What it would take for this Edwards supporter to switch to Obama
Sun Feb 17, 2008 at 10:20:26 PM PDT
I supported John Edwards. I was (OK, I still am) one of those diehard flaming Edwards supporters who especially loved his fighting spirit and his commitment to economic justice.
While I'm sure that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama consider economic justice to be a good and important thing, neither has really made it a centerpiece of their respective campaigns. But they are the only two games in town right now, and some or us have to choose up sides (if our states haven't voted yet, or if we give money to candidates we support.
Since I live in Oregon and we don't vote till May 20, and since I have been known to give money to political candidates I support, and since my butt has been perched on this fence for a few weeks now and it's starting to hurt, I need to make up my mind.
I'm a white woman in her 50s, a feminist, a lawyer. I even went to Yale. So I'm right in Hillary Clinton's wheelhouse. And I have enormous respect and even affection for her, although we have never met. I read her memoir avidly, and felt that it gave me a terrific window into Hillary as a person, and I liked her. And although I spent the better part of 8 years furiously angry with her husband over one thing or another (DOMA?! WTF WERE YOU THINKING????), I loved him and I still do.
Unlike many people, I have no inherent issue with Hillary Clinton's oft-reputed ruthlessness. God knows the Republicans are ruthless, and will drag out every dirty trick there is, and Hillary would be ready. The vast right wing conspiracy in its heyday did not, could not, defeat her. She is indomitable and strong. She is also a human being and a woman very close to accomplishing what no woman has ever done before: secure the nomination of the Democratic Party for the Presidency of the United States. As a woman of her generation, I find this thrilling. Can't help it.
But I share the generalized fears, oft-expressed, that Hillary's presence on the ticket could unite the Republican base in a way that John McCain -- their prospective nominee -- himself could not. I don't want to even think about the ugly cultural seepage we will all pick up from talk radio, Faux News, etc. over the next few months if she is the candidate. But if she IS the candidate, I will work my ass off for her, give her money, and, yes, relentlessly pimp her to all my friends.
Now to Obama.
I just finished reading Frank Rich's column in today's New York Times, which of course is beautifully written and makes a point that is being made over and over these days, in the MSM and out here on the blogs and just in daily conversation -- there is SOMETHING GOING ON OUT THERE, and Barack Obama is at the center of it.
That "something," whatever it is, is getting people fired up, and ready to go, to get him nominated and elect him President. Those fired up people apparently include not only young people but also older people who are responding to his expressed desire to change the culture of partisanship in Washington.
Well, I'm all for that, but I also believe that the correct response to excessive Republican partisanship is NOT unilateral disarmament by the Democrats. So all this kumbaya talk, frankly, well, I think it's naive crap. But I recognize that there's a chance he's only saying it because he thinks it will get him elected, and more intriguingly, there's a chance he's really onto something.
As I look at these two candidates still standing, I feel a tug between my heart and my head.
My heart wants a lover, not a fighter. My head wants that fighter really badly.
I still think the ruthlessness of the Republicans cannot be overestimated, and that -- particularly if confronted by either Hillary Clinton or any African-American Democratic candidate -- their opportunities for malicious mischief will be many. But if it's really true that Obama is creating and riding an historic wave of political change, none of that matters if he is the nominee.
Here's what I need:
I need to believe that he will ride that wave, and use it, like a steamroller if necessary, to create the kind of progressive change America needs. Universal health care, tax fairness, civil rights, economic justice, and of course a little peace would be nice.
(Who wouldn't enjoy a little peace?)
So if it's all about getting along, and reaching across the aisle to collaborate with the other side, and all that crap, I'm not buying it. But if it's about riding this wave to achieve the kind of dominant political position that will create real and lasting and substantive change in the United States, well then, I'm in.
