Why we reacted so strongly: what Obama means to his supporters
by Major Danby, Sun May 25, 2008 at 12:26:04 AM EDT
I was going to re-enter the topic of Hillary's comments about the RFK assassination using the cutting edge of humor to explain how crass and how gauche those comments -- which I take to be a previously written, once-used and long-discarded draft of an explanation for why she is justified to remain in the race -- truly were. I left some examples in comments; I won't even link to them here. But I've taken some time away from the computer today and I'm no longer in that mood. I don't think that's any longer the point that needs to be made.
This diary is aimed not at my fellow Obama supporters, with many of whom I argued yesterday at length, taking the position that we did not need to and should not inquire into her motivation in making those remarks, because even the kindest interpretation told a horrible story.
This diary is instead aimed at Hillary supporters, which is why I will (as I usually do not) cross-post on MyDD. I want to explain the reactions of my cohorts here. I want to explain what it means to be an Obama supporter these days -- and especially yesterday.
I want to give voice to our fears.
1. Good night, sweet prince
Many of us are, quite seriously, deep in the pits of our stomach, afraid that Barack Obama might well be assassinated. He, as Bill Clinton did, as Hillary Clinton does, as John McCain does, as all prominent politicians do, has had to face the prospect of assassination and decide that it is a risk worth taking. But more than any of the others, he has to take the prospect seriously. He is, as a Black man in a nation composed in substantial part of people who don't like Blacks to get too "big," striking exactly the nerve that one might expect would trigger some racist nut (or some contemptible rational actor) to kill him.
I don't know if it keeps him an his family up at night. To paraphrase Michelle Obama, as a Black man in America, he is already no stranger to the prospect of violent death. Maybe they're at peace with the odds. But the prospect of his becoming President is such an in-your-face insult to the culture of racial resentment in this country that the realistics possibility of violence hangs over him every day in a way that I'd say it has hung over no other American candidate for national office since RFK. I think about it every day.
Whether we should give voice to our fears has been an interesting question of etiquette on this site. I have been on the side of saying "no," gently (I hope) admonishing that these are thoughts that we may suffer, but that we do no good by sharing them. I shift from that position now because, as was inevitable, as the demeanor and decorum of Daily Kos readers becomes a topic for discussion and derision elsewhere, we need to bring that simple fact to the fore to explain why people reacted as we did.
For by far most of us: we were not seeking political advantage. We were not being cynical. We were not being childish.
We are deeply scared that Obama will be taken violently taken away. Do you get it?
2. Seeing things as you do
Clinton supporters sometimes ask us to understand what Hillary's campaign means to older women with work experience, some of whom view Obama through the lens of a callow male upstart who charms the bosses and gets a promotion that a more qualified female candidate is denied.
I reject the premise of the analogy in multiple ways: but I understand and honor its psychological basis. Sexism, at home and in the workplace, has been a horrible scourge on this country's history. I get why Obama's success rankles so many women and those who sympathize with them. It is one reason that, as angry as I get sometimes at Hillary and what I view as her tactics, I am not really mad at the vast majority of her supporters. You are reacting to something real. I think your reaction is misplaced, but the emotion is understandable and real.
We differ from you as well in our beliefs about who can best beat John McCain this November. Looking at the numbers and the facts, I find it strange that many people come to the conclusion that Hillary is more electable, but I believe that you believe it. I believe that you believe that the country, when push comes to shove, simply won't elect a Black man, and that you share my fears over what the country will become if the Republicans win again. I do not want to argue the point with you here and will not do so unless you successfully goad me into it, which I ask that you don't try to do (because I'm easily goaded.) I just want to make the point that you want us to be able to see things from your perspective, and this is a fair (if difficult) request.
Now I want to ask the same favor of you.
3. MLK2 and RFK
I was an Edwards supporter; I was not one who accepted Obama's premise for campainging for quite a while, nor do I expect him to magically resolve this country's problems. I am not sure how progressive he will turn out to be, though I think my hopes are justifiably high, and to a great extent it doesn't matter: any Democrat who ran this year would give space for the nation to heal. So while I have become increasingly optimistic about an Obama Presidency, I'm not collapsing in a swoon.
