Letters to the Editor
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@ Valkyrie
It's enough to make you want to cash in your chips, isn't it?
That's what this is all about. Despair, hope, and cynicism.
I incline towards despair. Having watched this country re-elect George Bush despite a mountain of evidence supporting not just not voting for him, but impeaching him, I despaired.
I felt (and often continue to feel) like that king in Lord of the Rings, paralyzed by the enormity of it all: "What can men do against such hate?"
And then comes Obama, and, despite my lukewarm initial reaction to him (he seemed decent enough, but nowhere near radical or progressive enough for me), I warmed up to him and started to appreciate just how radical he really is, not in terms of policy, but in terms of ethos. Not the perfect candidate, but one I could vote for in good conscience, albeit with sobriety and reservations (he is a politician, after all, and contrary to the talking points, I don't consider him a savior). Anyway, I was feeling optimistic.
Not just for Obama, but that there was a wave of Democrats that seemed sure to guarantee victory in the fall, whichever candidate was chosen.
Then comes Clinton at the eleventh hour to poison the well with cynicism.
Suddenly, it's no longer about "two terrific candidates" or "one thing's for sure, the Democratic party is poised to win big, to judge from turnout."
It's cynical garbage about fear and race and patriotism.
More Republican light from the Clintons.
The good old Clintons.
Bill Clinton was actually the thing that made me renounce the Democratic party in the first place.
I was indignant that they could sell out liberalism so blithely.
I don't know what the point of all this is, other than to say that I know, or feel I do, something of what you're feeling.
Ah, yes, the point, finally, is that it does no one any good to give into despair.
As I've heard, that's the Republicans' strategy, right?
So poison the well with negativity that people are disgusted and stay home, which benefits the Republican party.
Clinton's well on her way (so it seems to me) from achieving the same result.
I, for one, will never vote for her. I came into the election believing I'd not vote for her, but then she lulled me into complacency for a little while, as her greatest crime was she was running a campaign of entitlement, but she was benign enough that I actually considered maybe I could vote for her afterall.
No more.
I can not, in good conscience, endorse these people.
I just find their way of doing business reprehensible.
But I won't despair, and nor should you.
We'll all come through this somehow.