And I find myself in a familiar position, that of reacting. Something that our generation has been doing for quite a while now. We're not in the positions yet of leadership and power, but we do have that indispensable element of criticizing and constructive protest.
This has to be very quick because I do have a little speech to give. Part of the problem with just empathy with professed goals is that empathy doesn't do us anything. We've had lots of empathy; we've had lots of sympathy, but we feel that for too long our leaders have viewed politics as the art of the possible. And the challenge now is to practice politics as the art of making what appears to be impossible possible.
Audio here: www.npr.org/… (It is totally cool to hear the actual audio!)
I heard these words on NPR this morning and had a couple of reactions. First I thought of the beautiful Maya Angelou quote “when someone tells you who they are, believe them” — it is unlikely that the impromptu words of Hillary Rodham, a student giving a graduation speech at Wellesley (the first student to do so) contain any politician’s artifice. We can believe her when she says she believes in constructive protest and expresses frustration at leaders’ limited view of the “art” of politics. And she was not afraid of speaking truth to power — in fact she was slammed for it. Granted, this is more than 40 years ago, and perhaps she has simply moved away from those positions.
The second, simultaneous reaction was that the Democratic Party that has just nominated Hillary Clinton as their standard bearer has spent the previous year disparaging Hillary Rodham’s message of frustration with the status quo, support for criticism and protest, and moving politics beyond pragmatism.
We are being told that we’ve been fed a caricature of Hillary Clinton that people that know her claim is false. I’m sure that’s true of any public figure, and certainly of Hillary Clinton, although there are plenty of actual policies and actions that people can use to determine how they feel about her as a leader. But if she has any recollection of those feelings of frustration and powerlessness she expressed in 1969, it would be quite meaningful for her to reveal them and share them with those in the audience who are feeling them now.
In the context of a campaign, perhaps it made sense to find ways to denigrate the restless energy of young people caught up in a movement as “uninformed”, or mock progressive goals as “impossible” instead of talking about how to make them possible, or tell protesters to hush and graduating seniors to quietly cool their heels until they’ve built political coalitions, but the campaign is over now. And it’s not unreasonable that millions of people now believe not only that Hillary Clinton forgot what Hillary Rodham believed as a young woman about the importance of protest as a tool for those not in power and of making possible what seems impossible — and that she now thinks that’s all pretty naive and quaint. And this I believe is at least part of what makes some people balk at voting for her.
The Party seems to be doing its best to shut down protest, taking credentials from delegates who hold an unapproved sign, turning off the lights over the CA and OR delegations because they spoke out “No more war!” These things are really disconcerting and while I don’t agree with all of the forms of protest going on (like yelling during speeches), telling people they’ll lose their credentials if they hold up anti-TPP signs when we’re nominating two people who claim to be anti-TPP seems just sort of dickish fascism. Protest has a place. This is something Ms. Rodham understood.
Another part of her speech, regarding activities she undertook upon arriving at college and finding things less than what she expected, she said that people asked her . . .
‘Why, if you're dissatisfied, do you stay in a place?'
Well, if you didn't care a lot about it you wouldn't stay.
You know, kind of like “why don’t you just leave the Democratic Party instead of criticizing it?” She stayed, and fought for change. Should all of the people feeling disaffected right now simply leave the party? Well, a great many are.
If Hillary Clinton really does in her heart understand the feelings expressed in Hillary Rodham’s youthful words, tonight is a great opportunity to let us all know.
Thursday, Jul 28, 2016 · 7:18:37 PM +00:00
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delphine
If you must know, my tip jar has been flagged. Half the comments are denigrating me for paying attention, listening to her speech and finding it compelling, and trying to make sense of things.
I have no “cohort”. I listen to many sources. I don’t currently feel that I fully belong on any of the sites I used to and have recently visited, because I can’t get on wholly on board with enthusiasm for Hillary, ignoring policies with which I disagree, but I can’t get on board with voting third party, and I certainly want to prevent Trump from getting within a mile or a hundred of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
It’s time for people to understand how hard this is for some people, and it’s time we show some compassion as many of us work through the issues. I’m not on board with delegates walking out of her speech, or turning their back, that’s just stupid. But is it so much to ask that it be acknowledged that there are some very real issues that came up during the campaign that, if addressed, could bring people to the polls for her in November?
So I heard this really young Hillary this a.m., and she was so compelling to listen to, and it was a good strong message. And I searched for more snippets and more recordings, and I liked them as well.
And I found that she sounded like a lot of people now, who feel like they are being paid lip service but things aren’t actually happening. I thought if people heard that from her, perhaps play the recording tonight, or allude to it, it would be a great thing for speaking to people who feel that way.
And I get notified that I’ve been flagged.
Maybe not flagging people when they’re trying to learn something about a candidate, something that seems real and elemental to who she is, and finding that, suggest harkening back to that might reach others as well — would go a long way toward the unity everyone is demanding.