Transcendence and the Inconvenience of Principles
By Anita Finlay ("Ani") on August 31, 2008 at 11:30 PM in Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Bill Richardson, Democratic National Convention, Democratic Nomination, Democrats Against Obama, Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, John McCain, Nancy Pelosi, Sarah Palin
They say you will never know what your principles are until they become inconvenient to you.
Well, my principles have officially become inconvenient. Still, I find that I just cannot stand in lock step with a Party I consider to be hopelessly corrupt: a Party that conducted a phony roll call and cut the best candidate off at the knees in order to push their puppet king. The Democratic Party is broken and not even Hillary can put Humpty-Dumpty back together again.
Hillary Clinton gave an eloquent, passionate speech at the Convention Tuesday night. She was on her game, in command, and so committed to the goals and values she campaigned on that she emerged as the most exciting person at the Convention by far. Transcendent is the appropriate word.
All the endless media bashing and back stabbing by the losers’ club in her Party seemed to have no effect. She has emerged an icon, bigger and better than all of them. Someone the DNC wrongly pegged as a woman to be reviled has become an admired, even beloved figure; perhaps a martyr to their corrupt cause of nominating an empty suit.
How frustrating for the blogger boyz, media dogs like Keith Olbermann, and the heavy hitting DNC thug squad comprised of Dean, Pelosi, Kerry and Brazile, to name a few, that they couldn’t keep her down. She looked radiant, composed and in charge. That must have really frosted their bananas.
‘We all know what happened here,’ she seemed to say, ‘but I am going to do my job tonight.’ And she did. Extremely well. But in so doing, she only made the travesty of this nomination more evident. As Anglachel brilliantly pointed out in her analysis of Hillary’s speech, she now owes the party nothing.
So Hillary transcended. What about the rest of us?
My principles prevent me from voting for this man. He is unqualified and a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Based on his past voting record, his behavior, his actions and those of his campaign, I do not trust anything that comes out of his mouth.
Do you know how I know he’s lying? His lips are moving.
Remember FISA, Senator Obama? He may pay lip service to the policies Hillary campaigned on – but I do not trust my future to him. And I will not reward the DNC’s behavior. Perhaps the nominating process was always this rigged. It just went on too long this time so we actually got to peer behind the green curtain and see the wizard.
This fixed process is the reason we always wind up voting for the lesser of two evils, never really excited about a candidate. I think voters are so beaten down by years of this, they are used to voting in lock step with their Party, shrugging: ‘Well, that’s they way it is. Where else are you gonna go?’ That’s exactly what David Axelrod and Co. count on. Sorry. No dice.
In the middle of a haircut the other day, the stylist innocently asked my thoughts on the Democratic Convention. She is a kind young woman and we have never discussed politics. I nearly exploded that Obama is useless and this whole Convention was a sham. She, you see, is ready to ‘shrug’ at the voting booth, as we all usually do and I’m sure she was mortified to find that I will not vote for Obama, though I’ve been a solid Democrat all my life.
I am equally sure there are those who feel exactly as I do – many more than the arrogant pundit class, the DNC or Senator Obama would care to admit.
What to do about my inconvenient principles? Should I just stay silent these next two months? Should I hope that people will do their own due diligence? The same due diligence that millions have not bothered to do up to this point? The same due diligence that the mainstream media will not help them do because the pablum we are fed is, indeed, a fairy tale? The media narrative about Obama’s ‘historic’ candidacy seems to take complete precedence over whether he is qualified or honest enough to lead.
And for the hundredth time, this is no longer about Hillary.
The only reason I hung with this Democratic Party of losers for 30 years was because I was confident they occupied the moral high ground. Why did they keep nominating losers; elitists that could not speak to Middle America – do Democrats think these people are unworthy of inclusion? Surely, that can’t be true. Bill and Hillary spoke to them. The DNC didn’t like that.
