OK, so I’m almost certain I’m one of maybe a dozen journalists in the United States who are not at the Democratic National Convention. My frugality leading to a refusal to pay for cable hasn’t helped me in keeping abreast of all the shameless dancing to 70s feel good songs and history in the making moments.
But from the way You Tube tells it, those Hillary Clinton supporters are out there with a vengeance. From one “exemplary†Texas delegate questioning whether she will even vote this November, to a group, Clintons 4 McCain, insisting they possessed a clandestine report from a “congressional investigator†that found Barack Obama was a registered Muslim, Hillary Clinton supporters are standing firmer than the Great Wall of China, much to Clinton’s own chagrin.
Simply put, anti-Obama Democrats are doing a great disservice to themselves and the state of American politics.
Former President Bill Clinton once said, “Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line,†and it makes sense. For Democrats, this race has become more emotional than any other race my 20-something-year-old mind can possibly think back to. This race has moved from business to personal. Yes, I understand that precedents are being set and history is being made, but what about strategy? That’s where the Republicans are Vikings.
In 2000, while Democrats were riding high from the economic surplus left by the Clinton administration, Republicans knew they were going to be in for a tough fight. So what’d they do? To get President Bush in office, they acted strategically, stacked the courts and disenfranchised like it was 1800.
In 2004, while Puff Daddy and Paris Hilton ran around in their Vote or Die t-shirts, Republicans actually went to vote, Democrats on the other hand, well, they’re still alive.
Even in the 2008 primaries, many of the Republican contenders dropped out the race early and threw their support behind McCain; no fuss, no muss. Meanwhile Clinton and Obama duked it out in an Ultimate Extreme cage match. Republicans fell in line and Democrats fell in love.
Now, at the convention, some Democrats still refuse to fall in line. While Clinton urges her backers to get behind Obama for the good of the nation, they instead spit out spurious “facts†from a questional secret report or whine to the closest person with a microphone about how they feel betrayed and how Obama has not “asked†for their vote.
Renita Burns is the editorial assistant for BlackEnterprise.com.