My Response to a mid-Jan Proposal that the Dems Draft Kerry
At this point Uncle ------, I'll vote for and campaign for whoever the
Democratic nominee is. But I'm supporting Hillary in the primaries.
Obama and Edwards and their "no girls in the treehouse" whining will
make it damned hard for me to support them should either of them come out on top.
The boys have totally radicalized and hardened my support for Hillary, from that of an interested but uncommitted observer to someone who has been writing to and calling up people in key primary states, sending letters to the editor, and ponying up a small recurring monthly contribution. [Editor's note: With non-recurring extra donations thrown in, it's up to about $400.00.]
For me, Hillary does not represent politics as usual, Washington cronyism, or some past distasteful era of corruption and pandering. Indeed, I'd gladly have Bill back despite my anger and disappointment with him at the beginning of his second term. Nothing like nearly eight years of that cretin Dubya in the White House to put things in perspective; Bill lied about a blow job, something most married men would do. Bush's lies are a scourge upon this nation in innumerable ways, but hopefully not irreparable ones. I think Sen. Clinton represents the best combination of experience and the ability and desire to make the changes needed in this country.
That said, I'm so tired of Bushie and his minions and the politics of
evangelism and idiocy (redundant, I know) that I'd vote for the
disinterred corpse of the Honorable Elijah Muhammed if he were the
Democratic nominee. (An exaggeration perhaps, but you get the point.)
I frankly hope Kerry stays the hell out of it, and felt even more strongly that way after his miserable little performance endorsing Obama
without so much as a behind-the-scenes phone call to give John Edwards a heads-up. Sorry, but I kept the faith with Kerry through the last campaign and bemoaned the fact that once again in this country the better man lost and the stupidity of the same American public that gave two terms to Nixon and Reagan reared its ugly head. But Kerry has none of the genius of Al Gore, and all the charisma of an undertaker. If I'd wanted anyone to throw his hat in the ring early on, it would've been the man who actually was popularly elected President of the United States in 2000, the aforementioned and terribly underappreciated Al Gore. But I have not signed petitions to draft him in the 11th hour either. It's too damn late for another powerful Democrat to enter without the result being an ultimately fatal round of blood-letting.
The Democrats need to not eviscerate their own this time around. My advice to anyone who doesn't like whoever the eventual nominee is...?
Look at Guantanamo Bay...
Look at the unprecedented increase in the use of signing statements...
Look at American citizens reclassified as enemy combatants by an executive who argues that no other co-equal branch of government may review the decision...
Look at an administration that tries to undermine the applicability of the Geneva Conventions...
Look at dummied up "intelligence" leading us to invade a non-aggressing country and topple its government...
Look at the wall between church and state derided and crumbling...
Look at people who will not acknowledge global warming even to preserve the planet for their own children and grandchildren, so vast is their greed and so pervasive is their confusion between cultural mythology and science...
Buy a set of hip waders, buy a clothes pin to put on your nose if need be,
but COME THIS FALL go to the damned polls, ..............
AND VOTE FOR THE DEMOCRAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pardon the vehemence, but with a daughter turning 8 in two days and
another who is 4, I am frightened as never before about the future of
this country and the planet itself if we have to endure even four more
years of another Republican idealogue. [Editor's note: This was written before Sen. McCain was essentially the de facto Republican nominee. If I'd known that then, I'd have pointed out to my Uncle that McCain is no longer any sort of political maverick if he ever was one, having sold out on issues ranging from making Bushie's tax cuts permanent to waffling on waterboarding as torture to snuggling up to the likes of Jerry Falwell, whom he once denounced. A McCain administration would be nothing more nor less than a third term of Dubya Dubya Duh.]
As for primary season, Obama is thus far a lot of style but no substance. I may well be forty but what worries me about Obama isn't at all that he's "too radical" or that he's black, but that thus far I've heard no explanations from him for the miraculous things he's planning to accomplish. The color bothering me is green, as in he's as green as grass. This country doesn't need a President in training. As for John Edwards, whose positions I mainly agree with? I cannot forget that he looked like a child being taken to the woodshed in the VP debates last time around, and Cheney is not exactly a skilled debater. That worries me because it betrays a lack of confidence, a lack of adequate preparation, a tendency to underestimate the enemy, and frankly a lack of cojones.
As for poor ol' Kerry? I lived through the Carter years; he's a much better ex-president than he ever was a president. Kerry reminds me of Carter.
