In the GLBT community we often muse about the gay basher's need to destroy what they fear most. It's not actually us that scares them, rather it's the part within them that seeks to be like us. (A short hand version is "closet-case.")
The last several weeks has seen multiple diaries touting Hillary's inherent evilness and unelectability. She engages in the politics of personal destruction. She divides the party on race and gender lines to advance her campaign. She betrays every progressive ideal. She will drag us to defeat due to her unelectability.
Confined to the noise of recommended diaries, this was annoying and hurtful but at least barely tolerable. Tonight however, it infected the front page
After wrongly criticizing Hillary for being the only candidate to campaign in the state - not true - the author went on to dismiss the more than 850,000 voters who chose her with the following
The Democratic turnout was the most skewed we've seen so far: 59% female, only 41% male. Women voted 54% for Clinton, 31% for Obama and 13% for Edwards. And it was also the oldest turnout we've seen so far; 28% of Democratic voters were 65 or older. Voters 65 and older gave Clinton 59%, with Obama getting just 24% and Edwards 13%. But with voters 18 to 64, Clinton—despite being the only candidate to contest visit the state—got just 45% to Obama's 37%, with Edwards pulling in 11%. That 50% of voters came out to vote for candidates who refused to campaign in their state and say the state's delegates should not be sat at the convention, and that a majority of the voters under 64 voted for someone other than Clinton are statistics that probably don't give the Clinton campaign a ton of confidence going in to Super Tuesday.
Imagine for a moment if an author had attempted to dismiss the South Carolina voters in the same manner. Substitute race for gender? Imagine the firestorm.
(Let's ignore for a moment the fact the author is surprised that Florida had some of the oldest voters in the primary. Some things are just too obvious. That she beat Obama in the 18-64 category by 8% even though he also visited the state and had campaign literature dropped for him. (There is no guarantee that Edwards voters would have gone to Obama but if she did she only lost by 3% total.)
No, none of that got mentioned. Instead we got a pious declaration that neither Edwards nor Obama had fought to seat delegates. (As if we would believe that their tune wouldn't change if they won the popular votes by these margins.)
Tonight we saw Hillary smash the unelectability myth. Over 850,000 people voted for her. She won in all but two categories (African Americans and Republicans). Yet I still hear virulent promises from Obama supporters that they will stay home if she gets the nomination. (I don't hear that from Edwards or Clinton supporters if Obama wins.) That betrays us all.
This willingness to ignore reality - as evidenced in this and other diaries - reminds me of the rhetoric spewed from the White House. Numbers not based in reality. Venom leveled at non-believers. A belief that the ends justify the means. Dismissal of supporters as less than worthy.
Everything that many of Obama's most fevered supporters have accused Hillary of being, they have become. Daily Kos used to be the reality based community. No longer.