I was reading through the news today and I came across a picture of Hillary and Bill Clinton. It was at that moment that it struck me, I don’t like her. I have never met this woman and my dislike does not go to the personal level, it is to the level that we as Americans share with our public figures. For some strange reason we recognize someone from the media, no matter how minor a personality and we feel like we know them or we make generalizations about them. Now I truly believe that Hillary is a nice person and firmly believes in her convictions. I believe that she is more principled than her husband, Bill whom I like. But there was something in the picture that just didn’t seem right; I can’t place my finger on it.
This feeling has been building for a couple of years, when it was obvious that she would make a run at the Presidency. It’s weird because I was one of those who believed that when her husband was president that she would make a better president than he would. However, since that time something has changed. I don’t know if it is me, the country, or Hillary; but something is different. It’s like when you go away to college and come home to your old room. It looks the same, but something is different about it. I get a similar feeling with Hillary, she looks the same but there’s something different about her.
For some reason and it may just be me, she seems too desperate for this. She’s like the guy at the end of the night at the bar who has struck out with almost every girl there, but he wants just one more chance to redeem himself, his honor. That guy will do and say anything it takes to accomplish his mission. Hillary has been preparing for this for a long time, I suspect from when she was in college she has had this dream. I believe that since marrying Bill she has been positioning herself for this run. That is a long time to always say the right the thing, look the right way. Don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with wanting to pursue a dream and doing those things to make it happen. I admire tenacity in people and I admire the struggles Hillary has had to deal with. God knows to have your marriage disintegrate in front of a whole nation and you having to hold it together publically. The Right-Wing personal attacks that she has had to endure, it is one thing to attack someone politics, it is another to attack them personally. Truth be told, after we wipe away all the facades all we have is ourselves.
I think for me, my concern is that when you pursue a singleness of purpose for so long, it begins to shape you and mold you into what it will take to accomplish it. At some point leaving behind the person you once were and becoming that persona. It’s never drastic. Always honing you a little bit at a time until you are no longer the once principled believer, but now the polished and scripted politician. No longer the maverick willing to take chances, you become unwilling to take any risk. You speak only the well-crafted lines written for you. It’s like when I was a kid, I wanted to be the best basketball player I could be, I would practice all day long trying to hone my skills. On the surface this seems like a worthy goal with no harm to others or myself, except there were consequences. You see I had a friend who I loved and I would spend a lot of time with her, but as I tried to achieve my goal she became less important. I didn’t wake up one day and decide to stop spending time with her; it just started happening a little each day. Finally, we hardly saw any of each other, I was achieving my dream, but at what cost. Because of this pursuit I was changed, my beliefs were changed. I stopped being me and I became my dream.
I guess what I am trying to say is that pursuing our dreams does not make us good people or bad people, but that in the pursuit we are changed. Is Hillary the same person she was before this pursuit? I doubt it, but has she changed so much that she will forget the person before? This is the question that is giving me so much trouble. Do I think Hillary would make a better president than George Bush? Without a doubt, but I think that just about anyone can meet that standard. Is she the best that we can do to stand up for the principles that have been trampled down the last 7 years, to unify this nation and heal this nation? Hillary is a divisive figure. Many people see her and they either love her or they hate her, there isn’t a lot of middle ground. We are going to be dealing with the aftermath of these current clowns for years to come both domestically and internationally and I don’t know if such a polarizing figure will add to the healing process.
I would support Senator Obama, if I thought he had a snowballs chance in hell of winning. He is a unifying figure and I believe that he could go a long way to healing this nation not only of these recent debacles but previous ones as well, but this is a different story.
Hillary reminds me of that girl in school, who just tried too hard to be popular. You know the one, she was nice enough, but after awhile she started getting on your nerves. You just hoped that she would just stop trying so hard and just be herself. You knew people would like her if she only gave them a chance. Hillary is suffering from the fallout of her years in the White House as the right wing poster girl for liberal politics. They have affected her psyche; she has a chip on her shoulder. After these guys, do we really want someone coming in with a chip on their shoulder? It is hard for women, minorities, and progressive thinkers not to look at Hillary and want to see their aspirations for this country played out through her campaign and possible election, but frothy emotional appeals will not correct the many things that are wrong today. There are no moral victories in politics, either you win or you go home. Hillary cannot be all things to all people. She should stick to who she is, if she can remember and present that.
Stumble It!
1 comment:
Hi, Rodney! I just clicked in from MyLeftWing to see what your blog's about. I see that your a member of the AfroSpear, so that immediately increases my comfort level.
If I were to guess about what's giving you second thoughts on Hillary, I'd say it's the outstanding Barack Obama. The man's so intelligent, so poised and seems to come from such a place of integrity and honesty that it's hard for someone who has been in the trenches for so long NOT to seem a bit faded in comparison.
As I say, I think Barack Obama could make an excellent president IF he can be elected and IF he can ride out the kind of impeachment procedures that Bill Clinton did. Let's not kid ourselves. There's nothing so fresh and nice about Obama that he can propose national health care that takes money out of the pockets of insurers and doctors and still remain everybody's friend. As soon as they think he's going to be elected, they'll go all out against him, sparing no tactic that they used against Clinton and inventing some new ones targeted toward America's color-aroused ideation, emotion and voting behavior.
That's not to say he shouldn't be nominated. I think that after 43 consecutive white male presidents America is ready to see if a woman or a Black man can implement national health care where 43 consecutive white men have failed to do so. And let's not forget that 65% of voters are women and minorities. We are the majority, we who are not white men.
My concern for Obama is that he might not fully understand and appreciate yet the workings of Government, and it might take him longer to firmly assume the reigns of power than it would Bill and Hillary Clinton.
That's why I they should team up, as president and vice president, depending upon who gets more votes in the Democratic primaries. There are VERY FEW Democrats who won't enthusiastically vote for this ticket and, between them, they'll have both the idealism and the experience to implement a Democratic program, even in the face of the most virulent assaults by the insurance companies, other corporate interests and the ideological right.
A lot of people wonder why I oppose Markos Moulitsas ZÚÑIGA so much, but it really started out based on a simple calculation: Kos doesn't like Hillary OR Obama and Kos is going to throw his support to one of the white male candidates in the end, or otherwise try to ruin America's chances to elect its first president who is NOT a white man. That, alone, is reason enough for me to oppose Markos Moulitsas ZÚÑIGA, independent of his CIA contacts, the fact that is site is virtually all-white, his support for "states' rights," his lying about the wealth and influence and right-wing nature of his family in El Salvador, and their pollution of grey whale spawning grounds in Baja Mexico.
With all of these reasons to oppose Markos Alberto Moulitsas ZÚÑIGA, the fact that he banned me from his site is really virtually insignificant. Blacks ALWAYS oppose all-white forums from which we are banned, just as we opposed all-white lunch counters in the Jim Crow South. That shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
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