What has become of the Democratic party?
What happened to tolerance and nuance and respect for the opinions of others?
Hell, what happened to peace-loving hippies? Or even dirty fucking hippies?
Why have I been called a troll, a Republican, a Lieberman Democrat?
I come from a very Democratic family. Very Democratic.
I won't name names out of respect for the privacy of my family members, but I will say this:
I have family members who have served in elected office.
I have family members who have been appointed to various positions by Democratic presidents.
I have family members who have worked for Democrats and volunteered for Democrats and raised money for Democrats and advocated on behalf of Democrats in a major way.
I was raised a Democrat. I generally (although not always) vote Democrat. If I am not voting Democrat, it is because I am voting Green. It is because the Democrat on the ticket is not liberal enough for my liking.
I do take issue with Democrats. I didn't vote for John Kerry in 2004 because (a) I didn't like his position on the war; (b) I didn't like John Edwards's position on the war; (c) I was offended by Kerry's position on abortion (recall that he was "personally opposed" to it, as if his personal opposition was ever going to win him any votes with the pro-life crowd); (d) I didn't like his position on the Second Amendment (and he lost every state in which he posed in his stupid hunter outfit); and, finally, (e) I lived in California and felt that I could afford to vote for someone other than Kerry, while being confident that my state would not go to Bush.
In 2006, I voted a straight Democratic ticket. I was living in Virginia at the time, and really didn't like Webb, but I voted for him anyway. I hoped that if the Democrats took control of Congress, they'd actually show some backbone and start standing up to Bush. (Yeah, I know. Silly me.)
Now, let me address the controversial issue at hand: my support of Hillary Clinton.
Let me say first that I did not come to her easily. For the better part of the last seven years, I have all but ignored her. I have held her Iraq vote of 2002 against her and refused to consider voting for her for president because of it.
However...
Last fall, she started to win me over. And for all her flaws and her mistakes, I look at her and see an incredible woman who could be a great president.
Let me also say this: I do not like Barack Obama. In fact, I disliked him long before I liked Hillary. I was interested in him in 2004 when he spoke at the Democratic Convention -- who among us wasn't interested? But once he went to the Senate, he lost me. And the way he has presented himself as a candidate in the past year has been a huge turn-off to me.
I won't go into the details of what I don't like about him. Those details don't matter in this discussion, and I'm not interested in engaging in a debate about my perceptions of him.
But here is the reason I am offering my credentials as a liberal:
I am sick of the accusations from my fellow Kossacks. Today, someone on this site asked whether I'd supported Lieberman in his independent run for the Senate. As if my support for Hillary is in any way comparable to supporting Lieberman running against the Democratic party.
(And in answer to that question, no. I did not support Lieberman in 2006. Or in 2004. Or in 2000. I don't like him. I've never liked him. I don't like his politics, and I don't like his personality. I didn't like the way he handled himself during the Clinton impeachment. I don't like his war on Hollywood. And, as a Jew, I don't like the way he has used his religion to justify his politics.)
I resent the idea that my support of Hillary somehow means that I am not truly a liberal, or do not truly care about an end to Republican rule, or do not truly have the interests of the country in mind.
I resent the idea that my support of Hillary somehow means that I am uninformed. I don't have television, but I hardly think that watching CNN, MSNBC, or Fox makes a person informed. I have the internet. I have the radio. I have my subscription to The Nation and Harper's. I read incessantly. I am the person my friends and family calls to ask questions: What's a superdelegate? What happened in the debates? What are the latest poll numbers? Et cetera.
I resent the idea that my support of Hillary means I am a racist. I am not a racist. And yes, I am fully versed in the long and painful history of racism in this country. As I have written before, I was a Women's Studies major at UC Santa Cruz. You don't graduate from UCSC with a degree in computer science without being well versed in the long and painful history of racism in this country, let alone with a degree in Women's Studies. I know all there is to know about the Ferraro controversy, the Rev. Wright controversy, the Bill in South Carolina controversy...and I still don't think Hillary is a racist. And neither am I.
I resent the idea that I just don't get it. I do get it. You like your candidate; I like mine. You think my candidate is out of line; I think your candidate is out of line. But I'm fairly certain that I've refrained from accusations of party disloyalty or dishonesty or racism -- or, god forbid, being a Republican.
For every diary on this site that calls for peace and civility, there seem to be a hundred more that call Hillary a liar, a racist, a Republican. Plenty of epithets. Plenty of insults. Plenty of threats to leave the party, riot at the Convention, vote for McCain, stay at home and pout in November.
And I won't deny that there are insults directed at Obama and his supporters. I know there are. I don't defend them. I'm certainly guilty of getting angry and impassioned and taking it out on my keyboard, but I have tried really hard to walk away from those conversations once they reach a certain point, rather than to continue fighting like school children.
And I always start with the assumption that we have good, honest reasons for supporting our candidate of choice, whoever it is. I give you, my fellow Kossacks, the benefit of the doubt. I know about trolls, and I don't doubt that some people just want to start a fight, but for the most part, aren't we all here because we love politics, we share many of the same Democratic values, and we love to sit around and talk about this stuff?
I'm aware that some sites in the blogosphere lean toward one candidate or another. As part of my effort to stay informed, yes, I read many websites (some more thoroughly than others). So for every comment that tells me to go away, or go to some other website, I've done that. I've been there. But if I only wanted to go to websites where everyone else would agree with everything I said, well, I wouldn't need the internet, would I?
And so, at the risk of sounding trite, or of being reminded that "THIS HAS BEEN DIARIED BEFORE," I'll say it again:
Civility, please. We are all on the same side (more or less). Good, honest, informed people can disagree. But the name calling? That helps no one. Not your candidate; not mine.
Do you really think, if you call me a Lieberman-loving, racist Republican troll, I'm going to see the error of my ways? Do you really think I'm going to change my support? Do you really think I'll be persuaded to take another look at your candidate?
Hardly.
So the next time someone calls me a name, or questions my politics or my integrity or my sincerity, I'm not going to argue. I'm not going to defend myself. I'm just going to link to this diary and leave it at that.