A reader over at Andrew Sullivan’s blog sent in a response to one of his posts that so totally echoes my opinion, that I’m not going to bother with a “Me, too” post — I’m just going to quote it in full right here.
Sullivan had ended an earlier post (about the potential that Clinton could win the nomination) with the line: “the Democrats aren’t that stupid, are they?” To which a reader wrote:
“Yes, yes, we are.
In fact, we’re probably even more stupid than you can possibly imagine. After all, we’re too stupid to realize that when we worry that the Republicans say we’re weak, we are being weak; too stupid to realize that when you consent to an Attorney General who won’t say whether waterboarding is torture, you get an AG who says later that waterboarding is not torture if it’s done to the right people; too stupid to realize that people want us to confront Bush more, not less; too stupid to realize that Hillary voted for the war with Iraq and another possible war with Iran; too stupid to realize that the Clintons both supported limited torture until the polls said otherwise; too stupid to realize that the Clintons are totally unethical (and why? because Bill is so damned charming!); too stupid to recognize that Bill Clinton sold us all out (I’m sorry, but gays and lesbians were not the only ones to give hand over fist only to be disappointed); too stupid to realize that 50% of the country will never vote for Hillary; too stupid to realize that we’ve got our Reagan, the reincarnate of JFK, staring us in the face; and too stupid to realize that, for the first time that I can think of, the most liberal candidate is the one that is most acceptable to independents and Republicans.
We don’t deserve to win this election if we don’t nominate Obama. And you’ll see a lot of Democrats like me abandon the party if we don’t. Just watch. It’s hard to keep associating yourself with this kind of ineptitude.”
That’s exactly where I’m at — after years of meekly backing down, rolling over, not fighting for us, equivocating on the shredding of the constitution, on warrantless wiretapping and even on goddamn TORTURE…. If, after all that, the Democratic party is so fucking stupid as to reject a new and inspirational paradigm in favor of the same old shifty, triangulating approach to politics, pulling campaign tactics out of the Rove playbook, hoping for a 51% win…..
Well, then, if that’s the case, then they deserve to lose, and I’m done with ’em.
I don’t even understand why it’s even close — If a Republican had dismissed Obama’s win by saying “Jesse Jackson won South Carolina twice” and then pledged to grab delegates that don’t exist (after earlier pledging to honor the rules), we’d be screaming our heads off in anger. Just because they’re The Clintons doesn’t make it forgivable.
She voted for the war on Iraq. She compounded this by voting to declare Iran’s republican guard a “terrorist organization” — giving Bush another opening. She was in favor of “harsh interrogation” before the polls made it clear that the American public knows torture when they see it. Plus, she has refused to say whether she’ll roll back the power-grab of the executive branch.
And yet, she could still win this. Wake up, people.