I received an e-mail today that had me annoyed from the opening line.
I'm contacting readers of DailyKos to speak on a
subject that I feel very strongly about.
So right away, I'm not feeling particularly benevolent towards the sender. The rest of the first paragraph seems on point, and I kept reading, and you can too, full text and links below the fold.
The full text of the e-mail is as follows,
: Thursday, September 29 2005 11:45 pm
From: Tony Eichberger <election_2004@yahoo.com>
To: "rsolomon@ptd.net" <rsolomon@ptd.net>
Reply-To: Tony Eichberger <election_2004@yahoo.com>
Subject: Hillary Clinton
Full Headers: Display Headers
______________
I'm contacting readers of DailyKos to speak on a
subject that I feel very strongly about. The
corporate media has recently bulked up on its
"coverage" of Hillary Clinton's hypothetical
presidential run. This has caused deep divisions not
only within the Democratic Party itself, but also
amongst progressives and liberal voters who no longer
believe the Democratic Party speaks for them.
Young people (i.e. college students and
twentysomethings) are constantly dismissed as
"slackers" who do nothing but complain and then
apathetically remain inactive. Well, not to
disappoint the Carl Bilanciones of the world, but I
intend to speak out assertively about how this next
presidential race could determine the path our country
follows for decades to come. Not only are the futures
of the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Constitution at
stake, but there is another issue hanging in the
balance at these electoral crossroads we are
approaching - the future of our national morale for
decades to come.
The following editorial was written by me for an
alternative, independent (but progressive-leaning)
student publication at my college. I hope people who
are "on the fence" about supporting Hillary will read
my words and consider what I have to say. If you
agree what my sentiments in this editorial, I
encourage you to share this with other Democrats in
your offline communities and in online activism
groups:
http://www.flipsidepress.com/issue/getpost.pl?messnumb=1127887493
It's a given that the Far Right's allies in the
mainstream media will try to smear whoever the nominee
is. That's why it's imperative to avoid selecting a
nominee who runs a risk of losing both houses in
Congress for the Democrats.
I believe that these electoral realities are ones that
the DNC and DLC are often not taking fully into
account, and their representatives, delegates, and
political donors need to understand the full
ramifications of putting someone in office (even if
she has a "D" after her name) who will divide our
country even further. I am doing my part to bring
attention to long-term strategies that must be
employed in order to defeat the radical fringes of the
right-wing.
If the URL above doesn't work, you can also access our
full archive at "The Flip Side," the University of
Wisconsin - Eau Claire's alternative political
magazine, run and written by student activists.
http://www.flipsidepress.com
Our writers have fresh, articulate, independent
perspectives, and a large number of them are young
people who are using their writing skills to bring
many different progressive-oriented issues to the
public consciousness. Unfortunately, our publication
is struggling to find the financial funds to stay
alive in print, as many representatives of the Student
Senate declined to allocate fair funding student
segregated-fees to our publication, due to student
politics and the personal beliefs from student leaders
that our writers are "too liberal" (i.e., allegations
of us being, apparently, the evil leftist twin to Fox
News).
This bit is hyperbole, but perhaps no worse than others here or myself have done.
Not only are the futures
of the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Constitution at
stake, but there is another issue hanging in the
balance at these electoral crossroads we are
approaching - the future of our national morale for
decades to come.
The rest of the e-mail gives me some vague un-ease, but I'm curious, so I follow the link.
I won't post the full editorial, so if you want to read the whole thing and make sure I've quoted it in context, it's here
Now I have more problems. In sentence two, talking about media coverage of Hillary as the front runner, we have this,
This past summer, there was a particularly transparent "surge" of orchestrated media support for this supposed inevitability
The next thing that gives me pause is his description of Hillary supporters as "Hillaristas".
Surely not a term of endearment.(Disclaimer, I'm not a huge Hillary fan, or necessarily an anti. I do not have a frontrunner in my mind yet. I did post a negative comment regarding Hillary and her video game posturing.)
Then follows some mostly drivel about electability, down ticket effect, and DLC/DNC support.
Next comes the conflation that Hillary getting media coverage means the fix is in.
Why are other pundits - including Eleanor Clift2, Bob Burnett3, Carl Cannon4, and Howard Fineman5, - trying to shove Hillary down our throats?
Followed by this,.
Is there any doubt that mainstream media lackeys are promoting this "inevitability" of Hillary's nomination in order to secure themselves years worth of tabloid fodder, which they can pass off as "journalism"?
Short answer, yes there is doubt, I can come up with several reasons she might get coverage, such as name recognition, polling data, campaign contributions, etc.
What are Hillary's fans trying to do? According to the author, create ,.
an image of heroism so focus will be diverted from Hillary's probable illegal activities and lack of ethics."
This sends up the red flag, I start thinking, this is a troll.
And the vague innuendo continues.
They are manufacturing the illusion of Senator Clinton being an upstanding person...."
The balance of the editorial is mostly about considering alternative candidates with an open mind, which I have no quibble with.
I tried to reply with a comment on the site this is from, but after registering and activating an account, it would not let me log in. Then I decided to respond here, thinking it might be of interest if other Kossacks got the e-mail.
I did a google search to make sure it wasn't covered already, and imagine my shock to find the authors name on this site. His capacity is.
COMMITTEE TO DRAFT BLANCHE LINCOLN FOR U.S. PRESIDENT
PRESIDENT: Tony Eichberger - tony@lincoln2008.com
HOME BASE: Eau Claire, Wisconsin
PHONE: 1-715-855-4578
Tony is currently a contributing writer for The Flip Side, a student-run alternative magazine at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire
surprise!
Now the lack of disclosure has me really pissed. A writer should know the importance of transparency. If he wants to bash Hillary independently, fine. If he wants to say he would prefer Blanche Lincoln, also fine. Just be clear about it.
That's it for me, now it's your turn. It's my first diary, so please be gentle.