Fwd: Molly Ivins: I will NOT support Hillary

[Guest guest]

http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/1/2006/1304

 

Molly Ivins

 

I will not support Hillary Clinton for president

January 20, 2006

 

AUSTIN, Texas --- I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the

Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for

president.

 

Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough

clever straddling, enough not offending anyone This is not a Dick

Morris election. Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a

clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify

her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that

gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges.

 

The recent death of Gene McCarthy reminded me of a lesson I spent a

long, long time unlearning, so now I have to re-learn it. It's about

political courage and heroes, and when a country is desperate for

leadership. There are times when regular politics will not do, and

this is one of those times. There are times a country is so tired of

bull that only the truth can provide relief.

 

If no one in conventional-wisdom politics has the courage to speak up

and say what needs to be said, then you go out and find some obscure

junior senator from Minnesota with the guts to do it. In 1968, Gene

McCarthy was the little boy who said out loud, " Look, the emperor

isn't wearing any clothes. " Bobby Kennedy -- rough, tough Bobby

Kennedy -- didn't do it. Just this quiet man trained by

Benedictines who liked to quote poetry.

 

What kind of courage does it take, for mercy's sake? The majority of

the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake

and that we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American

people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes

to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor

raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60

percent) favor repealing Bush's tax cuts, or at least those that go

only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the

deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon

spending or raising taxes.

 

The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do " whatever it takes " to

protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil

companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits

tax. That is the center, you fools. WHO ARE YOU AFRAID OF?

 

I listen to people like Rahm Emanuel superciliously explaining

elementary politics to us clueless naifs outside the Beltway ( " First,

you have to win elections " ). Can't you even read the damn polls?

 

Here's a prize example by someone named Barry Casselman, who writes,

" There is an invisible civil war in the Democratic Party, and it is

between those who are attempting to satisfy the defeatist and pacifist

left base of the party and those who are attempting to prepare the

party for successful elections in 2006 and 2008. "

 

This supposedly pits Howard Dean, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi,

emboldened by " a string of bad new from the Middle East ... into

calling for premature retreat from Iraq, " versus those pragmatic folk

like Steny Hoyer, Rahm Emmanuel, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Joe

Lieberman.

 

Oh come on, people -- get a grip on the concept of leadership. Look at

this war -- from the lies that led us into it, to the lies they

continue to dump on us daily.

 

You sit there in Washington so frightened of the big, bad Republican

machine you have no idea what people are thinking. I'm telling you

right now, Tom DeLay is going to lose in his district. If Democrats in

Washington haven't got enough sense to OWN the issue of political

reform, I give up on them entirely.

 

Do it all, go long, go for public campaign financing for Congress. I'm

serious as a stroke about this -- that is the only reform that will

work, and you know it, as well as everyone else who's ever studied

this. Do all the goo-goo stuff everybody has made fun of all these

years: embrace redistricting reform, electoral reform, House rules

changes, the whole package. Put up, or shut up. Own this issue, or let

Jack Abramoff politics continue to run your town.

 

Bush, Cheney and Co. will continue to play the patriotic bully card

just as long as you let them. I've said it before: War brings out the

patriotic bullies. In World War I, they went around kicking dachshunds

on the grounds that dachshunds were " German dogs. " They did not,

however, go around kicking German shepherds. The MINUTE someone

impugns your patriotism for opposing this war, turn on them like a

snarling dog and explain what loving your country really means. That,

or you could just piss on them elegantly, as Rep. John Murtha did. Or

eviscerate them with wit (look up Mark Twain on the war in the

Philippines). Or point out the latest in the endless " string of bad

news. "

 

Do not sit there cowering and pretending the only way to win is as

Republican-lite. If the

Washington-based party can't get up and fight, we'll find someone who can.

 

 

To find out more about Molly Ivins and read features by other Creators

Syndicate writers and

cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at

www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2006 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.

[Guest guest]

We have no option here. This is one more instance of the difficulty we often

face, in making political and voiting decisions. Whatever you believe about

the current state of American politics, only " one " political party will win the

presidency; and this means that not simply the presidenct, but his cabinet,

those powerful individuals immediately around the president, are almost

certainly members of his party.

 

It doesn't matter that Hillary is an unsatisfactory candidate for the

presidency. She is a member of the dem. party, and I prefer that party, and I

vote for that party, whether individual members of this party fall short of my

expectations or not. Unless a plausible case can be made, that Hillary is

" worse " than the republican candidate chosen by that party, for the presidency,

I'll take my chances with Hillary...because she's a democrat; she's part of a

team, and ultimately the " team " is more important than any individual can be.

JP

 

 

>Alobar <Alobar

>Jan 21, 2006 8:59 AM

> ,

NOLA_C3_Discussion

> Fwd: Molly Ivins: I will NOT support

Hillary

>

>

>

>

>http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/1/2006/1304

>

>Molly Ivins

>

>I will not support Hillary Clinton for president

>January 20, 2006

>

>AUSTIN, Texas --- I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the

>Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for

>president.

(snip)