A Challenge to Hillary Bashers: Tell Me Exactly Why You Hate Hillary?
The occasion was a symposium on the presidential candidates held by the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable which sponsors a weekly public policy discussion series in Los Angeles. Midway through a heated discussion over the relative merits of Democratic presidential contenders Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, a member of the audience let loose with an impassioned I-can't-stand-Hillary blast and punctuated it with the quip, I'd vote for anybody but her. I asked him a simple question: Why do you hate Hillary?
He sat with his mouth wide open and a perplexed glaze on his face, no sound issued from him. His mute response was no surprise. My question to him is the same question to the legions that slam Hillary: tell me specifically what terrible thing she's done that stirs such froth around your mouth. Skip the personal attacks, vitriol, innuendos, slurs, and don't repeat hearsay, gossip, or what you heard someone say about Clinton, and that includes Bill. Give me one tangible thing that she has done to piss you off so much that you are proud to be a charter member of the anybody-but-Hillary club. Name one tangible thing?
I asked the man in audience to tell me one thing that she's done politically or even personally that ticked him off, so that without batting an eye he'd say that the thought of her winning sends him into a paroxysm of rage. The question continued to dangle for a long and pregnant moment with no response.
He, of course, is no different than the swarm of other Hillary-bashers. The visceral dislike, even loathing of her, is so deep and broad that it welds together a strange mesh of the usual suspect Hillary haters from the Christian fundamentalists, ultra-right Republicans and conservative talking heads, through a bevy of her former Hollywood pals and Bill Clinton campaign bankrollers, all the way to self-styled progressives and ultra radicals. They have absolutely nothing in common other than the ecstasy they get from pounding Hillary for her alleged political and personal sins.
But what are they? And what did she do that has earned her the label of everything from the devil incarnate (the late Jerry Falwell) on the right to branding her a shill for fat cat lobbyists and corporations on the left. That's just cheap shot name calling, trashing, and vilification from the rank and file. But the press has also gleefully jumped in on the Clinton beat down. It spins, twists, massages in reverse, and blows to smithereens any and every piece of nasty Clinton gossip or dig.
I asked the Hillary hater a third time to name one specific thing that she's done to earn his obsessive enmity. The silent Hillary denouncer after some fishing, fumbling and stalling, said that she cheer led Bush on the Iraq war when she voted to authorize it. OK. But so did her Democratic presidential rival John Edwards, and though Obama says that he wouldn't have voted for it if he had been in the Senate then. However, in two subsequent votes he backed spending measures that continued war funding. If the other top gun Democratic presidential contender Bill Richardson had been in the Senate he almost certainly would have backed war authorization.
In fact, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus was sharply divided over support of the original Iraq war resolution in 2002 that gave Bush authority to wage war. Edwards later apologized for backing the resolution. Obama joined with 13 other Democratic Senators to oppose the crucial big money Iraq war appropriations bill in May. One of the other thirteen senators was Clinton. She is no different than other Democrats that have cut and run from Bush's war. They all recanted when public opinion turned sour on the war and Bush and it suddenly became politically fashionable and popular to do so.
The Iraq war support certainly doesn't explain the vehemence of the Hillary targeting. Her centrist, cautious, and sometimes fuzzy stance on health care, education, taxes, and immigration are legitimate issues to dissect, debate, and criticize. But these are issues that all of the contenders can and should be held to the fire on. They are fair game for that. But intense political debate and disagreement on the crucial public policy issues in and of themselves is simply not enough to stoke visceral dislike of a candidate, let alone explain the intense hate for Hillary.
My challenge then to all Hillary bashers is the same as it was to the guy at the Urban Policy Roundtable in Los Angeles: tell me exactly why you hate her so much?
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book is The Latino Challenge to Black America: Towards a Conversation between African-Americans and Hispanics (Middle Passage Press) hutchinsonreport@aol
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Just what does she stand for?
The packaging keeps changing.
First it was radical feminism, then it was left of center, then republican light and now quasi progressive left.
Enough already.
