What I Learned In Kindergarten

As the Democratic primary continues to drag on I am reminded of a book I read a long time ago. The name of the book was, “All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten”. Obviously the candidates and their campaigns didn’t read the book, if they had maybe there would be a lot less of this incessant snipping that has overtaken the issues in this campaign. In the book the author states that the most important lessons in life the Golden Rule, honesty, clean up your own mess, and say you're sorry when you hurt somebody he learned in kindergarten. These valuable lessons would be a welcome change on the campaign trail. For many of us, kindergarten represented our first foray into the social experiment we call society. It was important to learn the ground rules of interpersonal communications to learn how to navigate the many pitfalls that await those who don’t learn them.

GRANTHAM, Pa. — A candidate forum devoted to issues of faith and justice became another flash point for Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton to spar in their intensifying nominating fight, with the candidates exchanging frosty glances Sunday night as their paths briefly crossed on stage.

The Democratic contenders addressed the Compassion Forum at Messiah College here, one after the other. Their cold, quick encounter as they traded places on the stage reflected the hostility between them over the past two days as Mrs. Clinton has repeatedly hammered Mr. Obama for remarks he made at a fund-raiser suggesting that some voters turned to religion and guns as consolation for their bitterness about their economic hardship.[1]

While each candidate’s supporters will want to claim the high ground in this campaign and blame the other for any perceived slights or violation of their sacred cows. The problem with having two historical candidacies is that each one believes they have an inherent right to be in the race and the eventual nominee. The problem with their supporters is that they also believe their “cause” is the only important cause in the election. So here we are with both camps going back forth like schoolchildren, each one complaining of the others unfair advantage in the media, in the polls, and in the gender/race wars. She doesn’t like blacks, he doesn’t like women or rural whites, or he/she is a sellout. The longer this process goes on the more absurd the charges have become.

Because there is so little difference in the overall policy directions of both candidates, they both essentially want the same things; the devil is in the details. Since there are no glaring differences, for instance one wants tax-cuts and the other one doesn’t or one favors abortion and the other one doesn’t, we are left with these magnified differences to show separation. Small differences and slights have been elevated to mountain status, instead of focusing on the definable differences between themselves and John McCain; the campaigns would rather focus on the minute differences between the two. So we are left with this back and forth on a range of topics that will have no bearing on the general election.

Religion has become a contentious subtext in the Democratic campaign in recent days after Mr. Obama’s comments. Before the forum, he began his most spirited counterattack on Mrs. Clinton since the flap erupted over his remarks, saying of her attacks, “She knows better. Shame on her.” He also mocked Mrs. Clinton’s own recent comments courting gun owners, saying she was “talking like she’s Annie Oakley. Hillary Clinton’s out there like she’s on the duck blind every Sunday. She’s packing a six-shooter. Come on, she knows better.”[2]

Let’s face it politicians pander, that’s what they do. In order to gain votes each one tailors his/her message to appeal to that electorate. As this thing moves forward they will have to tailor more specific messages to target more specific voters in order to highlight differences and in the process even minor position changes are going to be trumpeted from the rooftops. So we end up with much ado about nothing. And the MSM in an effort to sell more ads will continue to stoke any perceived riff between the Democrats while affording John McCain as much positive coverage as they can.

On Friday, it got to be too much for Alegre, a diarist on the flagship liberal blog DailyKos, who frequently writes in support of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“I’ve put up with the abuse and anger because I’ve always believed in what our online community has tried to accomplish in this world,” Alegre wrote Friday evening. “No more.”

Objecting to the tone of attacks against Mrs. Clinton and her supporters on the blog, the diarist called for a “writers strike.”[3]

What is amazing to me is how the blogosphere has allowed itself to be dragged into this. I can understand how fanatical supporters are being tossed to and fro by every little detail and every little slight, but where is the perspective? Many supporters of both candidates have gone off the deep end with their fanatical belief that their gender/race candidate has some inherent birthright to the Presidency and anyone who does not share in their belief is out of touch with reality. As if not electing their candidate will be the end of the world as we know it, the time for race/gender identity politics must end.

I suggest we all go back to kindergarten and relearn some valuable lessons that many of us have forgotten. Here’s a good one - When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/us/politics/14forum.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/us/politics/14forum.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
[3] http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/15/blogtalk-pro-clinton-bloggers-walk-out-of-kos/