Subscribe to Breaking NewsNot Much To Say
It’s the day before the Indiana and North Carolina primaries. The polls are in flux (Obama is holding on in North Carolina but Clinton is surging; in the Hoosier State, Clinton has a slight lead). Both candidates are doing the talk show circuit looking for votes, trying to explain why they are the bee’s knees. I’ve spent the morning trying to find something to write about but there’s not much to say. Sure there is lots of tea leaf reading but until the voters mark their ballots, it’s all just breathless guessing.
I do want to add this: commentator Steve noted that if Obama didn’t get the nomination he would gladly stay home in November and watch Clinton ” go down in flames.” I’m not sure how popular this sentiment is, but at some point partisans for Obama or Clinton are going to have accept it’s about the party not the person (did you all note how both candidates made that point at Saturday’s Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner?) Any other way means McCain is our next president.
History of Gay Bars, you analysis is a little skewed.
The Clintons didn’t abruptly lead the Democrats to the right. The Democratic Party is owned and run by people like the Clintons. For decades the Democrats have promised us the sun, the moon and the stars. But without exception, when the time comes to make good on the promises we’ve seen a litany of lies, excuses, and warnings not to get too pushy. Then the backstabbing begins. Most recently the Democrats have betrayed their constituents on the war, constitutional rights, the economy, ENDA, the hate crimes bill, tax cuts for the rich and deregulation of corporate predators and etcetera.
That doesn’t work anymore. Politics are polarizing on new lines – class, ethnicity, and sexuality. The pace of the polarization is driven by the overlapping crises of the war, a sharp drop in standards of living and the initial effects of environmental collapse. The polarization is feeding a radicalization that even in its initial stages is sharpening widespread disgust with both parties. The reality is that the difference between Democrats and Republicans is only cosmetic.
You’re right to describe both Clinton and McCain as Bush Stout but you’re wrong in thinking that Obama is much better just because he says so. He’s Bush Lite. He’s a Democrat, a political hustler in a right centrist party who will say anything to get elected. The ONLY reason he isn’t as distrusted as McCain or Clinton is that people don’t know enough about him yet.
He says he’s against immediate withdrawal, which means the war and the genocide will not end. Obama, in an especially witless policy statement said he would attack Pakistan, a nation with nuclear weapons. Obama and Clinton say they won’t end the war until 2013 at the earliest, and McCain of course want to fight for a century or two.
We know that he didn’t raise a peep when Frank dismantled ENDA and the Hate Crimes Bill, or when Feinstein and Democratic (sic) Senators voted for gay bashers for Attorney General and in the federal Circuit Courts. We know that when it’s expedient he’ll happily drop into bed with us or with vermin like the Reverend Donnie and Mary Mary.
We know he’s lying about NAFTA; he was an early supporter of the Peru FTA. We know he admires the Reagan and Clinton cuts in welfare and unemployment and that his heath care plan is abysmal. As the fastest growing union in the nation, the National Nurses Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO says “Obama has chosen to give more customers and more public funds to the for-profit insurance corporations. It’s an expensive gift and one that allows them to continue meddling in medical decision-making while raking in obscene blood-money profits.” He’s a corporate hand puppet just like Clinton and McCain.
Whether it’s Obama, Clinton or McCain we’ll all have to pay the price – war, economic anarchy, bigotry unchecked.
If Hillary is the nominee I will not be staying home in November but will vote for the Green Party candidate.
If you think a lot of liberals defected from the Democratic Party in 2000 to vote for Nader over Gore, just wait and see what happens in 2008 if Hillary is the nominee.
Do do underestimate the amount of antipathy among the left and the anti-war vote for the Clintons.
If Hillary is the nominee then I probably will bolt from the Democratic Party, and become a member of the Green Party because it has a much more progressive platform, including on LGBTQ issues, than the Democratic Party.
I could care less about the Democratic Party if the Clintons maintain control over it, and Hillary becomes the nominee. Since 1992 the Democratic Party has been veering to the right in order to remain competitive with the Republicans, and I refuse to bless the charade any longer by voting in Hillary Clinton into office.
From my perspective, the differences between McCain and Clinton are marginal, and the two are McSame.