Hate Takes A Holiday

As the race for the future unfolds it is interesting to note that there is a change in tone. Voices young and old, left and right, are softening and a new civility can be heard in the declarations of all but the incurably bitter.

Hate is not the moniker of any one group or party. The Ann Coulters of the World may be exceedingly vicious, but we on the left have our haters. I remember the sad day during the '04 election when a group of folks in Hollywood held an "I Hate Bush "party. How must that have felt to the folks all over the Country who cast their votes with him?

Anger has fueled the debate for years now. I am by no means innocent on that score. I have gotten into my share of arguments that were unpleasant and overwrought. I have friends who spend inordinate amounts of time griping about the state of things. The focus on the negative is addicting. People start their day tuning into talk shows that rant and rave and hurl vitriol as if it were a nutrient. Hate for breakfast. We have been ingesting it by the bowlful and it has clogged the airways of our national dialogue.

I was taken aback when Hillary Clinton explained in a recent interview that in the general election there are going to be serious assaults on our candidate. Apparently, the hate will hit the fan and she claims to be best able to counter-attack. I sympathize with her on this point, as she has withstood quite a lot condemnation and scrutiny in the past. Maybe that is what drove the recent Clinton antics in South Carolina. They are of the mind set that campaigns are wars to fought, with the end justifying any means. This is startlingly reminiscent of the Bush mentality and begs the question ... does it have to be so hateful? Do we really want another contest so brutal that both sides are left wounded and wanting revenge?

The two party system was created to provide checks and balances. The opposing sides are meant to provide insight into one another's point of view. For too many years we have been treated to the spectacle of our party leaders engaging in ideological warfare with both sides digging in and lobbing barbs and accusations from their respective trenches. This sniping and name-calling is stalling progress at every level of government. Witness the inability of my state of California to find common ground on a new budget. The revenue shortfalls we face require innovation, not recrimination.

A few of the candidates and their supporters have tried to paint any form of cooperation between the parties as a sign of betrayal. Both John McCain and Barack Obama have taken flack for daring to cross party lines to achieve legislation or to analyze best practices. The good news is that these arguments are falling on deaf ears. It is thinkable that people on both sides can have good ideas and good intentions. If we want the world to start listening to us again it behooves us to start listening to one another.

In the past few days I have received messages from some of my friends who for years have been decrying and damning the Right -- those same folks, who have been throwing things at the TV and threatening to move to Europe. The ones for whom cynicism has been the only solace. They are reaching out to me and they want to know if it is really happening? Is it really safe to hope that Barack Obama can actually triumph with a message of unity? All I know for sure is that the message is out there and that people are yearning to hear it. America is longing to be free from hate.

This is one of the many good reasons that young people have chosen his candidacy. This is why win or lose, the young need to speak out. They have largely rejected this intra-party hate. They are not yet battle scarred. They have no old scores to settle. They are our best hope for healing this nation.

I believe that Barack Obama will pull off this miracle. I absolutely believe that he will win the Presidency, but the biggest victory may be the change that is already at hand.

We are finally rejecting division. We are finally tired of being divided by race and by gender and by sexual preferences. Rich and poor, pro-war or pro-choice we are all Americans and we are all the children of God. Are we, at long last, agreeing to disagree? Can it be that Republicans as well as Democrats are coming to the realization that for all of our differences we have much in common?

Even the pundits are starting to lose the bickering and just tell us how they feel. We have seen Pat Buchanan defending Hillary and admitting he's afraid of McCain ... Tucker Carlson declaring "I like Obama because I don't feel like he hates me". Even Michael Moore seems to be toning it down. When the phone is ringing off the hook in Scarborough Country with folks who want to donate to a Democrat ... well the times they are a changin'.

I love voting day. I love the sight of my fellow citizens lining up to make their voices heard. I will be praying for Barack Obama.to prevail. I will be praying for the young people who are daring to dream and the old people who fear for them. I will be praying for the cynics and the cranks as well as the true believers. I will be praying that as we let our voices be heard, we learn to speak in gentler tones. I will be praying for the daring adventure that is America. I believe in us. Can we overcome the divisions between us in time to solve the problems that lay ahead? Three words.

