I've been thinking about how the dems will pull together once Obama has secured the nomination. It's pretty ugly out there. The Hillary folks have their reasons for supporting her, or maybe for not supporting Obama and defaulting into Hillary's camp. I'm worn out reading the same old arguments, seems there's very little new aside from escalating levels of animosity. I'm saddened when I see Obama folks degenerate into the realm of dirty tricks, latching onto out-of-context soundbites, absurd hyperbole. I'm saddened because, if anyone has the right to fight those tactics with similar, it would be Obama himself. And he doesn't. He proceeds with confidence that integrity, decency and inclusiveness will prevail. I think his supporters should consider following his lead.
Now, all civil discussion aside, I'll swandive into the real dark corners of my mind.
It's not so easy to be presented with an opposing viewpoint where some damned blind idiot won't listen to what's so obviously The Truth: Hillary is nothing but a smarmy-ass, weasly, win-at-any-cost politician. spit
It's not so easy to play nice when the arsenal of NAFTA grenades and DUCK sniper bombs and "I have no reason to believe he's not a Christian" mines are laying around all over Youtube to implode that stupid Hillary-supporting-moron's argument with. You know what I mean?
heh heh heh
That's the sound of die-hard republicans laughing up their collective sleeves at us, ya know. They are cheerfully watching us--once again-- set up the machinery to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. (yeah, it's a tired cliche. Repubs seem drawn to them. Go figure.)
Soooooooo.... how exactly do I keep my focus on the Forest rather than valiantly run head first into every tree that's got a Hillary Harpy perched on the Branch of Experience, waiting to crap on my hope-filled (albeit knot-adorned) head?
Time for the Big Guns. Had to ask myself what my Inner Buddha would do. Well, that's simple. The ol' Inner Buddha would kick ass. Gently. Non-militantly. The ol' I.B. would, in fact, just let The Opponent kick his own ass. Yeah! That's the ticket! Maybe not as instantly gratifying to the primitive "if they're not with me, nuke 'em" part of the brain, but hey, I prefer to believe I've evolved. Some.
So, I'm thinking. (energy efficient bulb-of-enlightenment glows tepidly) I'm wondering how Hillary supporters would react to a different kind of stimulus, a non-aggressive stimulus. Something along the lines of letting them have their say without interrupting or screeching of DOOM. (The idea!) Maybe finding a point or two of agreement, something simple like, "yeah, Hillary and Obama are pretty similar in terms of policy. After all, they are on the same side of the political spectrum." Or something.
Obama does it all the time. You can't convince me he has no emotional investment in Being Right. So I can follow his example. Win the battle or win the war? I'll opt for winning the war, thanks.
So, after all's been said, and after common grounds have been discovered, I'll still have to serve my crux of the biscuit:
Yeah, you've got some valid points. After the last 7 years of being misinformed, deceivd and manipulated by the Bush administration, I'm really leery of putting someone else in office who's been using similar tactics to gain advantage throughout her campaign. I'm more comfortable with someone who's shown he respects us voters enough to be honest with us, even when the truth isn't always going to be simple or easy to digest. I'm more comfortable with someone who's successfully managed his campaign by being beholden to us regular folks, rather than to corporate interests. Those are some things I really do believe need to change, going forward.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
May the better candidate win.
cheers! (My first diary, and it took only 2 martinis to edit it into something sensible-ish. That's pretty painless :-)