Jack & Jill Politics

cross-posted to dailykos

I can neither scream any louder nor spew profanities more vile than those I’ve already uttered aloud and to myself. My ability to step up the rhetoric further has been exhausted. My indignation spent. Samantha Powers was right. Hillary Clinton is a monster.

One way to deal with a monster is to rally the townsfolk, Frankenstein style, and torch it alive in its home. Another way is for us all to simply wake up and realize that what keeps the monster alive is our collective agreement that indeed there is a monster worth fearing in the first place.

What the hell am I talking about?

Last night, speaking to a group of elderly people in Florida, Hillary Clinton made the following points in her attempt to get Florida and Michigan’s delegates seated as-is at the DNC in Denver

1. Her struggle is like that of abolitionists, suffragists and civil rights activists

Via Politico

She said “there’s a reason why so many have fought so hard and sacrificed so much. It’s because they knew that to be a citizen of this country is to have the right and responsibility to help shape its future. Not just to have your voice heard but to have it count. People have fought hard because they knew their vote was at stake and so was their children’s futures.

Those people, she said “refused to accept their assigned place as second-class citizens. Men and women who saw America not as it was, but as it could and should be, and committed themselves to extending the frontiers of our democracy. The abolitionists and all who fought to end slavery and ensure freedom came with the full right of citizenship. The tenacious women and a few brave men who gathered at the Seneca Falls convention back in 1848 to demand the right to vote.”

2. The situation in Florida is like the corrupt election in Zimbabwe

via CBS

Desperate to get attention for her cause to seat Florida and Michigan delegates, Hillary Clinton compared the plight of Zimbabweans in their recent fraudulent election to the uncounted votes of Michigan and Florida voters saying it is wrong when “people go through the motions of an election only to have them discarded and disregarded.”

“We’re seeing that right now in Zimbabwe,” Clinton explained. “Tragically, an election was held, the president lost, they refused to abide by the will of the people,” Clinton told the crowd of senior citizens at a retirement community in south Florida.

“So we can never take for granted our precious right to vote. It is the single most important, privilege and right any of us have, because in that ballot box we are all equal. You’re equal to a billionaire. You’re equal to the president, every single one of us.”

3. Failure to seat the delegates as-is will drive Democratic voters to McCain

via The Moderate Voice

“If we fail to do so, I worry that we will pay not only a moral cost, but a political cost as well,” she said. “We know the road to a Democratic White House runs right through Florida and Michigan. If we care about winning those states in November, we need to count your votes now. If Democrats send a message that we don’t fully value your votes, we know Sen. McCain and the Republicans will be more than happy to have them. The Republicans will make a simple and compelling argument: why should Florida and Michigan voters trust the Democratic Party to look out for you when they won’t even listen to you.”

We’ve been through this before. All the Dems agreed to the DNC rules (update: including Hillary!). Florida and Michigan mucked everything up. Hillary only started complaining after it was clear she wasn’t winning the primaries as expected. Listen to her say that Michigan and Florida “don’t count for anything” back in October (h/t YouTube).

Furthermore, her appeals to vote-counting are meaningless. This is not a general election. This is essentially a private club (the DNC) selecting its nominee. That selection is based on delegate math. The party is under no obligation to even hold primaries. Five white guys could go into a room and come out with the party nominee

For someone who’s continuing campaign is based in part on appeals to the racist vote, comparing yourself to an abolitionist and civil rights crusader is the worst kind of ugly. You don’t get to invoke John Brown and Fannie Lou Hamer. Hillary Clinton, I know what Susan B. Anthony did for this country, and you ma’am, are no Susan B. Anthony.

Hillary (no longer will I address her as “Senator Clinton”) is campaigning for John McCain. She’s preying on the fears and ignorance of elderly voters in Florida and her own supporters nationwide, reminding them of the trauma of the 2000 election. She’s delegitimizing the Democratic nominee, and she’s created an environment in which any criticism of her kamikaze tactics is seen as “pushing her out” and sexism. She cannot win, but she is doing her best to make sure that Obama’s win in November will be more difficult.

She is a demagogue, unfit to be president, vice president, cabinet member, Senator, governor, mayor, city councillor, community board member, or neighborhood watch captain. If Hillary were my bus driver, I would walk.

So what happens now? As I said at the opening, I’m finding it more and more difficult to react to these increasingly insane tactics of hers. I’ve raised the torch against Hillary before, and I’m tired of it. So my own advice for this particular monster is to ignore it.

People who cannot win don’t compare a party primary to Zimbabwe, especially when that person was the only one on the ballot. The only reason for her to say these outlandish things (after saying she’ll campaign hard for the nominee) is to get attention and stir up confusion among voters. Just deny her that attention.

Hillary is now the Ron Paul, no, the Lyndon LaRouche of this election season. She’s an oddball candidate with no chance of winning who spews nonsense to get media attention, and we don’t have to follow it. Obama has already moved on. McCain has moved on. It’s time for us to move on.

The best way to get rid of monsters is to stop believing they exist.