If you had asked me a year ago if I'd like to have a third term of Bill Clinton, I'd have said yes in a heartbeat. I defended his actions all throughout the 90's, even when there were times when I thought they were a bit sketchy. Probably it was because his attackers were just SO loathsome.
But now that I'm supporting a Clinton opponent, I think I'm starting to understand some of what I've been dismissing as mere right-wing talking points for so long.
I want to say right off the bat here, that I don't want this to be a snarky "hate on Hillary" thread. We get enough of those, with obnoxious one sentence comments that really say nothing of substance and just repeat old lines and use disgusting words like "Clintonistas" or "Hillbots" or "Billary" just to get a rise out of people. I'm not interested in doing that.
I'd like people to share their own stories and experiences of the journey from adamant Clinton supporter to disdain for things Clinton. I'm sure that many of us have had similar experiences, because I imagine that most of us over age 35 voted for Bill Clinton at least once, if not twice, as I did. I'm sure we defended him throughout his presidency as the GOP thugs took shot after shot at him.
Did you have a moment when you realized something that made you turn away from Bill and Hillary? When was that, and what was it? Was it about policy or tactics?
For me it was the realization that for the Clintons, it's more about "winning" in the short term than anything else. I guess I admired that when Bill was keeping Republicans out of the White House in the midst of a massive rise in the radical right in Congress and seemingly all across the country. Only later did I come to see his tactics as CONTRIBUTING to the rise of the right, and the only battle that we progressives won in those years was the actual battles for the White House that Bill himself won. No coattails. No policy wins. Just a lot of losses in Congress, governorships, state legislatures, and progressive policy deaths to show for 8 years of "leadership".
This has really been driven home in the past two months in their battle against Barack Obama. There is a single-mindedness at play there, a focus on winning the nomination that is SO SHARP that Hillary and her people can't seem to even see beyond that primary goal. It's like a pit dog. There seems to be little consideration of whether the tactics being employed to defeat Obama will in fact damage her chances against John McCain in the general election, much less whether they will permanently damage Obama if he in fact ends up being the Party's nominee. There have been enough diaries dissecting the tactics themselves, I think we all know what I'm talking about.
But that's just my breakup story. It's not like there weren't hints inthe past. Hillary's craven vote for the Iraq War just to seem "macho" enough to be elected President someday. The shallow protestations about the Dubai Ports deal just to score cheap political points (when even Bill and his pals thought the whole blowup was silly). Other signs. But now it's really over. I for one WILL still hold my nose and vote for Hillary in November if I have to because I'm a lawyer and SCOTUS is too important to me, but I'm gonna feel like Roy Munson in Kingpin after he had to "negotiate" his rent with his landlord (link kind of gross, you've been warned).
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