Lately, the DNC is all for show. Just pretend you’re pushing to pass legislation to help those in need. ‘Oh, but we don’t have a majority so we can’t do it.’ ‘Oh, but we don’t have a big enough majority so we can’t do it.’ ‘Well, we tried.’ Well, that’s a crock of crap. Hillary worked to pass SCHIP and got insurance for 6 million kids who didn’t have any. She worked with none other than Newt Gingrich.
If you really want to push legislation through – make your case to the American people. Create pressure. Get off your ass, Congress! How’s that for an idea?
How much do those cushy Dems really want change? Senator Obama certainly doesn’t. His actions completely belie all of his campaign promises. And he chose a good ole’ boy from the old guard: a Senator of 36 years; a sexist himself; his own son a lobbyist.
Remember when Pelosi, our newly minted Speaker of the House, said “impeachment is off the table”? Uh huh. Now I think I’ve got it.
With some very honorable exceptions, there are many in the party just playing kick the can and making a big dumb-show to no avail. You’ll pardon me if I don’t trust the likes of Dodd, Kerry, Pelosi, Richardson et al to push the candidate really capable of CHANGE.
Principles. They sure are inconvenient. But when is it a good time to stand up for what you believe in? I want my country back. I don’t want to be choked by an unscrupulous media telling me who my President should be. People are losing their homes. Our economy is in the toilet. We are in a mess abroad. Senator Obama just spent Six Million Dollars for a faux Grecian temple and he’s talking about reform? Bullshit.
I thought my party was the ‘better’ one but now that McCain named Sarah Palin as his VP, the sexist attacks have already begun. I thought Democrats supported equal rights for women? Guess I was wrong about that, too.
Sarah Palin is the Governor of the State of Alaska. She also commands the National Guard there: a very crucial task because of Alaska’s location. Some of the sexists might want to look at a map.
This woman has more governing and executive experience in her little finger than Obama has in his whole body and she is running to be #2 on the ticket, not #1. And his campaign is talking about her lack of experience?
She may not be Hillary Clinton, but this woman will make Obama look pale. Trust me, it’s not that hard. I can smell that Governor Palin has more grit than the phony teleprompter-addicted Obama from a mile away.
Pundits on networks and the Obamarama blogosphere are insulting her, calling her a cheerleader and a joke. How about doing a little research before you defecate on yet another woman? They are also saying disgusting and cruel things about her child with Down Syndrome – and these filthy people dare to call themselves Democrats? Not a smart campaign strategy in my view. Might piss me off even more. Principles, remember?
Hillary can sit back ruefully and note that at least she won’t be the only one to suffer the outrageous onslaught that is surely coming.
But this time, we’ll be ready.
As to my principles, no, I will not keep silent, even if it is inconvenient.
I know many thoughtful, caring and educated people who have actually lost friends because they are not willing to drink the stuff the DNC is selling. I am not happy that a couple of my friends who are still sipping the “Democrats only” kool-aid think I’m over the top. I understand why. It is entirely too frightening for them to conceive of the fact that they cannot trust the only group they’ve ever trusted. Nobody likes their world turned upside down. First of all, it’s too much work to fix it.
Perhaps if I got my ‘news’ from the Obama pillow-fluff and leg-tingle network, MSNBC, I’d think Obama was great, too. But I don’t, so I don’t.
Hillary’s entire argument, as an eminently capable candidate, was that she just wanted to be judged on the merits. Plenty of people actually did that and voted for her. The big reason she doesn’t have the nomination right now is because of the idiotic DNC riding shotgun for a charlatan.
Competence: what a concept.
Well here’s a good suggestion for everyone regardless of party affiliation or your eventual voting decision in November: do your own due diligence on the candidates. Learn who they really are and what they stand for. Up is down this entire year so assume nothing. Look at what the candidates do and have done, not just what they say. Talk is cheap. Actions speak.
Judge on the merits – not on packaging.
If people had been smart enough to do that, we wouldn’t be stuck with Senator Obama, the American Idol candidate.
And my principles wouldn’t have propelled me to abandon the corrupt Democratic Party.
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