Note: This post was written by a great friend, Hans Laursen. During the primaries, Hans was as passionate in his support of Hillary Clinton as I was of Barack Obama. I volunteered for Barack in New Hampshire, he volunteered for Hillary in Nevada. When we thought Clinton would triumph, he talked me down from the cliff of threatening to vote for McCain. Now he has some words for fellow Clinton supporters thinking of committing what Susan Faludi termed "the clear insanity" of voting for McCain.
Media Hype over Clintoniacs in Need of a Pair of Glasses
As Great Britain proved in World War II, you can lose almost all of the battles and still win the war. Capitalizing on the divisions in the Democratic Party, the Republican Party in 2008 might be poised to do just that.
As a Democrat who supported Hillary Clinton, I believe the time has come to look at the big picture. Hillary and Obama's candidacies shattered barriers, but the problem is that they occurred at the same time. It's time to stop wishing we could have them both. As Liberals, we tend to get disappointed and discouraged that change to make the world better doesn't happen as fast as the world is ready for it. I supported Hillary Clinton because I thought that she was the best candidate at the time and the most likely to win. But I support the candidacy of Barack Obama because he is now the best candidate to restore America's promise.
Democrats are plagued by circular firing squads and Attention Deficit Disorder, two phenomena relatively absent from our Republican friends. If we lose this election, we will have no one to thank but ourselves for allowing ourselves to be thrown off message in every election since 1968, with the sole exception being another great Clinton.
For those in need of a bit of focus, does anyone remember what this election is about?
1)A war in Iraq, that without the Democrats in charge will be unending and cause the deaths of many more bright, young, patriotic Americans, sent to fight a war in a country that did not attack us.
2)An economy with a producer inflation index nearing 10% a year, negative to near-negative growth in GDP, gas prices profiting only Bush and Cheney's buddies in the Oil Industry, and the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression. Middle America holds most of its wealth through the equity in their house so that can't be good. John McCain, by his own admission knows nothing about this, so only Democrats can fix what Bush hath wrought.
3)A Supreme Court one vote away from ending a woman's civil rights to make decisions about her own body. Moreover, overturning Roe vs. Wade would likely end the notion of a right to privacy, imperiling the use of contraception, rights of gays and lesbians to even exist, and privacy rights from an overarching government would effect every American.
4)A government riddled with corruption thanks to Republicans that can't even manage a Hurricane in their own backyard. The scenes of American refugees in New Orleans should be in the back of your mind if you are thinking of voting for these clowns - as some are saying - for the first time.
For those of you that are still upset that Hillary is not the nominee, remember that she will probably be back. Is it not better that in 2016, she could be running for a third Democratic administration in a row instead of running in 2012 for a first one after 12 years of Republican incompetence? If you look at Hillary and Obama's voting records, they are nearly identical. The Democratic Platform is a unity platform because there is little difference between the two candidates' governing philosophies.
There is too much at stake here to reward the Republican Party for lousing it up for 8 years by giving them four more to make it even worse. Hillary supporters that are reluctant to support Obama and might even be thinking about joining Team McCain should ask themselves if they support what's been going on in this country with George W. Bush in charge. If their love of Hillary is more important than that, then they never believed in the Democratic philosophy to begin with. Change parties. It's happened before - Hillary Clinton, Geraldine Ferraro, and I share one thing in common, we all started out as Republicans. Otherwise, ditch the myopic view of this election and let's take our country back.
Dr. Hans Laursen is a Family Medicine Physician practicing in Southern California in an urban underserved setting and has a firm commitment to social justice. He has been active in the Hillary Clinton campaign for President in 2008 and is an alumnus of Camp Wellstone and the University of Florida.