The Weird Divide
(Unrelated video: The Shins — The Weird Divide)
Connecticut Bob, not surprisingly, has some good commentary on the divisiveness of the Democratic Presidential Primary. As the contest drags out, the passions are running high on both sides, making it difficult to remember that we’ll all need to begin working together after a winner is declared.
One thing that I lately find astonishing within the lefty blogosphere is the not-entirely undeserved but still surprising animosity between the supporters of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
[...]
…because of the twisted machinations of fate, the party is locked in an increasingly bitter and antagonistic contest for the nomination. Obama and Clinton are nipping and swiping at each other nearly every day.
[...]
I’m not interested in discussing the reasons it seems the blogs favor Obama right now; that’s a topic for a later post. What I’m most concerned about is how we deal with the situation we currently have and how we can prevent it from tearing apart our unified support of the eventual nominee.
Bob’s post is mostly about keeping the lefty blogosphere together — and I think that’s important too — but I am more interested here in one of the differences I see between this hotly contested primary and the last one I gave a shit about — Lamont/Lieberman ‘06.
Until almost three months ago, I was a Chris Dodd supporter. Now I support Barack Obama because of the two remaining Democratic candidates, I happen to prefer him.
But I’m not willing to alienate friends and neighbors over our differences on which remaining Democratic candidate we prefer. It could be because–like Bob–Obama and Clinton were not near the top of my list to begin with. It could be because I’m a little more cynical now, and don’t really believe that there will be a huge difference between an Obama or Clinton administration. It may be because my friends and neighbors are buying into the mainstream media’s trivialization of the race, and I am barely paying attention.
The 2006 primary between Lamont and Lieberman was different. Readers of this blog know that I followed that race every single day. Motivated by my belief in the the cause of both electing Lamont and defeating Lieberman, I was willing to alienate my friends and neighbors. OK, maybe not alienate…but I was willing to engage them. I still have a place a mental question mark next to the names of any Democrat who willfully supported Joe Lieberman after the primary. I consider that support to be a character flaw. (For the record, both Clinton and Obama officially supported Lamont after the primary. People who claim otherwise will need to present some evidence)
I don’t mean to say that there are no differences between Clinton and Obama, but I do mean to say that they’re not as clear as the differences between Lamont and Lieberman. There’s no chance that either Obama or Clinton will bolt the party and try to get elected as an independent.
I care about the outcome of the primary, but I really care about the outcome of the general election. I hope we can keep in mind that the real target for Obama and Clinton to focus on in this race is John Sidney McCain.