I'm going to try to keep myself from voting in the Massachusetts Democratic primary
tomorrow, in which Hillary is pitched against Bernie.
I see the problems with Clinton, if anything underlined by
the NY Times piece about her role in the overthrow of Gaddafi, with no thought
for the day after.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/us/politics/hillary-clinton-libya.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=nytmm_FadingSlideShow_item&module=span-ab-top-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
So we stepped in to overthrow a tyrant, with some archetypically
American root conviction that once you banish tyranny democracy ineluctably sets
in. For us it's always King George v. George Washington, despotism v. liberty.
The downside of the uniquely successful American Revolution
is the fostering of the illusion that its model is everywhere applicable.
In any case, Libya has become a failed state. (Can anybody
think of another state in the Middle East which we delivered from tyranny only
to reduce it to metastatic sectarian chaos?)
Gaddafi's abundant weaponry flowed to Islamicists in Syria.
And lo and behold Libya, today, is the new center for ISIS.
Hillary was the deciding influence on Obama, who was hesitant about United States
involvement. For all his supposed timidity, which I do not doubt may have flaws,
Obama has a better sense of history and of the limitations of American power
than most of his critics.
As for HRC, I don't trust her judgment, or her ability to
reflect on and correct it.
Still, I think she has the better chance to beat Trump or
whomever, and, as I’ve said, that is uppermost for me.
As for Sanders, I like him, like him too much to vote
against him. I loved that he named his son Levi. I know people who decry him
for not making more of his Jewishnness. That's not, let me be clear, a demand
that he be more observant, or "Judaic" if you will, but that he be
more upfront — or something.
And yeah, it's more than bit weird that he has described
himself as descended from Polish immigrants. Polish immigrants? In Poland, his
forbears were seen and treated as Jews, not Poles. When they came here, except
for a small number of their kind, Yiddish, not Polish, was their mother tongue.
So yeah, that is weird, and discouraging, if not cowardly.
Beyond that, I have zero problem with his manner of
being and not being Jewish. Maybe
he fears anti-Semitism. Silly Bernie, hasn't anyone told him that this is
America and not to worry? Or maybe he doesn't want the Orthodox stopping him on
the streets of Burlington and demanding to know the last time he put on Tfellim.
He did spend time on a Hashomer
Hatzair (left-wing Zionist) kibbutz in Israel, and might say
something more about that, including what he didn't like about it (he didn't
stay) and maybe more about the whole Israeli-Jewish shtick. It would be
interesting.
The right, esp. the Christian right, can't attack Sanders
for his dalliance with Hashomer Hatzair. They LUV everything Israel too much.
I think, though, that Bernie does have a skeleton in the
closet — Trotskyism, membership in the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). Hillary
didn't and wouldn't bring it up. And sure, who among us has not had youthful dalliance
with political dementia? That said, Sanders's approach to economic issues, including
his flagrant use of the word "socialism" — which means exactly what,
if you're in America not Denmark? — does not indicate aversion to
nationalization of banks and industry, as a means to combating the admiited onerousness
of increasing income inequality.
Hillary and Sanders were very adult in their debates; she did
not red bait.
Trump or whomever, will. Count on it.
I won't vote in tomorrow's Massachusetts primary. I will accept either Hillary or Bernie
as my candidate, and do my utmost for either.
A good nutshell, though my hunch is that either Dem would wipe the floor with Trump, the most likely Republican candidate, unless a desperate GOP manages to pull some bunny out of the hat and trip him up. So if your only reason for favouring Hillary is that she's more likely to defeat Trump, I think you could go ahead and vote for Bernie, whom you seem to like better and trust more. But even if you're right about Hillary having a better chance against Trump "or whoever", I can't see why you're abstaining from voting.
ReplyDeleteIf, as you argue, either Dem could trump Trump, what is the urgency about voting in this primary?
ReplyDeleteBut the truth is not voting gets harder by the minute. I'll have to cast a ballot.