Up until now I have pretty much stayed out of this fight, hoping it would die down. In the beginning I was agnostic to whether Obama or Hillary were better, but over time I have made a giant leap towards Obama. I believe he has the votes and deserves to be the nominee, and he will be the nominee if our party values fairness. I would like to state that I think Hillary is qualified to be President and I would probably vote for her if she were the nominee. But the more I see of her in action, the angrier and upset I get. My vote would be a vote with severe reservations. I don't think getting 51%, any way she can, at the nominating convention is a winning strategy. And as time goes on I find myself getting more and more uneasy with what is going on. I feel like permanent damage is being done internally to the Democratic Party. In the long run, that is what I care about. I feel like we are the best hope for America to get out of this mess we are in. This isn't about Hillary or Obama, this is about what is best for America.
The reason I am uneasy is because of people like "Terrible" Terry McAuliff. I remember what he was, what he is and how he operates. Him and his people turned Congressional election operations into a payday system. Anyone who was paying attention remembers the forced consultants. They demanded that candidates use certain consultants who collected fat checks for irrelevant assistance. They kicked the crap out of the base of the party, never missing a chance to take a shot at people like me. They held up people like Joe Lieberman as the core of what a Democrat should be. They tried to replace the Democratic Party power base with a DLC proxy, creating a permanent hegemony over the Party machinery. Hillary is a card carrying member of the DLC. She would bring that with her to the White House, and there would be a purge at the DNC. Dean would be gone, and so would any chance at reform of the Party. And if we fall back into what we were, I remember what that was. It was a decade of losses. Year after year of getting our ass handed to us. It was a bonanza for the Republicans. Our country in our weakened state after 8 years of Bush needs to be restored. Hillary can't do that, she doesn't have the capacity or temperment.
When this election season started, I had hoped that Hillary was different from Bill, that she had learned the lessons from that whole previous White House experience, and was ready to sign on to a unifying agenda for the Democratic Party. I had hoped she understood the pain that communities like mine were going through, and that she would be big enough to be willing to be on our side, and not the side of the power brokers and consultants and the corporations. I had hope for her. I no longer believe that. I believe she will sell us out to the highest bidder.
For me this crystallized in South Carolina, when Bill Clinton opened his mouth, bad mouthing the Black Community. He disparaged their vote and acted like if you were Black your vote didn't matter. It was triangulation all over again. It was divide and conquer. It has only gotten worse since then. This isn't 1992. We have had to re-learn how to win elections again, and we have done it WITHOUT THEM. We know what we need to do and have done it IN SPITE OF THEM. Even if Hillary were to win the Presidency, and that is a big if, she does not have the talent Bill did, we face the prospect of, again, losing our momentum in the House and Senate as the 50 State Strategy is eviscerated. That is the best case scenario of a Clinton Presidency. We will go back to the Clinton machine politics, the payday politics we used to have. She will not bring change. Machines do not bring change. She will have a vested interest in the status quo. I expect nothing from Hillary on Health Care, Iraq, the Economy, Credit Cards, the Mortgage Crisis, Diplomacy or anything else. She is better than McCain, but not by much. Yes Hillary's positions sound nice, but they are just that, positions, she will never act on them, and may in fact do the exact opposite. I don't trust her to follow through.
The people on the gravy train realize that this is their last shot. Early on in this race they thought they had this in the bag. But now that the popular vote is lost, they have opened up their bag of evil. The way it looks to me, every contact they have in the media has been tapped to tear down Obama. They are going to knee cap him. They are doing permanent damage. They are not being respectful of the Democratic Party, and don't really care if the body politic whithers on the vine. They want their payday at any cost. Terrible damage is being done. What really scares me the most though is realizing that this is just the start. If Hillary gets elected, we will have up to 8 years of this. I for one am not going to take it. I feel like I have been forced to take sides in this fight. I have to act to protect my Party and my Country.
Here is the message I have to the Hillary Campaign people. I have been busy since Howard Dean got in. I have a voice withing the Party. You will not take control. I will fight you every step of the way. I will fight you for 8 years if I have to. You are setting yourself up for a war. You may indeed get your payday, or on the other hand, if I have my way, you will get COMPLETELY CUT OUT OF THE PROCESS. If its war you want, its war you will get. If its scorched earth politics you want, thats what you are going to get in return. I fight for what I believe in, I don't make any excuses or apologies for that. I don't believe in Hillary and will fight her with everything I have.
You can say whatever you want about me, or the merits of my argument, but that is how I feel, and that is what I am going to do. This diary is a declaration. I am writing it to let you know what I am going to do. I will fight to stop Hillary from turning the Democratic Party into a payday machine. Members of my family have been to Iraq. My community is under assault from this economy, and from the banks, the credit card companies, the insurance companies, the health care companies and all the other blood suckers. I don't expect help from her, and I won't stand for being told to sit down and shut up while my community gets shredded and family members get sent to a war zone. I won't be a slave or mindless robot.
Hillary people, take this how ever you want. I am nearing the point where I actually stop caring what you think to be honest. Its how I feel about this situation.