Dear Senator Clinton

Dear Senator Clinton,

You don’t know me from a hole in the wall. So, given the demands on your time, there’s zero reason for you to read what I’m going to say. I’m just a lowly blogger. And, criminy, not even on my own blog. A voice buried in terabytes of digitized chatter. A life-long rank-and-file Democrat who worked a couple of congressional campaigns ages ago, contributes a few dollars to a few candidates and walks precincts every election. Not a superdelegate. Not a pledged delegate. Not somebody with party clout, or deep pockets or even the ear of anyone with clout or deep pockets. As I said, no reason you should know or listen to me.

I have met and spoken briefly with your husband in various venues several times before and after he became President, but you and I have never even shaken hands. I attended a rally for you in Los Angeles February 2. Wanted to see you do the stump speech live. Feel the vibe of the crowd. You said some good things. Many good things, in fact. Stuff I agree with. Stuff I really agree with. Several times I applauded. Got carried away and whistled in appreciation twice. You also said some stuff I disagree with. Intensely. No surprise. We’re Democrats, after all, which covers a lot of ideological ground, and a lot of screaming. It’s always been that way.

But I’m not writing to discuss ideology. Nor complain about campaign tactics. Why bore you? Anything that hasn’t already been said 40 zillion times by smarter, more experienced and tuned-in people than I on all sides of that subject definitely isn’t worth saying.

Rather, I’m writing to ask you – to plead with you – to admit to yourself what is clear to nearly everyone who is closely following this contest: Your chances of getting the nomination are slim. Your chances of getting the nomination in a way that can heal the party for the unified run we need to win in November are nil. And every day you continue to pursue the nomination is another day for John McCain.

I confess. Even though he was not my first choice, I have publicly supported Barack Obama since February 4. And he says you should stay in the running as long as you wish. That’s one of several things he and I disagree about, although he, for all the obvious reasons, can’t be making the pitch that you should suspend your campaign. I assure you, Senator, that if your chances for getting the nomination were 50-50 or even 30-70, I’d not be pleading with you like this. I’d say to myself: Too bad, this drawn-out fight may cost us Democrats, might even have us fighting in Denver so all the delighted megamedia can broadcast our disarray and make ignorant comparisons to ’68. But I wouldn’t be urging you to step aside. And if the situation were reversed, if Senator Obama had next to no chance of winning the nomination, if he were dragging out the inevitable to no good purpose, I wouldn’t be writing to you.

That isn’t how things are, however. You’ve fought hard. But you’ve lost. Acknowledging that, accepting it, and acting graciously and selflessly on it right now would mean the Democrats – your supporters and the supporters of other candidates who have already left the contest – could unite behind Barack Obama without further delay. It would mean we could get on with the process of regaining the White House and dealing with the problems this nation has avoided for decades. Every day you continue is a day for John McCain.

You know and I know, Senator, that we cannot afford another four years – or eight years – of the lawless, bigoted, Constitution-dismantling, war-mongering, economy-wrecking, environment-smashing, health-ignoring Republican Party running the White House as if the Founders never put their ideas on parchment, as if due process were some extra-terrestrial concept, as if the Roman Empire were an apt model for foreign and domestic policy. For the sake of your daughter, Chelsea, and my daughter, Amira – who, like you and me, are less than a year apart – we can’t stand any more rapacious, reckless, smirking GOP governance. Poll after poll indicates that the majority of Americans agree with us.

Scuttlebutt has it that you believe Barack Obama cannot win in November. So I can understand why you’d maybe want to respond to my plea with an "Are you kidding?" Or something stronger, perhaps, some inquiry as to how I can possibly be so naïve after all this time. You may be right. For a variety of reasons, Senator Obama may not be able to win. He may stumble on his own, the right-wing smear machine abetted by the media may trip him up, left-over acrimony from within the Democratic Party itself may be his undoing, the votes of racists may be just enough to tip the scales unfavorably. Who can say? I’m certainly not one who’ll suggest he’s going to ride a magic carpet to November 4. But, you know, all those vulnerabilities, except race, are yours as well, and you’ve got misogyny against you. In other words, in the general election, a toss-up.

