The Clintons & Being a Democrat
Over at kos Delaware Dem put up a very well read diary (850 comments and counting) that closed:
That I wasted whole decades of my life defending them (the Clintons) is a something I will never be able to live down, or forgive.
I agree.
But isn’t it interesting that Republicans like Dave Burris and Mike Castle don’t have similar thoughts regarding George Bush? In George Bush we have a man who did much more to undermine America than Bill Clinton ever did with his blowjob, or Hillary Clinton with her negative primary campaign. And yet, there is no regret exoressed by Michael Castle. There is no sorrow. There is no acceptance of reality. There is only denial, upon denial upon denial.
Why is that?
I think at the heart of the difference is that to be a Democrat means to be thoughtful and to reflect on your strongly held beliefs from time to time. A Democrat needs to hold his passions and prejudices up to the harsh light of reality and ask tough questions about objective truth on occasion.
While to be Republican means never having to say you are sorry, because to be a Republican means never having to give objective truth much thought. In a way it makes me feel sad for Mike Castle. This unlived part of life makes him a half-man in a way. He is a man who has never left his home town for a wider world of adult experience.
He, like so many Republicans, is like a boy who lives forever on the edge of adulthood. Living out an ersatz pantomime of adulthood without ever touching the full majesty and mystery of being wrong about something, and confronting it.
Sad.
Jason, the intertubes work better with links. 🙂
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/27/20758/7137
I agree with DD but I think he overstated his case. Bill Clinton is still fine by me up until he started campaigning for Hillary.
without ever touching the full majesty and mystery of being wrong about something, and confronting it.
Well, he DID get married…
Here I was ready to complement Jason on his lyrical “full majesty and mystery” line and anon had to get in there first with a zinger. Oh well, that’s blogging for you.
I still think it was a masterfully written line Jason.
Agreed… that’s why I keep lurking here.
“A Democrat needs to hold his passions and prejudices up to the harsh light of reality and ask tough questions about objective truth on occasion.”
Generally, the occasion is the return of Halley’s Comet.
Although I do tend to agree with you that Republicans reflect even less frequently.
And neither has even a passing familiarity with economics. Sad, but true.
In many ways, I think that DD’s rant is something of the progressive’s dilemna — Bill was a Democrat when the repubs went to war against liberals and Democrats and Bill gave as good as he got. And still got stuff done. He is unlikely (in my opinion) to be judged by history as one of the best presidents, but he was certainly interested in the job and he took it seriously.
But he accomplished all of this by triangulating furiously and in doing so gave up a decent bit of the progressive’s agenda and moved the Dems way to far to the right. He legitimized more of the repub agenda than he really should have, and we’ve been paying the price since. From where we sit now — with better prospects for progressive ideas — Bill is going to come up short. And Bill out campaigning for his wife — smacking at other Democrats — was just unseemly from the guy who should still be trying to support the totality of the Democratic brand.
Hillary’s baggage is her inevitability campaign which tried to ignore us (the Dem Base) to go right to a general election. And she is struggling to backtrack, but bridging that gap puts her at the mercy of the 50%+1 crowd who have to resort to self-centered shortcuts.
In other words, when Bill was the only Dem in town, he looked pretty good. Now that there are other possibilities and our conversation has some spotlight, neither Clinton looks too good in comparison.
Wow, Cassandra! That was good.
Clinton’s Campaign says they raised $35 million in February. I’m reading that Obama’s Campaign will have raised close to $60 million in February.
If these numbers are true and Clinton doesn’t suspend her campaign late on March 4th, Obama will squish her, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-MSS8_vNQE
Whoever thought that Hillary’s parallel on the right would be Mike Huckabee, both continuing because they cannot see the writing on the wall?