First, a disclaimer. I am an Obama supporter. But, I am a democrat first and foremost. My passion and drive behind my candidate is something special, but it does not place him above the good of our party. If Clinton wins the nomination, however she may win it, I will vote for her. She is leagues better than McCain.
With that said, I think it’s now important to get down the point of this diary: however able she will be to gain my vote come November, I will not relinquish it until I have to. Obama is my man, and I’m his, through and through. I want to talk about how she helped Obama prove his point last night. I want to talk with you a little bit about why Obama will retain my vote until he drops out. I want to show you that there are very bright spots.
I want to expand on what our reaction (forgive me for generalizing), as his supporters, should be to last night, and what he should concentrate on, driving home the reasons why he is the better candidate for the General Election. My argument is this: Clinton just sealed her own fate. She will not take our hope away from us. She will lose this fight.
If you’re intrigued, jump.
In reflection on last night’s elections, my initial reaction was absolute depression. I wanted this nail so bad. I wanted this coffin sealed. I wanted to move on, and have everyone to have to assess Obama as the candidate for the Democratic Party come November.
In fact, I’ve wanted this since New Hampshire. There has been time after time that I thought Obama had finally snapped the neck of this beast that is the Clinton campaign--that our David had finally overpowered the Goliath that is the Clinton machine. And alas, time after time, she has writhed and wriggled until she narrowly escaped the apparent precipice ahead of her.
This is to her credit. Whatever corner she’s found herself in, she’s found an escape. I commend her for her ability to truly dodge the worst of the punches Obama had wound up.
However, maybe in an effort to comfort myself after last night, maybe through denial, maybe through logic, I have found the fact that consoles me most. Clinton just expertly proved Obama’s main point: the politics of fear has been the destructive status quo in these United States. There has been nothing but absolutely negative--and largely exaggerated and/or false--attacks waged against Obama in the past couple of days. And that is the reason that she won. CNN emphatically noted last night that in the last three days, 2/3rds of late deciders chose Clinton over Obama. She needed to attack him, not in a way that made her look better to the voters, but in a way that made him look worse. Essentially she didn’t have to scare voters up in her favor, for her base has proved largely stagnant and non expansive, but rather she had to scare voters away from Obama. I know, I know, this is probably a pretty standard talking point at the moment, but the connection I’ve failed to see this community draw, or for Obama’s campaign to draw for that matter, is that this perfectly proves Obama’s point that the politics of fear has a strangle hold on the electorate. I think he needs to preface every single just confrontation on Clinton’s qualifications with this simple fact: the status quo is fear, and the Clinton machine had to scare people away from the future he’s proposing. She had to do exactly what he’s saying we shouldn’t. She had to scare people into believing their children aren’t safe under his hand. She had to scare people into believing that they shouldn’t believe. She had to scare people into questioning his faith and his patriotism. She even had to scare people into thinking that his inspiring words aren’t even his! She had to scare people into disbelief. There’s no way this man can actually be as good as we think he is. There is no way that this man can actually do what he’s promised us he’d do. There is no way we can or should have hope in the difference that can be made by conversation and discourse, debate and bipartisan effort, an open mind and a general appreciation and love, for all of our countrymen and women. She is telling people that he is not what he tells us he is--that his potential is non-existent.
And people latch onto that, because, guess what, change does NOT come easy. Change in this country will only come through hard work, and most importantly, the instillation of belief in the potential that we can change. You know, I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that Hillary thought she stood a chance against Obama’s suggested difference between them. Because the essential opportunity we have here in this election is between change--and I don’t just mean rhetorical change in policy, I mean actual change in terms of collective societal psyche and conscience--and status quo--again, in the sense that she will not change politics itself.
People often ask, what exactly does he want to change? He wants to change everything Hillary wants to change, and then he also wants to change how politics itself is run within this country. And since change--and again, I mean revolutionary change--is something truly difficult to attain and execute, it is really easy for Clinton to scare the hope out of us, offering for us instead the choice of status quo. Status quo is insanely easy to instigate. We wouldn’t have to lift a finger. We could go back to letting Washington make its decisions without our input. It would be mind numbingly easy. And so offering potential Obama supporters the pessimistic idea that the change he proposes is impossible, especially on his shoulders, while simultaneously offering an easy option in voting for her, expertly scares their votes away from him and towards her.
She’s trying to scare the hope out of his supporters. And it may have worked for now. But Hillary has proved Obama’s point: the politics of fear is the only thing standing between us and a potentially revolutionary sea change in how this country is run. Obama has said that change will not come easy and that we will have to work hard for it; and Clinton has had to resort to scaring away supporters by holding up this fact: if you vote for him, it will be hard fought, it will be risky, it will be frustrating; and therefore, vote for what has "worked" for so long, and vote for me: unrisky, guaranteed, and easy.
I used to think that Democrats represented exactly what Barack Obama espouses: progress. I used to associate the idea of status quo, the idea of reactionary, regressive, and stagnant politics with Republicans. But I now know the fear of working hard for your country--which is what I view as true patriotism and progress--can and will give way to the inherent human tendencies to be lazy, laid back on laurels, and regressive, exists on both sides of the aisle.
Have hope. Clinton has had to do exactly what Obama never will: scare votes into supporting her. If we’re ready to work hard, if we’re ready for the change Obama is proposing, if we’re ready to talk about the potential of the people of this country, rather than scaring people into inaction--and yes, I consider voting for Clinton as inaction--then I believe Obama will be swept to office. This country needs change, not just in policy, but in politics. I have hope. Hillary cannot, will not, could not pry my hope for this change from my cold dead fingers, until Obama shuts the lids on my dead, wide eyes. You will not, Madame! You will not take away my hope.