On my most cynical days I see human kind as nothing more than talking monkeys. On my hopeful days I acknowledge our opposable thumbs. Now a week away from the Democratic National Convention, I must admit cynicism seems preferable. Since the March I have been assured that the Democratic Party would be unified. The latest measure of unity seems to be a national statement of our division.
I remember those days in March in their absurd context. At that point it was clear that Senator Obama would earn the spot of the presumptive nominee. By the rules set forth, every scenario showed him earning more delegates. We were told it was necessary for Senator Clinton to remain in the race to better achieve party unity. Despite the fact that she was going further into debt to achieve this, we should not push her out of the race. Also during this period she continued telling her supporters that Barack Obama was unelectable, though we shouldn't read too much into such a statement. Every day since has been filled with Clinton double speak. First would be what was wrong with electing Obama, then an assurance that we would be unified behind the nominee.
Then came the unending cries of count every vote. We were told that we must resolve the issues over Florida and Michigan, if we wished to achieve unity. So it happened that we resolved the two states in as fair of a way as possible. This was followed by cries of greater injustice, and threats of taking the fight to the convention. All that said, there still would somehow be unity.
Finally we reached the end of this primary, when Senator Obama amassed the number of delegates needed to become the nominee. In honor of this moment Senator Clinton gave a speech acknowledging her win of the popular vote total, despite having no clear evidence to support that claim. It took another four days before she would acknowledge the outcome of the election. Then she promised unity.
Within weeks a movement was built to continue support for Senator Clinton, and correct the injustices visited upon her and her supporters. These PUMA's became a hit squad on every major political blog. They went on conservative radio, and took out ads in newspapers against the presumptive nominee. All the time Hillary told us there would be unity.
Then came a new issue of Hillary's campaign debt. This was now the new benchmark for unity inside our party. Despite the fact that the majority of this debt was shared between herself and her strategist, it was Obama's responsibility to ensure his supports paid the debt off. Also ignored was the fact that the debt was greater than a single month's take of donations for either McCain's or Obama's campaign. Within two months we were supposed to divert our funds to achieve this new call for unity. Still we were being battered by die-hard supporters claiming Hillcats for McCain or Nobama ever.
Now we must ensure the Clinton's voices are heard to achieve unity. Despite the fact that they have two nights to speak, we are being insensitive to their pain. We must now have her name entered into nomination, so that we can publicly enter into televised debate on the floor of the convention. Of course we are told afterwords we will have unity.
Let me explain what this unity really is. We as Democrats will all be unified in the loss of the 2008 election. That is what Senator Clinton has been offering all along. In a year when the country is looking for an alternative to the republican failures, we will embarrass ourselves live on TV. She has failed to condemn her most extreme supporters for not putting the nation's issues in front of their own hero worship. Both Hillary and Bill have ensured the Democratic Party will implode, because we didn't put them in charge. They will probably succeed in destroying the swell of support of new Democrats, and return us all to the apathetic cynicism we began with. We will have to watch the neo-con movement continue to shred our economy, our standing in the world, and our constitution. In this arrogance they actually believe in 2012 we will run back to the Clinton's for guidance. Well, I won't be.