The hatred is thick. It’s so thick you can hear it in the voices spewing out support for their candidate. You can see it in their eyes as they brow beat opponents with disgusted gestures. The hatred seems so palpable nowadays I’d venture you can feel it over the dinner table when husbands and wives pass the potatoes to each other in utter silence. It’s no longer a civil discussion about two highly qualified Democrat candidates. It has suddenly become a referendum on who is absolutely right and who is absolutely wrong.
"I know exactly what I'm talking about, you don't. Clinton gives solutions. Obama gives speeches. How dare you think you know more than I do?" snarled a sixty-eight year old woman yesterday to a twenty-something upstart. Her facial expression alternated between disappointment and disgust.
The young man attempted to point out the legislative accomplishments of Senator Barack Obama and the need to bring transparency to Washington but his words fell on deaf ears. He might as well have been talking about the origins of a foreign language.
Two minutes later, possibly out of frustration or anger, the old lady drew a line in the sand. "There is no way in the world I will ever vote for Barack Hussein Obama. I’d rather have Bush back in office."
Not missing a beat, the young man responded, "And I’d personally vote for Ralph Nader or John McCain before I let another corrupt, File-gate, tax-returns evading Clinton into the Whitehouse."
Roughly five minutes later, grandmother and grandson exited the civic center, got into separate cars, and left a thick air of bitterness in their wake.
As a new jack to the political scene, I can’t claim to know a whole lot about the primary season. In my eyes, two powerful candidates vying for the party’s nomination would seem to logically imply that a certain kind of competiveness is to be expected. But the level of verbal attacks I have witnesses over the past few weeks among supporters of both Senator Obama and Senator Clinton seem to be tilting towards extreme dislike, if not outright hatred.
Only a few days ago, reports of a Barack Obama supporter being stabbed by a Hillary Clinton supporter trickled into mainstream news. A few political pundits laughed away the spectacle as though it was an oddity unrepresentative of the masses; like, say, the people on the stage of a typical Jerry Springer show. I disagree with that assumption. This assault case, though certainly extreme, seems to represent a growing number of potential voters who are literally at war with each other on a grassroots level. They don’t just disagree with each other, they actually despise each other.
Being a professional poker player gives me the chance to travel all across the country. Many times this allows me to see different shades of America from different states. Yet, everywhere I go, a single image begins to crystallize in front of me: the Democratic Party is at war with itself.
The state of Nevada literally had to postpone its convention because of the chaos that erupted once Obama and Clinton supporters got together. Allegations of foul play ran rampant. Anyone who thinks it’s going to be easy to heal the wounds left behind by this bloody battle in the trenches, regardless of the eventual nominee, may be a bit naïve at best.
To be frank, this isn’t even about politics anymore. With the lack of a substantial policy difference between the two candidates, it has become an extremely personal and oftentimes irrational debate among supporters. The conversation usually bypass issues after five minutes and become something more personal, more insulting. People are walking away from political discussions with their feelings hurt. Literally.
I overheard an interesting conversation in a bookstore recently. Female: You voting for Obama, right? Man: Ah, how you know? Female: You black. (The lady skipped over the man and handed some Vote 4 Hillary pamphlets to a couple of college students at the next table. The man seemed more confused than offended.)
Neither hope nor experience can heal wounds this deep.
I think we all can learn from the rift the 1980 convention in New York between Edward Kennedy and Jimmy Carter created. Although President Carter received the nomination with 51.2 % of the primary votes, a large faction in the party left bitter and unsupportive. Much of that disdain leaked out into the general elections.
After seven and a half years of George Bush, it would be a gigantic political blunder to allow the primaries between two titans to become so hostile Democrats lose in the general elections. There has to be a clear understanding between both Clinton and Obama supporters that, while we may disagree on who should be our nominee, we can do so without being disagreeable. We will need each other, desperately, once the GOP attack machine cranks up in full force. Be it Senator Obama or Senator Clinton, don’t think for a second that the fight against Karl Rove and his tactics will be easy.
If I had the power to go back to the civic center before the grandmother and grandson parted ways, I would ask them to be proud that the Democratic Party has two powerful candidates vying for the nomination. It shows us how far the party has come. At the same time, I think it would be absurd to punish the party for having two great candidates by either not voting or voting for another term—policy wise—of George W. Bush.
No matter who becomes the nominee between Senator Obama and Senator Clinton, the Democratic Party can count on my vote during the general elections. I wish I could say the same about so many others who are bickering online and in the street as I write this.
UPDATE: I guess all the signs point to a long, ugly battle to the convention. A friend just emailed me the news article about the Clinton campaign threatening to sue Texas. This, even from the most optimistic of souls, can't be good for the party.