I am not talking Hillary supporters. I am talking about the bloggers who advice the general public about how to treat Hillary supporters. I am not going to cut THEM any slack.
Standard disclaimer. I am one of the mild mannered ones. I do not go around bashing Hillary or Hillary supporters. I have always distinguished between the sane ones and the loony bins. It is easy. Every candidate including the one I support has their share of demented pigeons fluttering about them. But I have read a lot of "cut them some slack" type diaries. They seem to fall into three general "types"
- "They are sorrowful" type blogs- Or the entire -this is the first time that group got their torch bearer but ALAS! Their Torchbearer was not to be. So they are crushed, and sad and sad people say...silly things at times. We, the winners must be kind to them. Give them a warm blankie and a alarm clock so that the noise may remind them of their littermates and they won't whimper through it all.
- "I was once like that" type blogs- or the `Oh when I was a wee lad/lass I was once just as much of a loony potato...so I get it, and let me explain it to you' type blogs. As though it were some kind of puppy love. Something fervent and uncontrollable. Something so...emotional. Something that we must "forgive" them for. It's like... hormonal..or something.
- "We need to get together" blogs: Stop it everyone. We shall miraculously meld together in a writhing, sweaty, pile of Democratic brotherhood if we just pretend nothing happened. Because the enemy is McCain, dammit! Remind them of points one, two, and three and they'll snap right out of it.
My question is this. What happened? What happened that we forgot at our very core to be Democrats and got behind a candidate so vociferously, so vehemently that we are now resorting to blogs like this. Why should it matter what you did five, ten or fifty years ago, why should we be treating Hillary supporters like emotional teenagers having their "tantrum" and why the hell, oh why the hell should we be writing BLOGS about how to treat Hillary supporters, or Edwards Supporters or any frakkin' body!?
Maybe it is beyond me to comprehend that kind of emotional response where people care that much about a candidate. But I am at least human enough to understand that people feel that way, but it is no excuse for the sort of disgusting nonsense that happens in the name of candidate endorsement.
Did I not learn from what Edwards supporters went through? Did I not read their pain in their diaries? Do I have to learn what YOU think I should do? And I have to read BLOGS on how to treat Hillary supporters?
No. I don't want your blogs. I am not going to read them. I am going to behave like I bloody well always behave. I am going to work for my candidate, I am going to donate him some money, and I am not going to pretend I know how to speak to the supporters of any other candidate. If a person who supports any other candidate asks me about why I support my candidate, I'll tell them. If they don't, I am not going to dispense of my thinly veiled efforts at bipartisanship. If you want to give Obama a chance, good for you- I will do everything I can to make you feel good about your choice.. But do not expect me to come begging for your support. Don't expect me to bash you for supporting your candidate either.
Yes. I have been called an N lover, someone who betrayed my gender, someone who liked an empty suit etc inspite of never refering to a Hillary or Edwards supporter (sane ones) in negative terms. Yet I KNOW, that there must have been several sane Hillary supporters who got pegged with the crazies simply because they shared a candidate in common. I personally think it is PREPOSTEROUS that someone can even suggest that we remind them that we are on the same side. Are Hillary supporters CHILDREN? NO.
They are thinking human beings. The most of them. Except for the Larry Johnson like crazies. Ignore those. They are never going to come around. The ones who will come around won't do it because WE are so wonderful to them. It won't be because they read entreaties to be KIND to them.
They'll come around if/because they like Obama and his positions, or because they are loyal to the party, or because they want to beat McCain. I can't stop you from writing your "Let's get together" blogs. But I can sure rant. I have needed to rant since the last time I read one. And I did. If you made it this far, you deserve a beer.