I am white hot with anger over Hillary’s choice of Tim Kaine. Yeah, yeah, he’s a perfectly acceptable and nice wet dish cloth. Got it. Agreed. Yeah, yeah, the VP choice really doesn’t matter in the scheme of things and really won’t help deliver or lose a state. Check. Again, agreed. So why I am so mad?
It's called history.
Some of us remember the 1990s. They were the best of times, they were the worst of times, to quote Melania Trump. The one thing that stuck with me from that period was the extraordinary disgust I felt from having Bill Clinton continuously shit on the base. More polite observers called the “triangulation”. I have expanded this idea to “triangulationism” in this diary. What I mean by “triangulationism” is the move past a politically expedient tactic to end-run the ever obstructionist know-nothing Republican party to a political philosophy of governance.
It is quite possible that many of the Trump supporters of today were born out of frustration from Clinton triangulationism of the 90s. Workers were shit on with NAFTA, civil liberties supporters with the “crime” bill, and remind me who repealed Glass-Steagal again?
This triangulationism left a feeling of deep despair amongst many of us in the base of the Democratic Party. The message from the Democratic elites was “yep, we know we’re screwing you, but we dare you to vote Republican. You know you’ll get screwed worse, so just hold your nose and vote for us”. And unfortunately they were right.
Why am I so mad?
Because I almost bought into Hillary Clinton’s message. I was almost ready to give her a 14th chance. I began to believe she actually meant what she said during the primaries. And what does her selection of Tim Kaine do to all those thoughts? Replaces them with white-hot anger that stems from complete and total distrust. Why? This decision replaces those initial thoughts of optimism for her with a gut-wrenching, deep-seated revulsion toward anything that smacks of triangulationism. Hillary Clinton said in clear and unequivocal terms to the left-base of the party: Fuck You.
Oh, sure, here goes another bitter Bernie buddy. Nope. Check my posts: I was completely agnostic during the primaries. I really just sat back and watched. I never believed Bernie could deliver on the “revolution” message — there are too many people who benefit from the status quo. Sure I liked some of his ideas, but I didn’t think he had a chance against the corporate machine. I was equally unmotivated by Hillary given the last fight in 2008. My comments here are not from a disillusioned “Bernie Bro”. But today I do better understand the Bernie supporters' legitimate anger.
As a lifelong Democrat, I am seriously engaging the idea of just letting Trump blow it all up. What good is it to reward Hillary with four more years of triangulationism that shits all over me and the rest of the base again? What good does it do to convert yet more disaffected Democrats into the ranks of lunatic Republicans. I live in West Virginia and I see it happen all the time. People here are not close at all ideologically to the Republicans. People here know with the force of history that the corporate elite are their enemies. But that feeling of, yet again, getting shit on by the leadership of the Democratic Party is, yet again, almost too much to take.
So intead of convincing me she meant what she said in the primaries and exciting me to actually volunteer for her in this Democratic backwater, she now has to convince me not to simply sit out this election. Please commence yelling and screaming in the comments. I’m sure you’re correct. I’m on the verge of not listening anymore. Quite an accomplishment, Hillary.
P.S. It's entirely possible I’ll get over this. It's also entirely possible I won’t. Was that the intended result of this VP pick? Will I have to go through this every fucking time Hillary makes a decision?
I suspect I’m not alone in these feelings.
Saturday, Jul 23, 2016 · 4:25:24 PM +00:00
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ThanxAl
ok, ok. The line about Trump and blowing it all up was hyperbole and I completely retract it. As some of you in the comments correctly noted, no one left of Ghengis Khan would want to see Trump elected. Point taken.
The other point I want to reinforce is that this isn’t about Kaine. It's about a severe panic about a suspicion that Hillary is now pivoting to a “triangulation” strategy now that she’s sealed up the nomination. Prove me wrong. I’ll be delighted. But I can’t go through the bad old days of triangulation again. Can’t, or won’t.