she learned nothing. but i have since learned a lot. i've watched and researched carefully. she is, sadly, not what she seems, even if you can imaginatively formulate some stable and consistent idea of her. i will not vote for her in the GE; i'll vote against the GOP. that is as much as our side will be able to gather from all this, and to ignore these facts is just beyond insanity.
forgive me if i've stepped on toes, i know your position is closely held and means a lot to you. but please, i beg you, wake up and smell the coffee. this is NOT a damn football game prompting silly adolescent accusations of "well, your team did this, and your guy did that." knock it off. this is reality, dear friend. our democracy - AND THE PLANET - are at stake here!