Love,
Stacey
(part of the generation of women getting more radical as we age)
Democratic nominee is. But I'm supporting Hillary in the primaries.
Obama and Edwards and their "no girls in the treehouse" whining will
make it damned hard for me to support them should either of them come out on top.
The boys have totally radicalized and hardened my support for Hillary, from that of an interested but uncommitted observer to someone who has been writing to and calling up people in key primary states, sending letters to the editor, and ponying up a small recurring monthly contribution. [Editor's note: With non-recurring extra donations thrown in, it's up to about $400.00.]
For me, Hillary does not represent politics as usual, Washington cronyism, or some past distasteful era of corruption and pandering. Indeed, I'd gladly have Bill back despite my anger and disappointment with him at the beginning of his second term. Nothing like nearly eight years of that cretin Dubya in the White House to put things in perspective; Bill lied about a blow job, something most married men would do. Bush's lies are a scourge upon this nation in innumerable ways, but hopefully not irreparable ones. I think Sen. Clinton represents the best combination of experience and the ability and desire to make the changes needed in this country.
That said, I'm so tired of Bushie and his minions and the politics of
evangelism and idiocy (redundant, I know) that I'd vote for the
disinterred corpse of the Honorable Elijah Muhammed if he were the
Democratic nominee. (An exaggeration perhaps, but you get the point.)
I frankly hope Kerry stays the hell out of it, and felt even more strongly that way after his miserable little performance endorsing Obama
without so much as a behind-the-scenes phone call to give John Edwards a heads-up. Sorry, but I kept the faith with Kerry through the last campaign and bemoaned the fact that once again in this country the better man lost and the stupidity of the same American public that gave two terms to Nixon and Reagan reared its ugly head. But Kerry has none of the genius of Al Gore, and all the charisma of an undertaker. If I'd wanted anyone to throw his hat in the ring early on, it would've been the man who actually was popularly elected President of the United States in 2000, the aforementioned and terribly underappreciated Al Gore. But I have not signed petitions to draft him in the 11th hour either. It's too damn late for another powerful Democrat to enter without the result being an ultimately fatal round of blood-letting.
The Democrats need to not eviscerate their own this time around. My advice to anyone who doesn't like whoever the eventual nominee is...?
Look at Guantanamo Bay...
Look at the unprecedented increase in the use of signing statements...
Look at American citizens reclassified as enemy combatants by an executive who argues that no other co-equal branch of government may review the decision...
Look at an administration that tries to undermine the applicability of the Geneva Conventions...
Look at dummied up "intelligence" leading us to invade a non-aggressing country and topple its government...
Look at the wall between church and state derided and crumbling...
Look at people who will not acknowledge global warming even to preserve the planet for their own children and grandchildren, so vast is their greed and so pervasive is their confusion between cultural mythology and science...
Buy a set of hip waders, buy a clothes pin to put on your nose if need be,
but COME THIS FALL go to the damned polls, ..............
AND VOTE FOR THE DEMOCRAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pardon the vehemence, but with a daughter turning 8 in two days and
another who is 4, I am frightened as never before about the future of
this country and the planet itself if we have to endure even four more
years of another Republican idealogue. [Editor's note: This was written before Sen. McCain was essentially the de facto Republican nominee. If I'd known that then, I'd have pointed out to my Uncle that McCain is no longer any sort of political maverick if he ever was one, having sold out on issues ranging from making Bushie's tax cuts permanent to waffling on waterboarding as torture to snuggling up to the likes of Jerry Falwell, whom he once denounced. A McCain administration would be nothing more nor less than a third term of Dubya Dubya Duh.]
As for primary season, Obama is thus far a lot of style but no substance. I may well be forty but what worries me about Obama isn't at all that he's "too radical" or that he's black, but that thus far I've heard no explanations from him for the miraculous things he's planning to accomplish. The color bothering me is green, as in he's as green as grass. This country doesn't need a President in training. As for John Edwards, whose positions I mainly agree with? I cannot forget that he looked like a child being taken to the woodshed in the VP debates last time around, and Cheney is not exactly a skilled debater. That worries me because it betrays a lack of confidence, a lack of adequate preparation, a tendency to underestimate the enemy, and frankly a lack of cojones.
As for poor ol' Kerry? I lived through the Carter years; he's a much better ex-president than he ever was a president. Kerry reminds me of Carter.
Love,
Stacey
(part of the generation of women getting more radical as we age)
