Considered Opinions

I’m going sour on Hillary Clinton.

I think there are a lot of women out there qualified to be President. What annoys me about Hillary is her campaign tactics (largely the influence of the now-departed but unmourned Mark Penn and Bill Clinton). Bill’s remarks over the past few months have alienated many blacks as recent news shows vividly, and that’s an important Democratic voting block. I’m anything but anti-female; I do not however, like the way the Clinton campaign is threatening to rip the Democratic party in two. Even though the numbers say they have no chance of winning, they are hanging on in a death grip, draining the strength of their party.

Second, the primaries were bound to be polarizing since they have a built in conflict between two groups, members of whom often consider themselves oppressed, women and blacks. See “Overlooked Issues.”

Women have their share of raw deals, daily, and a history of abuse that dates back a lot farther than slavery in the US. So if women are determined to vote for a female candidate, I’m not going to judge them for it. Women being generally smarter than men, I would hope, though, that they would recognize the risks to the Democrats of following the Clinton strategy to its logical conclusion. For the same reason, I would expect the women to come back into the fold if Obama wins the nomination.

Michelle Obama’s remarks about her pride in America, or its lack are what bring this to mind. I saw what being black meant in Independence, MO, and got involved in the civil rights movement before I was out of junior high school (Someday I will write here about integrating our church—or being unable to.). Given their treatment from birth, I’m frankly surprised that some blacks even feel any sense of identification with the USA, much less feel proud of it, so I will cut Michelle some slack here. I know where she’s coming from. Racism may not be as bad as it once was, and we may be a more inclusive society, but their wounds are going to take generations to heal. We need to walk a few miles in their shoes before being too critical of offhand statements.

Further, Barack Obama is on target with his remarks about the bitterness of small-town America.

I spent a lot of time in the Ozarks growing up, and things down there (and in similar places like West Virginia) don’t change very fast. When Obama said that the folks in the hollers were bitter, he was right, and he would have been right fifty years ago. And the same goes for displaced industrial workers. Detroit’s Joe Sixpack who lost his job to a foreign automaker is bitter too, and if he feels his only recourse is to hold onto his guns and Bible, I understand it. I’ve seen that in living color for a long, long time. Obama’s statement may have been poorly worded, but it was correct, and rather than being out of touch, shows he has insight into life in rural areas.

This doesn’t make Obama an elitist either; in fact it’s the opposite. Today’s working definition of elitist is an educated person who holds an opinion different from yours. That’s the kind of thinking that elected the definitely non-elite George W. Bush.