The singer Jewel
wrote a song a few years ago entitled, “In the End, only Kindness Matters.” It
would have made a nice theme song for Hillary’s speech last Saturday. At the
end, Hillary was magnanimous…. and kind. I still like Hillary. Really. But I
could not vote for her.
My admiration for her started when I met her
at a Women’s Leadership Forum in Washington in 1993. She gave a brilliant
speech, much like her historic concession speech, featuring topics on making
women and families healthier and more economically secure. Afterwards, she
generously made herself available to the packed room and chatted for hours with
the other women. As a friend took a photo of us together, Hillary warmly
commented on how thrilled she was to see such a large delegation from the
Mid-South, a region close to her heart. She was sunny and sweet.
Ten years later, the first installment of
this column was written in Hillary’s defense. On the morning of the release of
her biography, Living History, the Commercial Appeal did a front
page hatchet job on both the book and its author with the clear implication that
no one in Memphis had enough admiration or respect for Hillary to read it. Later
in the day, as I stood in a long line at the bookstore with others who were
purchasing several copies, it made me angry that the only daily newspaper in
this city had painted such an inaccurate representation of its citizens.
Ironically, the book hit number one on the best sellers lists locally, as well
as nationally.
The ridiculous silliness Hillary had to
endure was hard to watch, at times. From the idiotic cookie recipe contests, to
the moronic focus on her hair style changes and pantsuit choices, sexism was on
definitely on parade in the media, but she took it well and often displayed a
remarkable sense of humor about it.
However, when it came to supporting
Hillary’s efforts to become president, something difficult and piercing had been
realized. Although painful to acknowledge, Democrats were reaching the
understanding that the compromises that were committed during the Clinton years
ultimately had damaged the Democratic Party. The DLC/Third Way/Blue Dog style of
politics was nothing more than an excuse to call weakness a strength.
Negotiating, settling, sucking up and triangulating had undermined the party by
sapping its strength and by failing to demonstrate the courage to fight for
convictions that were too important to compromise.
And so it was with Hillary. It was that lack
of conviction that did her in. It was—- that vote. After five long years of
the March of Folly called the Iraq War, Americans were no longer going to be
satisfied with an “if-I-knew-then-what-I know-now.” The country wanted a
full-out realization that pre-emptive war is wrong prima facie. We now
know that the Iraq war was started on a pack of lies and that voting to go to
war was not a matter of being misinformed, it was a matter of willfully
upholding, for political expediency, George W. Bush’s disastrous doctrine.
That Hillary Clinton either could not or would not recognize her wrongfulness in
doing so was stunning. It rankled then, it is baffling now and it will forever
bewilder those who were ready to give their support. Her refusal to renounce the
war and apologize for her part in helping sustain it was truly unforgivable.
Pundits and pollsters are claiming the
economy will be the deciding issue in this election. It very well may be, but
Bush’s repulsive legacy, especially the Iraq war, will ultimately be the factor
dominating the minds of the voters because the appalling and ruinous Bush war is
the reason we have the appalling and ruinous Bush economy.
In 2004, Bill Clinton explained the Bush
re-election by claiming voters would rather vote for someone who is wrong and
strong than someone who is right and weak. Four years later, that theory sounds
as compromising as other Clinton conjectures because the people know that a vote
by any Democrat for the war in Iraq was in fact, a sign of political weakness,
not strength, for clearly, it was wrong.
This year, Democrats have chosen wisely by nominating Barack Obama, for he is
both strong in his convictions and right about the issues, most especially the
war. Unfortunately, Hillary, who knew what was right, but chose to defend what
was wrong, paid the price. Because until it ends, it’s still the despicable war,
stupid.
