This is my first attempt at a diary, and the intent is to begin to understand how so many supporters of the two Democratic candidates can be so angry at the other side as to say that they won’t vote for the other in the GE.
As will become apparent, I have been a strong supporter of Barack Obama, and I would have thought that those who support Hillary Clinton would have little reason to keep their votes from Obama, should he win the nomination. I was very surprised to learn that I was wrong about this.
Along with a background in science, comes the tendency to look for rational explanations for surprising facts. As an Obama supporter, it was easy to understand why others would say that they will not vote for Hillary Clinton if she is nominated, but maybe I didn’t really understand this.
With additional reflection I realized that I was seeing some of the Clinton tactics as similar to those of the Bush administration. Could it be that I and some other Obama supporters have then been attaching our anger at the current administration to the Clinton campaign? Seven and a half years of anger to little effect (some in the 2006 elections) and finally the possibility of using it effectively! We can tell everyone who supports Hillary Clinton that we are so angry at her, what she stands for and her entire campaign that we won’t vote for her in the GE. That will show Bush her!
Having thought this through, I am now not so proud of some of the ways that I have personally attacked Hillary Clinton recently. In response to the Clinton interview in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, I wrote a fairly strong letter ,http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/letters/send/s_559404.html, against Hillary Clinton.
I now have mixed feelings about getting this in print. I’m still writing letters in support of Obama’s candidacy, but I’ll be mostly accentuating his positives rather than her negatives. It really is time for us to come together.
Thinking through my reasons for anger next helped me to possibly understand why Clinton supporters are angry and possibly more angry than are Obama supporters. The following is offered as an hypotheses. It’s not likely that it explains everything, but it might be a partial explanation of some significance.
The Clinton’s have come under fire from the extreme right and some of the MSM at least since Bill first ran for president. Hillary in particular was frequently blasted when she headed the study on providing universal health care. In one way or another, Clinton bashing has been a popular sport on cable news, conservative talk radio and conservative blogs for more than 15 years. That’s 15 years that supporters of Bill and Hillary Clinton have had to get angry about unfair attacks on one or both of the Clintons.
Could it be that many supporters of Senator Clinton have been attaching some of this anger to Obama supporter? To the extent that Obama supporters and the Obama campaign seem to be a continuation of the last 15 years of Clinton bashing, it may be hard at a deep emotional level to know the difference.
Supporters of Hillary Clinton have 15 or so years of anger to work with to the 7 plus years of anger that we supporters of Barack Obama are dealing with. Perhaps it’s no wonder that they are polling as less likely to support Barack Obama than we are to support Hillary Clinton.
Of course, to the extent that these hypotheses are on the mark, both groups are wrong! Hillary Clinton is not George W. Bush, and Barack Obama is not the Clinton bashing extreme right or the MSM.
There have been many recent diaries asking for peace between the two groups. The above is offered as one of many possible bases for such a peace. I’m still going to support and vote for and work for Senator Barack Obama, but my motivation will be about his strengths and not about misplaced anger. Let’s all work together on getting a Democrat in the White House!