With all the talk about math, delegates, superdelegates, real estate deals, experience, change, naivete, corporate servitude, shady deals, questionable ethics, back-stabbing, and general bitterness, I thought I would add my own $0.02 to the conversation. Not that anybody asked, of course.
But all my little pea-brain can come up with is this: can we remember who the real enemy is?
The real enemy is the party that led us into an unending war that's breaking our military, killing some of our best men and women, draining our Treasury, and ruining the good name of the world's greatest democracy.
The real enemy is the party of corporate greed and corruption, one that never saw a sweetheart deal it didn't like, one that even today remains all too eager to trade in our best interests for its own financial gain.
The real enemy is the party that sees the Constitution as a roadblock to a "unitary executive," infinite surveillance powers, and a totalitarian vision of corporate fascism that would make Orwell cringe.
The real enemy is the party that says it's okay to let children drown, the elderly die, the poor starve, the middle class struggle, and the country burn as long as corporate profits remain intact.
The real enemy is the Republican Party, and its current flagbearers-- George W. Bush and his would-be successor, John S. McCain.
Have we forgotten that?
Yes, there have been bitter words and painful wounds opened in this primary process. Everybody should have expected that. With great competition, with two candidates who are both eminently qualified for the office of President of this great Republic, with the most electrifying candidates in decades running for the highest office in the land in a world where the stakes could not possibly be higher, there is bound to be some bloodshed. But some of the things I hear make me worry that we're losing sight of the bigger picture.
There are those who say, "I won't vote for XXX in the general. She's the candidate of scorched earth, and I've been burned too much."
There are those who say, "I won't vote for YYY in the general, either. He's the candidate of empty rhetoric, and better to have a Republican than that guy."
People, are you NUTS?
Whatever happens this primary season, whoever ends up winning this incredibly exciting, phenomenally important DEMOCRATIC nomination, the PARTY absolutely MUST come together. And come together in the strongest way possible.
Because the foe we face is organized; the foe we face is backed by powerful friends; the foe we face really will backstab and go nuclear and pull every dirty trick in the book to retain its crushing grip on power. It will take more than a candidate to defeat this foe-- it will a motivated, agitated, and above all, unified party behind that candidate to finally push this scum from office for good.
For the love of your candidate, fight on. It's clear this primary process is far from over. But for the love of your country, don't forget to come together. The stakes are just too high.
Let us not forget that.