It’s no toss-up in the nomination process. You know it. Your campaign team knows it. The campaign contributors seem to know it. It’s over. Well, of course, it’s not over until you say it’s over. Or I wouldn’t be writing to you. Every day you don’t say it’s over is a day for John McCain.

Historically, much of the screaming within the Democratic Party has been about how people of color and women are treated in America. How the party has treated them. Over time, that treatment by both party and country has improved, although, as you and I know from personal experience, aspects of the dream of equality and fairness remain unfulfilled for both women and minorities. We’ve come a long way, but there is a long way to go. Which is why this campaign for the presidential nomination has riled me so much. Many Democratic partisans in this contest have behaved as if you and Senator Obama are affirmative action candidates.

You know what I mean. It can be found everywhere in America. The buzz in the department which says she didn’t really deserve the promotion. The office whisper of if he was white, he’d never been hired, but the bar was lowered for him. Affirmative action defined as not good enough. Attitudes of racial and male supremacy, often but not always intermixed with one another – and, these days, fading and usually far more concealed in code than 40 years ago when you and I came from two sides of the political spectrum in support of antiwar candidate Gene McCarthy – have, sadly, been widely expressed during this campaign. That’s to be expected from the Chris Matthewses and Rush Limbaughs and Sean Hannitys. They and a bunch of their mimickers are stupid shits - pardon my French - playing with hate-speech and bigotry for dollars.

Unfortunately, as you well know, not all the racism and sexism injected into the campaign has come from the night riders of broadcast bigotry. Highly respected people have done some ugly things and said far worse. The foulness of a portion of what’s been said on progressive blogs – including this blog – and the support from people who don’t say anything but approve of the foul things being said by others are shameful and infuriating.

Clearly some of this rancid stuff originates with right-wing partisans thriving on and spurring our division. But some self-identified progressives have joined the chorus. The language used against you (as well as intolerable attitudes expressed less obscenely) prove misogyny is alive and unhealthy. As is the stubborn denial that some of these attitudes even count for misogyny. The same way some deny that the racism we’ve seen on display during the campaign, covertly or otherwise, amounts to racism.

Absolutely unacceptable. Not merely affronts to you and Senator Obama but to every woman and every person of color ... and every thinking progressive of whichever sex or ethnicity. For this rotten public discourse, many people owe you apologies. As they do your rival. I’ll make my own. Although I have repeatedly challenged some of the slurs and scurrilous attitudes I’ve seen expressed, I’ve failed to do so diligently, and I've let things slide that shouldn’t have. I’m sorry about that. You deserved better. As did those who were also demeaned by the sexist slurs against you.

Just to be completely clear at a time when so many have said they’ve been misinterpreted and misquoted and misapprehended.   I’m not saying all the criticism of you or Senator Obama or any of the other candidates has been out of bounds. Much of it has hit the bullseye. Particularly in the arena of foreign policy. If the campaign discourse had avoided the foul and stuck with legitimate criticisms, who knows if the accumulated voting results we’re now faced with would be the same. We don’t have a time machine, so we can never know. We are where we are and can only work to reduce such putrescence now and in future contests.

And where we are is caught in an unresolved contest whose ultimate results  – four weeks or four months from now – are all but inevitable. As a fellow blogger by the name of Kid Oakland wrote in a most excellent essay a few days ago, Senator, right now is a Clinton moment. Right now you can have an instantaneously positive impact on the coming general election that will never again be as powerful. You can seize the moment, today, tomorrow, early next week, and give the Democratic nominee an edge in November. Or you can hang in there and hamstring us. Please. Acknowledge what you know to be so. Every day you wait is a day for John McCain.