YES WE CAN!

Comments

[lwaxanatroi]

I read this post from the Entertainment page, not the Politics page, which I think says something. While there may be haters on the left (and I'll admit GWB raises my hackles quite a bit), it is the right that turned hate into a multimillion dollar industry. What I love right now is watching the hatemongers like Rush and Ann foaming at the mouth over McCain, knowing that the election of a sane person, whether a Republican or a Democrat, to the White House will cost them big bucks because it will demonstrate that no candidate need kiss their rings any longer. That they hate Huckabee, too, who is everything they profess to love in a candidate, reveals that their true agenda is not the ascendancy of Christianity but something far more secular. Like their own huge incomes, which must, of course, be as tax exempt as possible. Someone throw a bucket of water on Rush; maybe he'll melt.

[JGatsby]

Ms. Broderick, ask the people of Iraq (if you can find any that are still alive and not too terrorized to give an honest opinion) what they think about Bush. Ask the people of New Orleans who are living in trailers contaminated with chemicals, ask the innocent citizens from Germany, Canada, and other countries who have been grabbed without trials and sent to Guantanimo or secret prisons to be tortured. At the same time listen (if you can stand it) to Michael Savage or any other right wing nut blather on about their hatred for the Clintons. Can you compare these and really say that unjustified hatred is equally a problem for the left and right?

[Cathexis]

I disagree with your assessment, Beth. This is not "the way it always was." "Both sides" are not equally at fauolt.

Cast your mind back and remember: All of this started with the Radical Right GOP and their frothing attacks on Bill Clinton. And when the GOP took power in 2000, the first thing they did was to effectively shut out all who didn't agree and attempt to rule by 51% fiat.

"I Hate Bush" parties is evidence of "hate from the Left?" No, maam. That was a RESPONSE to the hate to which all who did not drink the Kool Aid were subjected to. It is disengenuous, at best, to equate the two. All Non-Rightists were subjected to estrangement and hatred for TWO TERMS ... all of which was very clearly generated by the Far Right folks who had successfully hijacked the Republican party. And now, when they are facing loss of power and a disastrous aftermath of their 8 years of folly ... now everyone should "play nice?"

To hell with them, maam. Their kind don't understand "playing nice." To them, it is a sign of weakness. Authoritarians only understand *their* definition of "strength." Let them spend some time on the outside. Maybe they'll remember how it feels if-and-when they ever crawl back into power.

[realitytrumpsbull]

I'll wait here and hold my breath for Big Change...no, really, I will. Best of luck!

[CindyV]

Obviously, you haven't been reading the posts by Obama's supporters here on Huffpost. Talk about hate! I'm so distressed about it, that I'm not sure I can vote for Obama should he be the candidate in November.

[RusStyles]

Hate coming from his wife? What hate? She gave one of the best, most heart-warming, mind-stirring speeches I've heard from any human...and there was not one shred of "hate" uttered. Why log on here and make unfounded, provacative statements? For kicks...?

[AnninCA]

Sorry but I see most of the hate coming from his wife and surrogates right now.

If his vision is different, he's failing to implement that even in this campaign.

[Desiderata]

Please. Help me out here. Just what specifically has Obama done in his political career that justifies this "second coming of JFK or RFK or maybe Jesus Christ?

The last time I heard such Hosannas for a Presidential Candidate as a "Uniter" was one George W. Bush.

"There are no blue states. There are no red states. Only the United States."

Okay. Got that. But I can't get out of my mind the old Peter Sellers movie "Being There" where a whole nation became so enthralled by only the appearance of wisdom in an otherwise simple man, that he is elected President with not so simple consequences. We actually elected him twice in this decade. How can we be sure Obama is not just Mike Brady, father on "The Brady Bunch" instead of this much heralded savior of our nation?

He sure does make me feel good, but a need more to trust him with my life and the desperately needed American restoration.

[eddiestardust]

Ms Broderick,

Political Parties in the United States came about on their own, if you read the Constitution it says nothing about them.

[Jazz42]

Very insithgful post
I will be saying a prayer as well.
Thank you,
Ms/Mrs Brodeck