Why I'm (and others are) SO angry: "Here We Go Again" by Jane Smiley

[AZBlue]

I just spent seven and a half years disagreeing with the administration that has given us an unprecedented military and economic mess. I saw it coming, it came, and in some ways it was worse, and promises to get worse, than I foresaw. I the course of these seven years, I have had my patriotism questioned and demeaned fairly often. I was even put in a book, as one of a hundred people who were hurting America.

So now, Barack Obama tells the truth about conditions as we know them--that the countryside and the small towns are dying in many places in our country, and that the corporatocracy doesn't care enough to do a thing about it. He points out that immigrant-baiting, gay-baiting, gun-baiting, and religious pandering have helped to destroy those towns and that countryside, that those being destroyed have been cynically enlisted by their very own destroyers to provide the votes that help accomplish the destruction. And this is what Senator Hillary Clinton says about it: "Senator Obama's remarks were elitist and out of touch. They are not reflective of the values and beliefs of Americans."

I cannot believe how angry this makes me. I cannot believe that after the last seven and a half years, I can even get this angry. Yes, I know she is pandering to her audience. Yes, I know she will do anything to get elected. Yes, I know that she and Bill Clinton are corrupt to the core, and that I should have never expected anything better of her. But, please, any of you angry white women who still support this craven shill, don't mention it to me. Do me the following favor -- apologize to your children for not stopping the war that HIllary voted for, the war that is going to impoverish them. Then apologize to them for the effects of global warming that are going to make their lives hell. Then apologize to them for the school shooting they may someday see, the one where the kid gets the guns out of his father's gun case, or buys at a gunshow. Apologize to them for the meaningless wars they are going to fight and pay for. Then tell them that "American values" killed their hopes and maybe killed them. And ask them if they think it's going to be worth it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-smiley/here-we-go-again_1_b_96374.html

[OmahaBlueDog]

1. Even Obama has indicated he chose his words poorly

"If I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that," Obama said in an interview with the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080412/ap_on_el_pr/obama_clinton

[Tatiana]

2. Doesn't matter what he says at this point. The cat's out of the bag.

And the angry people are coming out of the woodwork by the droves.

I suspect a good portion of them are registered voters.

[Triana]

4. Here's one right here...

..and I'm registered and I'm voting - OBAMA.

[OmahaBlueDog]

5. Triana -- Should Edwards have hung in there?

I'm thinking a 3rd option might really appeal to voters right now.

[Triana]

8. IMO he should have...but...

..it's not an option now. :(

Meanwhile, I'm so disgusted with Hill and McSame and their tactics. The latest flap ('bitter' and then Hillary's subsequent "Elitist" remark) just pushed me off the fence I'd been on since Edwards dropped out in January. So I've gone Obama. Now if Edwards was back...you KNOW he'd get my vote!

[Liberal Gramma]

6. Another here

Obama in November!

[stillcool]

9. this orchestrated 'outrage'..

has got to be the lamest shit I have ever seen. I think those "outraged" should go visit a VA hospital.

[AZBlue]

13. So far the only person I've seen outraged is Clinton herself.

She's just throwing a solitary hissy fit.

[PM7nj]

7. People misunderstood what he said...

that is why he sort of apologized. Still, what he said is 100% true and I see it everyday. \

[starroute]

12. The only problem was with the word "cling"

It made it sound as though he was criticizing rural voters for what they care most deeply about

But if you read his words in context, what he was actually saying was something that might be rephrased as, "Some of these people gone for so long without hope of a better life for themselves or their children that they cling all the harder to what is still theirs -- their families, their churches, their traditional way of life. And they can easily be led to fear whatever might seem to threaten those things."

It also becomes clear in context that he was not describing all rural voters, but was simply explaining why some of them might be suspicious of his campaign and resistant to his messages of hope and change.

There is nothing wrong with any of that -- except for the single word "cling," which could admittedly sound like a put-down or even a threat, especially to people who have spent their entire lives being put down or threatened.

What's needed is better communication and more understanding on all sides -- both of which Hillary's gotcha politics does nothing to achieve.

[WillyT]

3. Off To The Greatest Page !!! - K & R !!!

:kick:

[Tarheel_Dem]

10. Damn right!

:kick:

[Blondiegrrl]

11. WOW! What a great rant. Go, Jane! eom

[Scurrilous]

14. K & R

:thumbsup: