Monday, January 28, 2008

The Clinton Political Machine: Racist, Bigoted, and Worn Out

This Wall Street Journal op-ed makes a rather obvious point about the Clintons that their Republican enemies have long known: The Clintons are extremely divisive figures, and their politics rests upon a strategy of dividing people along racial, ethnic, religious, class, and other lines. For the victim-recipients of the Clintons’ political attack machine, it is absolutely maddening, because they do it in a way that gives them just enough plausible deniability to allow their supporters (including many in the media) to shamelessly defend them.

The Clinton Political Machine plays possum, and it works in the following way:

1. Say or plant (directly or through operatives) something that insults or motivates a class of people, but do it in a way that will allow them to deny any baiting. Bill Clinton’s shameless and racist mockery of Barak Obama as a token black candidate is a great example.

2. When called to question about it, smile, deny, and attack others for bringing racism, etc., into the campaign. With his patently racist insult of Obama, Bill Clinton will shrug his shoulders, say something wonderful about Jesse Jackson, remind everyone that he was the “first black President,” and then outrageously suggest that the attacks on him are racially motivated. In the past, his supporters will smile and defend him like the sycophants they are; and

3. At this point, the Clinton Political Machine swoops in and proclaims grandiose things about bringing everyone together, ending whatever discrimination might be related to the initial salvo, and condemning everyone who does not see it their way as being bigots. Their sycophant supporters will smile knowingly, sip their wine and eat their cheese, and have their dinner parties.

In the past, partisan Democrats have allowed the Clintons to get away with this time and time again. Now, faced with a pretty popular Democrat in a primary, the Clintons are starting to see cracks in the façade, and it appears that many Democrats are dropping the charade. At cocktail parties everywhere, including some swanky affairs on stunning verandas in Marin County and fashionable lofts in Manhattan, liberals are gagging on their foie gras and brie as they try to sort through this new paradigm that is emerging in American politics!

I still think Hillary will win, but I am beginning to see her as being old-fashioned, tired, worn out, and dinosaur-like. If she does win, the Democrats who have spent so much energy hating Bush and working against Bush, will get to feel the wrath of the other half of America, which has been biding its time with a President that fell far short of expectations. Obama will not engender this kind of dynamic, at least initially. He is reaching out to everyone. The Clintons long ago drew their line in the sand; they only want to win with one more vote than their opponent.

If the Clinton Political Machine has been figured out by its enablers, it's a good thing, but it’s still a long ways from being over. Democrats pursue power for the sake of power, without regard to consistency and ideology, and there is no doubt in my mind that if Hillary maintains her lead and wins the nomination, partisan Democrats will fall in behind her ready to march like ducks, allowing the Clintons to continue to divide America.


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