Letters to the Editor
-
Yeah, Hillary can fight the fight...
...but does it really matter all that much if most people are opposed to her anyway? Won't her attacks just be seen as unfair? I had confidence that Hillary could convince people such as I to give her a second look-- I grew up in a conservative household, but became progressive-independent-- but the Clintons' pulling-out-all-the-stops campaigning style has really given me pause. They are very hard to believe in. Granted, this is coming from a woman in her late 20s who has probably heard every negative story about the Clintons that could possibly be invented. I genuinely believe that Hillary cannot pull anyone new over, especially in the south. Many people are making the argument that Barack could never win in the South because of his race, but I honestly think Hillary will have an even harder time. And not because she's a woman necessarily (though my mother's admonition that "Southern women will never vote for Hillary" definitely reeks of same-gender discrimination) but because this country has a long history of hating her. Having spent the first 22 years of my life in the two most conservative counties in very-Red State Texas, I cannot imagine a worse scenario than the re-hashing of the Clinton scandals AGAIN. I'm not blaming the Clintons for that intense hatred, necessarily (the right hates so many people/ things) but I am seeing their worst side here. So besides their policies, which I find much too Republican for my independent-progressive self (even my uber-conservative father thinks Clinton made a "decent" moderate-conservative president, aside from his scandals--what does that tell you?), I find the dirty tricks truly repugnant, and I feel an impending nausea at the campaign that is to come if she is the nominee. Of course I'll vote Democratic, but I have a sour feeling that some of my moderate-to-conservative aquaintances who have expressed some mild liking for Barack probably wouldn't... and I don't want a repeat of the sob-and-vomitfest that was election night 2004 after Bush was declared the winner.