Late last night and continuing this morning, there's been quite a few diaries presenting "olive branches" to Hillary Clinton and her supporters. It doesn't need to be said that support from her voters will be needed for the general election, and I'm sure most of those in her camp will rally with the Democratic Party for the general election.
Along with the millions of new Democrats registered in the primary season, and millions of independents and crossover Republican voters who realize that the politics of greed, selfishness and corruption fostered by Reagan, the Bushes and the Republicans in Congress needs to end, the time has come to forge a new broad American coalition government that can put our country back on track.
However, there are many of us here who feel betrayed and insulted by the words and actions of the Clinton campaign over the past few months. For us, trust has been broken.
It has been broken in a way similar to the betrayal of Joe Lieberman, whose personal ambitions and motivations lead him to repeatedly betray the values of the Democratic Party, its voters, as well as his constituents in Connecticut. The difference is that Lieberman's betrayal has been at a ideological level and unfortunately will never be corrected except by replacing him through a primary challenge.
With Hillary, these actions were completely avoidable. A choice was made to employ the tactics of Lee Atwater and Karl Rove against her opponents, the party and the voters - divisiveness, fear-mongering, projection, discrimination, vainglory, and antipathy. A choice was made, over and over again, because of the simple idea that "if it worked to get Bush elected twice, surely it will work again for us."
So now, after all that you've done we've come to you with an olive branch. Here's what we have to offer to you Hillary. You have our acceptance of an apology for your campaign and its tactics, in exchange for a promise from you personally that it will not happen again and the hope that your future actions as a Senator will more closely reflect the values of our party. We do not offer trust. Perhaps in time some of it might be earned back again, but I assure you that it will never be fully regained. We, the representative citizens who call ourselves Democrats, are not that naive anymore.
We are watching, and we are waiting.
In closing, this diary does not necessarily represent the views of all members of the Democratic Party. There are many small rings inside this big tent, but it is my understanding that we are all linked by our core beliefs and my hope that the integrity that a candidate brings to their camapign and to the office they are elected to serve should become one of the largest of those rings.