Molly Ivins rips Straddling Dems - I won't support Hillary

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/14094603p-14924526c.html

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.

<snip>

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?

[medeak]

1. Molly's great

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x192591

[NanceGreggs]

2. Right on, MOLLY!

As ALWAYS, you've NAILED it!

:applause:

[JeffR]

3. Love Molly

And not a fan of Senator Clinton, but I take some comfort in believing that if Clinton is the '08 nominee, Ivins will vote for her just like I will. Neither of us will be very happy about it.

[StClone]

4. Bill did what Hillary is doing is it now passe?

Just asking.

[JeffR]

7. Fair question

He did. It worked at the time, and it worked in the political context of the time, brilliantly.

James Carville once fit my definition of a brillient political strategist, too.

Different times, now. And sadly, Senator Clinton doesn't seem to have anywhere near the charisma of her husband, which was enough to paper over many of his vulnerabilities on the left and the right. The era of triangulation, as Ivins notes, is over.

Having said that, I'll repeat my intention to vote for Senator Clinton if she wins the nomination. I just hope she doesn't.

:hippie:

[rhett o rick]

10. You missed the point entirely. A vote for Hillary is a vote for status

quo. As long as the Party power knows that you will support who ever they push forward, we are lost. Molly is saying that she will never support Hillary because Hillary has demonstrated that she will not fight the tyranny. We need to change the system, fix the Party, elect those willing to fight, and that means giving notice, like Molly, that we will never support Hillary. Those in power need to understand this or they will continue to manipulate us. If Hillary is nominated, I will write in Al Gore.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

14. Right now the status quo is Republican control.

I will not vote to continue that, even indirectly (write-in, 3rd party, etc.).

[Catchawave]

5. I liked this column !

She bitch-slapped the DNCers, DLCers, DCCCers, and DSCCers....everyone asking me for money these days!

Molly speaks for me, and I may just start a DU Poll to help me spend my budgeted 2006 donation dollare :hi: I want my dollars to vote for "cajones" :)

[madrchsod]

6. they are afraid of themselves

i agree with molly 100% i guess it`s because i`m old enough to remember when nixon and goldwater were a hard right winger who now would be a some what crazy right of center republicans and that fucking scary. the democrats are so afraid of thew american people they make nixon look like an extrovert.

[Dhalgren]

8. Everyone talks about Bush living in a bubble; well the

Democrats need to get out of theirs! I love Molly!

[Matt Jordan]

9. "That is the center, you fools."

Great stuff. When the target of support is that large, triangulation doesn't make a lot of sense. Here's hoping for reality-based candidates for the reality-based community.

Matt

[nickshepDEM]

11. Id like to know where she's getting her numbers from...?

[reprehensor]

12. Bump. n/t

[Rufus T. Firefly]

13. I love Molly, BUT

what if Hillary is nominated? Write in someone else? Vote Nader? Yeah, let's get 4-8 MORE years of someone picked by Cheney et al because Hillary isn't the perfect candidate.

That said, I'm not planning to vote for Hillary in the primaries. But if she's the nominee, then that's it.

However, I'm more concerned with lack of leadership for this year's congressional vote. Where is Dean with our version of the "Contract With America?" If the Dems all run separately they can more easily defeat us one at a time. We HAVE to run as one group. I had thought Dean would be on top of this, but I haven't seen any signs yet.

There's still time, though.

[NativeTexan]

15. Molly is just like me, in that...

...she will vote for and support whoever the nominee is! I love Hillary, and she is still on my list of possibles within the party, but I too have been disturbed by the lack of a stand that she and TOO MANY Democrats in office have taken.

Fear of being called "un-Patriotic" was allowed into too many offices of Democratic politicians....but not all thank goodness.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

19. Don't get me wrong - I don't like Hillary's pandering.

But she's doing what she thinks needs to be done to get into position to win.

I don't like it, but considering they managed to make a few war heroes look like cowards while they avoided danger at all costs, I'll live with it.

[IndianaGreen]

16. Democrats use "Nader" like Republicans use "9-11"

It is a control mechanism to keep us peasants from uniting to topple the ruling class from power.

We want significant change that includes obliterating conservatism, ending the war, burying imperialism, and the building of a democratic society at home.

They want the status quo. They will tolerate some changes on the margins as long as those changes don't threaten their privileged status. They will unite to smash the people down, just as the Paris commune was smashed by the ruling classes of its day.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

18. Sure.

You'll get the masses on your side by mentioning peasants, imperialism and the Paris commune. Good luck with that.

I'm a Democrat, I used "Nader," and I'm trying to figure out how I have "privledged status," considering I work my ass off every day yet I'm still behind and my wife's been out of work since July. I'll get back to you.

The idea of "toppling the ruling class" instead of living in the real world and seeing the true danger gave us Iraq, Abu Ghraib and 8 years of President Smirk (which, since he chose to ignore Clinton's warnings about Al Qaeda, could also be aruged as giving us 9/11 in the first place).

But I think some people prefer the world to burn so they can sit on their high horses and preach sanctimoniously about how great they are, spouting off their revolutionary rhetoric. Except that it isn't "revolutionary" any more, it's tired and worn out.

So keep toiling away in the shadows and keep siphoning away votes from what you might call "the lesser evil." Thereby essential voting for the Greater Evil.

[gulliver]

17. Hackett, Reid, recently H. Clinton ...

... had some fighting words. Clinton caused a blip with her "I predict to you that this administration will go down in history as one of the worst that has ever governed our country." Reid zinged them with "Having Sen. Santorum talk about reform is like having John Gotti talk about doing something about organized crime. He's one of the problems." Paul Hackett constantly puts down Republican Chickenhawks and smacks the Republicans every chance he gets.

We need a lot more of that truth telling. I'm sick of mincing words. They just ignore us when we are "careful." We need to call them out.

[rhett o rick]

20. "I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the Democratic Party ..

I will not support Hillary Clinton for president." Bravo Molly. "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."
If she is our candidate, all is lost. She is the candidate the Republicans want to face. They are laughing their heads off to think she might be their opponent. They probably even send money to her campaign. She does not represent the grass roots democrats. But she has the corporations behind her.