This is my first diary here. I look forward to hearing from this community about it. Look, this election is important and all the dumbass shit that has come up over the last three weeks in this race is sickening.
The day of the Texas primary my mother, who voted for Bush the last two elections, called me for advice. Before Bush, she voted for the democratic candidate 99% of the time.
She wanted my advice about who she should vote for; Clinton, or Obama? For her it was a really difficult decision.
I am an Obama supporter. I thought of reasons why I would vote for him. But those reasons are difficult to sum up in a sentence or two. The only thing I could think of was Rush Limbaugh wanted Hillary Clinton around. I told her that that was the only way that the Republicans thought they could win the General Election.
She thought for a moment, and said that that was good enough for her. She is in the demographic that Clinton wins, the coveted over 60 white woman.
And this leads me to my dilemma. I would love to see a female Presidential nominee, and I would love to see an African-American nominee. Shit, I'll be honest, if the best candidate was a cross-dressing, trans-sexual, arab-inuit-israeli-scientologist, I would vote for them.
We need to find out who the Best Candidate is. The person who can change the way this country votes and thinks.
A huge part of my family loves Rush Limbaugh. They are not bad, or evil because of that. My 85 year old Grandma is convinced that Obama is a Muslim. She isn't a bad person. The problem that this country is facing is that it is so easy to discount someone who we stereotype. "They" are bad and must be defeated by "us." It is the easy way to win. When I sit with someone who I know that disagrees with me, I don't want to punch them in the face, I want to find out why they think that way. Do they have strong ideals, has political dogma won them over, have they been told lies and believe them?
Anything this stupid awful war and this primary has taught us (Obama=Muslim, Speeches=empty words, Michigan/Florida won't count=now they need to because we will disillusion people, Iraq=WMD, Iran=WMD=wants to use them...etc...etc) is that some people and a bunch of talking heads will believe anything and report the most sensational bullshit. I hope that most people are smart enough to check up on the facts themselves. I don't know if they do. I suspect not. It is much easier to have someone tell you what to do and think than to do that yourself. So it seems that the first person to say something, true or not, wins the argument. So let us redefine the discussion. Let us let our friends and neighbors know what we think and why we think it.
I have some simple questions for the Clinton Campaign. But this is only one issue. It can be applied to any of her proposals. If you win with your 50+1 plan for the Presidency, how will you pass healthcare reform? Can't Republicans filibuster just like the Democrats did? Why would Republicans cooperate with you? What have you ever done that would make any Republican want to sign off on your bill?
You will fight, you will kill the party, and you may somehow win. You will not accomplish anything because you will fight, and fight, and destroy anyone, even someone in your own party.