But I will say this: in his ability to connect to voters, he reminds me of Ronald Reagan, and that is something I have been longing for in a Democratic nominee since I can remember. Bill Clinton came closest to that before now.
You don't have to agree with me. I don't want to argue about it here. I just want you to accept that this is what I think, and what I think many Obama supporters think.
When people like me look at Obama, we see a mixture of many politicians. We see the youth and vitality and hopefulness and ability to connect of an Robert F. Kennedy. We see some of the soaring oratory and the presence and the dignity of a Martin Luther King, Jr. Some, like me, don't think that this magically translates into the ability to solve all of our nation's problems, or whatever the parody of us might suggest. But we see something striking, unusual, and precious.
And dangerous. Very dangerous -- because we remember what happened to Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.
We know very well that the power structure of this country -- political, economic, and cultural -- does not like to be challenged in any fundamental way. We know that the Republican Party is loathe to lose the Presidency. And we know that Things Happen.
We think that Obama, absent a bolt from the blue, will win the election this fall and make some sorely needed changes in Washington. And we know how much that may tempt evil forces to arrange for some bolt from the blue.
Again, you don't have to agree with any of this. This is just about how we think.
4. The nerve that Hillary touched
Many of us feel that Hillary either is less likely to win this election or less likely to pose fundamental challenges to our political system, or both. Again, you're welcome to disagree, as we know you do. This is simply in explanation of our reaction.
We also, generally, don't have a problem with her remaining in the race, just as Jerry Brown did in 1992 and Ted Kennedy did in 1980 -- so long as she doesn't fundamentally undermine the chances of our nominee to win -- as Ted Kennedy, bless so many other things about him, did in 1980. We think she has lost; you don't; so be it.
But we are afraid that Obama will be met with violence. It haunts us. It won't stop us from supporting him, no more than loving parents will shoot their son or daughter in the leg to prevent a possibly deadly deployment to Iraq, but it haunts us.
So, Hillary, asked to explain why people want her out of the race, found it inexplicable, because, in essence, "anything can happen." Anything can happen right into June -- and beyond, she might well have added. And her mistake was to state out loud, as her only actual example of something happening in June that changed the race -- a political assassination.
I want you to understand that right now we don't like Hillary. We will, I believe, like her a lot more again, as she and Bill make good on their promise to unify the party and work hard for Obama. (This assuming that he wins, which I won't argue about here.) But right now, we don't. And one of our disaster scenarios right now is the prospect of Obama winning the nomination, being cut down violently, and being replaced by his current nemisis -- I have no better word than that right now -- Hillary.
It is bad enough that we wonder that it can happen. It is worse -- I can't tell you how much worse -- for us to hear that she, too, is wondering whether it might happen, and -- inexplicably -- thinking that it is part of the unexpected "anything" that justifies her remaining in the race.
It drives us into a frenzy. It would be as if Hillary had had breast cancer or ovarian cancer a few years ago, and was beating Obama, and he said that he'd stay in the race because you never knew if that cancer might come back before the convention, in which event he would be the logical person to replace her.
Imagine that for a moment, let it sink in, and understand our feelings. You want to say it's not a fair analogy -- OK, I won't debate it -- this is again about what we're feeling.
5. Our rawest nerve
Hillary stepped on our rawest nerve, which we've tried to keep protected all this year as best we can. This reaction is not, for me, about the hurt feelings of the Kennedy family. This is about our feelings about Obama: not, for most of us, a savior, but a brave man placing himself in danger for what we believe is our collective benefit.
Hillary noted, in effect, what is logically so: that anything could happen and, implicitly, that she might well stand to profit if something did. This doesn't meant she sought it or hoped for it; it was just the facts.
Every day, we pray for the safety of Barack Obama. Every day, we fear that violence will engulf him. Don't look further than that for why so many of us reacted with such fury when Hillary trod on that nerve.
I do not like putting these thoughts down on paper for public consumption, because I think that by and large these are feelings that are better off not shared. But today, this once, I ask that you recognize them, acknowledge them, understand them, and respect them.
We were thinking about two deaths 40 years ago that in our hearts remain raw wounds. And thus we reacted as we did.
I hope that any understanding this diary fosters helps clear the path to our eventual reconciliation.
Tags: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, RFK Assassination (all tags)
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