I guess that I should start my new blog out with some type of introduction, but I'm not going to. I have something on my mind, and I want to get it written out before I forget some of the nuances of this particular argument.
My argument: You cannot support Hillary Clinton for President and call yourself a progressive.
Let's face it, Hillary people, you've fallen to the Dark Side. You have become that which you hate the most, Republicans.
See, I watched the debates the other night, and Hillary used "the 90's" like Guiliani used to use "9/11." Now, you may be asking "Micah616, what's wrong with the 90's?" That question, along with my favorite variation, "What didn't you like about the 90's? The peace or the prosperity?" reveals the depth of your inner corruption.
There was no peace in the 1990's. We had troops in the Balkans, and Iraq was under heavy sanctions and was a no-fly zone. Prosperity? To be fair, I was feeling pretty prosperous, as were millions of other Americans, I'm sure. But, then again, the dollar was stronger, and oil was cheaper. But you know that. And you also know that oil will never be anywhere near that cheap ever again, nor the dollar as strong. Yet, you continue to believe that Hillary can take us back to the 90's.
When conservatives talk about the halcyon days of the 50's, we progressives snicker at their "cognitive dissonance." As progressives, we know that we can never go back to the 50's, and even if we could, we'd quickly find the the 50's were a bit more ugly than the Leave it to Beaver fantasy the GOP jerks off to.
Somehow though, supposed progressives get a pass when they have erotic fixations about the 1990's. Let me clear here: Having wet dreams about a decade long past while ignoring some of the very real problems that existed then and now is a conservative trait, not a progressive one. But I won't call you conservatives, and I cannot call you progressives. Instead, from this time forward, Hillary supporters will be referred to as regressives. I don't mean to be hard on you, and I don't want to insult you, but somebody has to try to get you to listen to reason. Hillary Clinton is not a progressive.
Supporting an amendment which would criminalize burning a flag is not progressive.
Lining your pockets with money from pharmaceutical companies while trying to push health-care mandates which would force us to fill Big Pharma's coffers and then calling said mandate "Universal" is not progressive.
Giving Bush the authority to use military force on a country that never attacked us, and then giving him the power to attack terrorists everywhere, and then designating Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization which would allow Bush to attack yet another country that never attacked us is not progressive.
You already know this, though, but you don't care. You don't care that Bill was on Rush Limbaugh's show, trying to get the dittohead vote. You don't care that Hillary's cozying up to Richard Mellon Scaife. You don't care that you'd rather watch Fox News than MSNBC. You don't care that she's giving shouts out to Johnny McBombs. You don't care about the lies, the triangulations, or the deception. You're willing to give the GOP 4 more years if your candidate doesn't win the nomination.
You've fallen to the dark side.
Don't get it fucked up, I'm not some first time voter jumping on the I Hate Hillary bandwagon. I was wondering why she didn't run in 2004. Much like you, I spent 16 years of my life carrying water for the Clinton's. At the beginning of this political season, I favored Ron Paul, but I knew he wasn't going anywhere. So, I was looking forward to electing our fist female President in November. But, I wasn't really looking forward to it, I was looking forward to regaining control of the White House.
The way I look at it, Hillary was MIA for the progressive movement as a Senator. Speaking strictly in terms of soft power, Hillary was arguably the most powerful person in the US Senate. She can call a press conference to discuss anything, and every major news organization would be there. Unfortunately, she didn't call any press conferences to point out Bush's misdeeds. She wasn't in the Senate "fighting," she was hiding. The one issue that she was most visible on had to do with regulating violent video games. That scared me, but she was still better than anybody who would actually get the Republican nomination.
Sure, she'd face her challenges. The GOP would bring up non-issues from 20 years ago. They'd do the guilt by association thing. They'd spin her policies. In short, they would do their best to frame the narrative. That's what they do, and they do it better than anybody. But I was so sure that America was tired of all that, especially considering the last 8 years, that we would see beyond the bullshit, and try to get this country back on track.
Something else happened though. A relative unknown came from nowhere to challenge her. His ideas sounded like mine, but far more eloquent. He challenged us to be responsible for our government. He asked us to move beyond the petty divisions, and start with the commonalities. He started talking about "Hope" and "Change." I'm a skeptic and a cynic. While I recognized the wisdom in what he was saying, I doubted his sincerity.
Over the last few months, I've seen people really begin to believe in America again. That's important. One person, no matter how hard she fights, can't fix all of these problems without the support of a large and diverse group of people. People are excited, people are engaged. People really like "Hope" and "Change." BushCo has brought us to the brink of collapse. People need more than policies, they need inspiration.
Hillary's response to all the hope-mongering? "Let's get real." It was then that I knew she had fallen. She's blinded by her own ambition and ego. It may be too late for her, but it's not too late for you. You can always come back to the side of progress, as progress is one of the few inevitables of American life. We can't go back to the 90's, no matter how hard we try. The good old days are over. All we can do now is try to make the best of the situation that we're in, and move forward from there.
See, that's progress. Moving forward is progressive, moving backwards is regressive. Obama wants to move forward, Hillary wants to go backwards. Where do you stand?
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