The Debate
Yeah, I watched the first hour of it… then I had to go night-night.
Notes:
Clinton was dog-piled as everyone knew she would be. The attack… flip-flopping. This is generally a gendered attack on male politicians that suggest they aren’t masculine (read: decisive and intransigent) enough.
Electability… again, reference to the polls that show many men will not vote for Clinton because she represents feminism… saying more about what they think feminism is than any commitment Clinton herself might demonstrate to overturning male-supremacy.
Were there legitimate reasons to attack her record and positions? Hell yes. She’s an imperial war hawk, for starters, a muckymuck with the corporate DLC, and deeply committed to neoliberalism. But criticism of her war support was tepid; and while several opponents went after her support of the Iran war resolution, no one made the statement of fact that Iran is not a dangerous country.
Where her opponents and the press jumped down her throat… and here’s where I told you so… was on immigration. She said it was okay to issue drivers’ licenses to undocumented (“illegal”) immigrants, as a practical safety measure — the only sensible position she took on a damn thing all night — and has been getting slammed for going on two days now.
Tonight on MSNBC, Chris Matthews and his guests (among them arch-xenophobe Pat Buchanan) were openly talking about how “Americans” don’t like seeing all these people that don’t look right or talk right; and how the mere appearance of “supporting illegals” will be a political kiss of death in 2008 A-me-ri-ca.
That’s right folks, this will be the Year of the Xenophobes.
And forget Dennis Kucinich. His entrapment on the question of aliens (not illegal ones), UFOs that is, has effectively done what the defense industry media and the DLC have wanted to do ever since he recently polled 2nd in a California straw poll… trivialize and marginalize him forever.
I contend that “illegal aliens” will be the defining issue of the 2008 election that will put a Republican back in the Oval Office (because the Democratic candidate will not take a firm position against the Iraq occupation). I said that months ago, and I stand by it.
And the Democrats deserve it.
That’s why when Ralph Nader runs again, I’ll be getting petition signatures in North Carolina to put his name on the ballot.
I invite readers to see what the Dems did to Ralph the last time he ran… it was thuggish. Here’s the link.
Meanwhile, the criminal war continues, and America slouches toward its own unique rewrite of fascism… one where Latin@s are portrayed as the infection in the body politic.
History will say we deserved everything we are going to get; and may the Democratic Leadership Council and all its members rot in Hell.
G.:
Hilary vs. Barack
Democrat vs. Republican
White vs. Colour
Nation vs. Nation
Neighbour vs. Neighbour
Worker vs. Worker
Man vs. Woman
You get the idea.
We’re all rotting in Hell.
31 October 2007, 8:28 pmThe Buffalo In Da' Midst:
“…And forget Dennis Kucinich. His entrapment on the question of aliens (not illegal ones), UFOs that is, has effectively done what the defense industry media and the DLC have wanted to do ever since he recently polled 2nd in a California straw poll… trivialize and marginalize him forever.”
He IS the ‘outsider’. I believe that’s his chosen role no matter how hard he campaigns.
He seems to be able to get things, if not done, noticed. Like jacking the Pentagon up about U.S. troops already in Iran a few months back.
Of course, his position as a Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee earned him a thorough stonewalling, but it made SOME dent in the main stream media… not much… some.
After he was unseated as mayor of Cleveland in a scandal he was exonerated for later, I understand he hung out in California, San Diego if I remember correctly, with a group of, for want of a better word (and for want of not remembering the group’s name) extremely focussed, political Rainbows…
That should be no handicap. I mean George W. Bush was a ‘coke monster’ and made it to the oval office!
The only reason I can truly think of why Dennis Kucinich would never get elected is simply because he is scrupulously honest and forthright about any subject you’d care to broach.
That’s not a trait any corporation is willing to pay into *anyone’s* campaign coffer for, no matter WHICH side of the issue you stand on, and campaign contributions elect presidents.
Sigh…..
31 October 2007, 9:24 pmDeAnander:
I think the Rethugs are trying to replay the Governor Moonbeam gambit with Dennis K. Unfortunately it is likely to work, since the solipsism and parochialism of US mainstream culture still defines everything outside an obsessively narrow band of opinion/appearance/speech as “weird” and therefore either scary or ridiculous. Poor DK, he seems a decent fellow and quite intelligent, but he’s like a mom-n-pop diner trying to compete with McD’s.
Meanwhile…
The weapons industry barons are seriously courting Hillary. Do they know something we don’t? Our modern day Krupps — more candidates for that great compost heap in the Infernal Regions.
1 November 2007, 1:23 amStan:
Check out Huffpo on this. The mere mention of Nader drives them batshit.
This invective came to me last night because I am about to meet my son this morning, freshly back from Tikrit. His wife — who is in the National Guard — may be next to go.
How much super-glue does it take to fill the locks on the office doors of military-industrial-financial America?
As the Tracy Chapman tune says, it’s time to start all over.
1 November 2007, 5:00 amEd:
I’m glad your son is home safely.
STAN: Thanks, Ed. Both of them for now. One scheduled to go to Afghanistan in March. The other just back from Tikrit.
12 November 2007, 1:39 pm