I get it. I get that there are Clinton supporters who might not like how the whole thing played out. I get the anger over the sexism — subtle and not-so-subtle. But I fundamentally cannot believe that the 30% of Clinton supporters who say they will vote for McCain over Obama would have voted for her in the general election.
Look, I understand the protest vote. Hell, I voted for Nader. Twice. But when you protest vote, you vote for the person who’s even more extreme in your direction then what’s currently offered. You don’t protest vote backwards.
When a Democrat chooses the Republican over the Democratic candidate to prove a point or to make some sort of statement, they are no longer a Democrat and in fact, may never have been.
I really want to believe that this whole thing is not a very big deal. Is this really a problem? Is this really going to cost the Democrats the White House? Really? Are these people seriously going to get into the voting booth and pull the lever (god, that so old-fashioned sounding) for the other guy just because this guy is a guy and not the girl?
The press really wants you to think there’s a problem – a brouhaha brewing in Denver. I don’t know if MSNBC deliberately parked in front of the Clinton for McCain contingent or that group of crazy white women (with a couple of clearly crazy white men) found them but seriously. Stop it. Slog has a reporter embedded in the Washington convention delegation where’s she’s following the inner turmoil of the Clinton delegates and frankly it’s pretty interesting. Clearly, there is an issue. But are they really not going to support the Democrat come November?
The conventions are billed as introducing the candidates to America. But that’s actually not true. America will get introduced through the ads and the debates with occasional local press coverage of campaign stops. Conventions are really about inspiring the faithful and convincing the skeptics. So, for this Denver convention, Obama is trying to convince not the 30% but the other 25% or so that aren’t entirely convinced about him yet. And that is a very small, thin slice of people.
Some thoughts on the entire thing:
1. Why, why would you vote against your own self-interests? It’s like an entire group of people have turned into Kansas. I know some people do it but it makes no sense to me. In general, the Republican Party is less supportive of women, their bodies, their desire for a working wage, their need for access to health care for themselves and their children, subsidized day care …. I could go on. Do I need to go on?
2. Democrats (and I’m speaking to the true Democrats here, not the elephants in donkey coverings), do not confuse the issue by wondering if your candidate was nice to the other candidates, if every effort was made to let everyone have a turn, if all of our slices are equal. Do not try to make this entire nominating thing a pleasant summer backyard barbecue with touch football games and breezy, beery conversation. It is a country club cocktail reception (thanks for the visual, Bill!) where you air kiss on the cheek, inquire politely after the kids, shake your heads at the crazy Republicans and then, when it’s all done, pick the knives out of your back and prepare for the next one. Because that’s what it takes to win, folks. Democrats fall in love; Republicans fall in line. And that’s why we lose.
3. At the point where Hillary Clinton stands up and says “I am voting for Barack Obama because I think he’s a better choice than John McCain to be the next president,” any Clinton supporter who does not follow this logic is no longer a Clinton supporter and therefore no longer has Clinton’s best interests at heart. End of story.
4. On the other hand, Clinton sure as shit better stand up tomorrow and say in no uncertian terms that McCain is missappropriating her, her words and her supporters. While she cannot tell people how to vote, she can tell them that a vote against Obama doesn’t just damage the party, it damages her and it damages our country.
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Amen!
I honestly don’t believe that that survey was accurate. I can’t see how someone who is so passionate about politics on the democrat side would shun the party for McCain. I don’t see it happening. I think that when the chips are down, Obama will have all but perhaps 1% of the hillary fans, and those will probably be people who wouldn’t have voted unless a woman was running in the first place.