Letters to the Editor
little lord baltimore
Published Letters: 189 Editor's Choice: 9
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re: Democrats: Keep your eyes on the prize
[Read the article: Super stuck!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If something disastrous happens to Obama's campaign and by June 3rd, Hillary is ahead in pledged delegates, then I think she should be the nominee and I will vote for her. If she is behind in pledged delegates and she is appointed the nominee by the super delegates at the convention, I will not. It's that simple.
None of Hillary's arguments for why she should be the nominee over Obama are persuasive to me. I find it laughable that she is claiming to be more electable, when she is behind in the popular vote (yes, even when you count MI and FL votes), behind in states lost and behind in pledged delegates. If she is more electable, then why hasn't she been elected the nominee? I find it frightening the lengths that she will go to try to secure the nomination, including war-mongering with her threat to obliterate Iran, pandering with her gas-tax holiday, lying with her Tuzla comments, and now how her supporters are trying to use classic voter fraud tactics to stop Obama supporters from coming to the polls next week, and how Sidney Blumenthal (yes the same Sidney who writes for Salon) is sending almost daily emails to reporters, super delegates and politicians criticizing Obama by using propaganda from far-right blogs, newspapers and writers.
Finally, watching the way that race has been used in this election and specifically, how being black has been vilified and the ways that the media and Hillary and her campaign have justified their blatant racism, as a black woman, I have a hard time squaring a vote for Clinton with my conscience. I live in a blue state, so in a sense I am counting on other (white) Democratic voters in my state to either be more forgiving or more apathetic than I am if Clinton manages to steal the nomination. But at the same time, America will survive 4 years of McCain. We will make it out the other side. And I am willing to go through the hard times, if it means not rewarding someone for her racism, her dishonesty and her lack of decency.
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I'm sorry I asked.
[Read the article: Voters freaked about economy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"it's a charge based on no solid evidence of wrongdoing. While the calls were misleading and probably against the law"
As someone else pointed out, if it's "probably" against the law then it's wrong.
And thanks to another poster for directing readers to sites where they can find real information about this scandal, without all of Alex's defensive editorializing.
I should have known better than to push Alex to write something fair and unbiased about anything having to do with race or disenfranchising black voters. I should have remembered his love letter to Geraldine.
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I'm sorry I asked.
[Read the article: Voter suppression in North Carolina?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"it's a charge based on no solid evidence of wrongdoing. While the calls were misleading and probably against the law"
As someone else pointed out, if it's "probably" against the law then it's wrong.
And thanks to another poster for directing readers to the sites where they can find real information about this scandal, without all of Alex's defensive editorializing.
I should have known better than to push Alex to write something fair and unbiased about anything having to do with race or disenfranchising black voters. I should have remembered how frustrated I was over his love letter to Geraldine.
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Thank you
[Read the article: How Hillary Clinton botched the black vote]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For all of my criticisms of Salon's coverage of this election and its abysmal and practically non-existent attempts to intelligently discuss the role of race in the primaries, it's only fair that I give credit where credit is due. This article is well written and fair. It uses real research and facts to support a hypothesis.
I understand that the information presented in this piece is hard for Hillary supporters to accept, but it is important that they try to at least understand it. Claiming that blacks are voting for Obama because of racism or that Obama 'played the race card against Hillary worse than Hillary and Bill played it against Obama' completely misses the point. There are a number of sociological factors to explain why Obama is receiving 90% of the black vote, but Hillary's and her surrogates' mistakes throughout the campaign guaranteed that she would not get that number down to at least 80%. Even if you don't believe (like I do) that Hillary's strategy has been to marginalize Obama as the "black" candidate, this election we've seen and heard Hillary pander to white working class voters. If instead she had pandered, just a little, to black voters as well, she would not be in the situation that she is in today.
She would also not have lead the Democratic party to the edge of a mass defection by black voters if she wins the nomination. A lot of pundits, including Joan, believe that Democratic voters will rally around whoever wins the nomination. I disagree. The polls that people keep quoting don't reflect the bitterness and sense of injustice that I, and I suspect many other black voters, will feel if Obama is the pledged delegate leader at the convention, but Hillary comes out with the nomination. It would also, I think, herald a movement of black voters away from the Democratic party in general. Republicans made significant inroads with black voters using issues like gay marriage, and religion in schools. McCain, for all of his faults, enjoys a reputation as an independent thinker. While Hillary has been attacking Obama and encouraging supporters to mention Wright at every turn, McCain has been down in New Orleans apologizing for Katrina, apologizing for his MLK vote and proclaiming his faith in God. Has it made much progress in pulling black votes away from Obama? No. But ironically, it's more than Hillary has done. It may be enough to get McCain the black votes that Hillary desperately needs to win the general election if she does become the nominee.