June 4, 2008

Unity and Uniting

As I sit here in my office I wax mildly philosophical regarding the state of this great nation of ours and how I just felt like lobbing out a vitriolic post re: Hillary Clinton's speech last night. Then I read some things that Jill had to say regarding the whole matter and I found my center. Ultimately, if one believes what Hillary says, Hillary does want to work to ultimately fight for the ideals she espouses. Her record in the Senate echoes that by and large, so her words do not ring entirely hollow.

Over the course of an intense and exciting electoral process, people tend to exhaust themselves in their words, sometimes causing them to sound like they've run out of ideas (so put by Mary Matalin about Barack Obama this morning on CNN) or that they've lost tact (RFKgate on Hillary's end). Ultimately, though, the two minds behind the words ring full of ideas that will work to better serve America. Can the same be said of John McCain? Probably, but I disagree with his ideas, because I feel that a market left to roam freely will be a market that cannibalizes itself. That continuing to occupy Iraq isn't the best way to bring this conflict to a reasonable and successful conclusion. President Bush has certainly done enough to keep that from happening.

Whether the folks who read and author pieces for websites like HumanEvents and Newsmax wish to admit it or not, whether a President Clinton or Obama were elected, America will not become a new Socialist Republic of Badtopia, Israel will not be annihilated by Iran through the willful ignorance of the American leader, and they certainly won't take your ball and go home.

Let us then unite behind our candidate. I forgive Hillary for all of her statements, though I still wonder what compelled her to say many of the things she did (and more importantly did not) say, forgive her support of the gas-tax holiday, and forgive her support of going to Iraq in the first place. I will forgive you Senator Clinton for your supporters effectively threatening to rend the Democratic Party if you were not the nominee, looking out for you instead of the general goals of everyone else. And I can forgive you for calling Barack Obama misogynistic without giving pause to the words coming out of the mouth of your husband, the ex-President.

But now, will you forgive us? Will you forgive our screeches of racism and four-and-five letter words? Will you forgive us for our stunned disbelief with your repeated stating that you had won more votes than did Senator Obama, rendering all votes cast in caucuses meaningless? Will you forgive us for our equally stunned disbelief at your insistence that you could compete in a general election in purported swing states because you had won the primary elections in those same states? Will you forgive us for our anger when your supporters insist that they will be voting for you via write in instead of, again, looking for the greater good by combining forces with Senator Obama in electing a Democrat against Senator McCain in November?

I will forgive. Will you, will your supporters?

-rl

2 comments:

Jill said...

Interesting reflections, Ryan. Sadly, I think Clinton is too calculating to consider forgiveness of any kind - it's that political ruthlessness that others have ascribed to both Clinton and Obama (i.e., "throwing his grandmother under the bus" or Rev. Wright and now his church). They are both very shrewd and as much as what you wrote is really the way it should be re: relations between the voters and the people they hope will represent them, Clinton is all too human.

However, I do believe that she will put the party first. I just heard Charlie Rangel on the tv while eating some lunch and man, he is NOT happy with her right now. And he's one of her staunchest supporters.

He is a smart, smart politician and more experienced in many ways than she is. So he is someone I believe can have an impact on her.

I'm happy to let them get all their angst worked out while we focus on the real battle - winning the White House. Because it really is going to be a Herculean task.

Ryan said...

I feel awful for writing the post previous to this one, but I was fuming. I agree with you, Jill: HRC and Obama are both candidates with political prowess and calculation.

With all the pressure that has been laid upon her by the likes of Rendell and Rangel, she will ultimately make the right decision, albeit done at her own time.

As an aside, I saw Rangel speak at Case in 2005 (I think?) with Dr. Tom Sutton from Baldwin-Wallace's political science department. He's a great speaker.