The Tipping Point for One Former Democrat

It’s my habit every morning to scan online news sources in both the MSM and blogosphere before posting here at Katalusis. On this particular morning, I was still pondering the most effective way to let the DNC know that the sexism and misogyny demonstrated by party leaders and their good old boy allies in the media throughout the Democratic primary will no longer cut it.

Hillary Clinton’s gracious concession speech last Saturday did not persuade me to let bygones be bygones and throw my support to Barack Obama, a candidate I’ve considered grossly unqualified for the presidency from the get-go.

Yes, I’m one of those lifelong Democrats who has been sorely tempted to abandon my political home off and on for several months now. My outrage deepened at every juncture in the campaign when party members and media pundits ganged up on Clinton in their efforts to force her out of the race before millions of people were given the opportunity to vote.

While making my usual rounds across the Internet, I checked out the Washington Post minutes ago and despite the taste of bile in my mouth, I clicked on Eugene Robinson’s column. Gene, you remember, only recently assumed the role of God by suggesting in one of his more offensive diatribes against Clinton that she was in danger of losing her very soul.

In today’s column, Mr. Robinson waxes euphoric over Clinton’s concession speech:

“It's no secret that I've found plenty of fault with the way Clinton, her staff and her husband ran their campaign. But I can't find a thing wrong with the way she ended it, delivering a gracious and stirring address beneath the soaring, faux-marble columns of the National Building Museum. She chose one of Washington's grandest interior spaces for her valedictory, and her words lived up to the setting.”

Readers’ comments by Clinton supporters (shown below in italics) expressed my sentiments in response to Gene’s words far better than I could have:

1.“During the campaign it seemed to be considered great sport among MSM commentators like Robinson to trash and denigrate Senator Clinton. Like lining up to hit a pinata or something. She struggled on a playing field tilted against her. Your praise of her now rings very hollow. Save yourself the trouble. We won't be voting for your good friend Mr. Obama.”

2.“Mr. Robinson- You have truly inspired me. I will write in Hillary's name come November!”

3.“And so we complete the pundit merry-go-round. I've seen this movie before with Al Gore. First, the pundits spend months trashing, mocking, ridiculing, sneering at, making up stuff about the candidate, doing everything they can to rip the candidacy apart.

Then, when they've gotten their way, they write this kind of milquetoast, smug, self-satisfied mea culpa, patting themselves on the back for their own grace.

It's disgusting and disingenuous in the extreme. Robinson has spent the last year writing the vilest, nastiest things about Hillary Clinton, most of them based either on his own mind-reading of the candidate or stuff that turned out to be untrue.

It would be a fascinating case study-- if the world didn't hang in the balance --to note the parallels between how the media treated Gore and Clinton.

The only site I've seen that nails it is dailyhowler.com. Read it and weep, literally.”

Nearly choking on bile, I left the Washington Post to visit Politico.com where I noticed this headline: “Will Clinton take the blame if Obama falls?” Here’s a sample of the drivel in Ben Adler’s piece:

‘“If the Democrats don’t win the White House back this fall there will be a hard core contingent of young Obama supporters who will be extremely disappointed,’ said Alexandra Acker, executive director of the Young Democrats of America. ‘They will be looking for someone to blame and some may look to the long primary.’

“Democratic strategists, elected officials and political analysts interviewed by Politico agreed that any debate that surfaces over her culpability will be colored by how hard Clinton works to heal the rift between now and Election Day.”

Talk about attempted blackmail. Stooping to new all-time lows, so-called Democratic strategists are actually trying to force Hillary Clinton to go all out to make sure that her less qualified opponent in the primary is elected president of the United States.

Adler’s article was the tipping point for me. I immediately went to http://www.democrats.org/; I needed to re-register anyway as I had changed addresses since the last election. For the first time in my adult life, I did not register as a Democrat. Instead I typed “no party” in the appropriate space, printed out the form, signed it, and mailed it to the Minnesota Secretary of State. Thus, I officially became an independent voter.

Once the deed was done, I returned to my computer to finish reading the “news” and get this post up. That’s when I stumbled on Bonnie Erbe’s opinion piece at USNews, titled “Obama and the Democrats Owe Hillary Clinton and Her Supporters a Formal Apology for the Campaign's Sexism.”

Erbe writes:

“The Democratic National Committee either doesn't get it or refuses to admit it. Nothing short of a lengthy, detailed mea culpa by the DNC and by Obama himself, directed to Clinton supporters for the sexist name-calling and personal, nasty characterizations Clinton was alone forced to endure, will do. Even that may not persuade these voters to consider supporting the party this fall. The DNC, Democratic Party leaders in Congress, and Obama should have been at her side, calling her treatment by the media (and even by some Obama supporters) unacceptable.

“According to most polls, something in the range of 20 to 25 percent of her 18 million supporters say they'll vote for Senator McCain in November. That's 4.5 million votes—too many to take for granted. Yet taking them for granted is just what the party and Obama are doing. When CNN's Candy Crowley asked Obama how he would appeal to disaffected Clinton voters, he missed the mark entirely, giving a standard set of policy proposals.”

Thinking it over, I decided I might consider returning to the Democratic fold the day I receive that mea culpa from the DNC and Obama, as described above by Erbe.

In the meantime, I think I’ll just relax and enjoy my newfound status as an independent voter, unbeholden to the sexist political hacks from either party.

I'll keep posting, though. Stay tuned, Katalusis readers, as we continue our sometimes dismaying journey through America's deeply flawed political process. Someday perhaps our voices will be heard, and women of all races, nationalities, and ethnic origin will thereafter be treated with dignity and respect.

I'm not willing to settle for less.