Letters to the Editor
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To Anonymous, Part 2
7. As I have said, I have also been offended by the snide sexism directed towards Hillary Clinton. So there we agree on something. (By the way, your admission that it has nudged you towards Hillary means that you are at least minimally moved by your emotions politically.)
Emotions? Not so much, or I would have come around to Hillary sooner. There has certainly been the provocation. What I have been more impressed with is the way she withstands these onslaughts. I posted in another thread that I think she shows courage. (Okay, some might say stubborness.) She is still standing. She is still fighting. For the most part, she has met her opponents (the right wing nut cases and the Chris Matthews and Tim Russerts of the world, with grace and equamanity. This is a personal quality that I admire.
8. I mean, in 1992, when voting for Bill Clinton, who thought we would be getting the welfare reform act that got passed?
I didn't actually like the welfare reform. I have been poor and I have worked with poor, homeless, disabled, and mentally ill people. In all that time, I never met a Cadillac welfare queen. Forcing poor moms to take jobs that, when the child care is deducted leaves them with nothing, only entrenches people in poverty. Working poverty is still poverty. Gone are those subsidies that would have helped those women get education to really move their lives forward.
10. At this point, I would rather see Hillary president than John McCain. The two big reasons I'm against McCain are (1) foreign policy and (2) Supreme Court nominations. There probably are a lot of other things, but those two are sufficient to get me in the polling booth voting for Hillary. I'm just saying that if the Clinton people want us Obama people to get onboard with electing Hillary, then have to talk TO us and not DOWN TO us. That's just the way you sell toothpaste, folks.
Then you know that you have to vote for the Democratic nominee. Why do Clinton supporters sometimes talk down to Obama supporters -- many of whom either wittingly or unwittingly use right wing and Hillary hating talking points? Well that is part of the reason. Progressive Democrats simply reject those talking points. They have heard them before. However, the hope thing leaves many people cold because hope is not a campaign issue. It is emphemeral and emotional. People have said Hillary is a wonk and that she lacks emotion. I think the first is true and I think the latter is probably a functional combination of trying to withstand some of her attackers and of actually being analytical. I have been described as an analytical woman. I like issues, I like logic, and I like to see people who don't muddy up a nice rhetorical discussion by introducing pathos. I love ethos and logos, probably because as someone who has taught critical thinking in connected with writing I just tend to say: "Prove it." Hope, like God, cannot be proven. It's cousin is faith.