1) She NEVER answers a question. Everything she says is ambiguous. She is unwilling to take a stand for anything except her delusion that she is the self-anointed heir to the White House.
2) She's an advocate for many of the policies that are hindering our economy. She, and her husband, supported NAFTA and CAFTA, and established a "preferred trade status" with China, all of which has resulted in the exportation of our manufacturing base.
3) She advocates a statist philosophy. The continued centralizing of government (ie socialism) will eventually lead to tyranny and oppression, as do all governments that consolidate power to a political aristocracy.
4) She has more waffles than IHOP. She was for the war, she was against the war, she was for illegals having driver licenses, she was against illegals having driver licenses, she was for state-funded abortion, she was against state-funded abortion, etc, etc, ad nauseum.
Hillary Clinton is the personification of everything that's wrong with our political system. She's the classic carpetbagger, a chronic liar and panderer, scripting her every move, and applies more standards to every situation than I have fingers.
Inspiration, Hope, Change....
Can't we disagree with candidates without being accused of "hating" or "bashing" them? "Hillary is a castrating bitch" is bashing. "I don't agree with Hillary's NAFTA vote" is expressing a legitimate opinion--see the difference?
her refusal to acknowlege her responsibility for the iraq disaster. edwards didn't say he was fooled. he said he was sorry!
hillary only learns from her mistakes how to be a better politician
people are longing for a change, perhaps the new guy (gal, whatever) will be different. no bets...
d
It's her voice, dude. She talks like a school teacher on steroids -- her pitch and modulation cover the whole range from plodding monotony to shouting monotony.
And . . . she never really says anything worth remembering.
It's not that I hate her, it's just that I cannot stand to hear her voice. And contmplating 4 or 8 years of listening to her making speeches makes me want to run from the room screaming.
We've had the moron from Texas to put up with for the last miserable 8 years. Who wants to listen to more of the same crap?
I hate the clintons have no values, they are for sale! e.g.
http://que
Prosecutors Clear Clintons In Clemency of 4 Hasidic Men
Federal prosecutors said yesterday that no criminal wrongdoing was committed when President Bill Clinton commuted the sentences of four swindlers from a Hasidic enclave in New York State that voted overwhelmingly for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
James B. Comey, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a two-sentence statement that he had closed his investigation of clemency granted to the four men from New Square, N.Y.
The four men, convicted of bilking the state and federal government of tens of millions of dollars, were prominent members of New Square, a reclusive Rockland County village. The village leaders' aggressive courting of the president and Mrs. Clinton before and after the 2000 Senate election raised questions of whether the men's sentences were reduced in exchange for votes.
The four New Square men were convicted in 1999 of bilking government aid programs and funneling the money back to the yeshiva in their community of 7,000 people, about 30 miles northwest of Manhattan. Mr. Clinton reduced by several months the federal prison terms of the men, Benjamin Berger, David Goldstein, Kalmen Stern and Jacob Elbaum. They were released from prison this year.
The mastermind of the scheme, Chaim Berger, 76, a founder of the village, was returned to the United States from Israel last summer. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced last month to six years in prison and ordered to pay more than $11 million in restitution.
Mrs. Clinton met with leaders of the community in August 2000 and again, with Mr. Clinton, in December 2000 after the election. New Square voters gave her 1,400 votes to 12 for the Republican candidate, former Representative Rick A. Lazio.
The village voted republican in previous elections.
Senator Clinton is a true blue believer in socialism a proven failed system of government. Many hate what she professes, few hate her.
I hate what Clinton "free trade" and media conglomeration policies have done to our country. They were essentially Republican policies and have been of benefit only to large corporations and the super-rich. With Rupert Murdoch as her new best friend, can we expect change from Hillary? Fat chance!
1. She, along with the rest of the Democrats in Congress, has not only failed to stop the continued power grabs by the Bush administration, but has remained largely silent on the issue, appearing to be biding her time until the day she too can take advantage of the new powers of office.
2. Her current healthcare "plan" is a thinly veiled ruse to garner massive profits for the Insurance Industry at the express expense of those very people she is claiming to want to help. On the surface of it, the plan makes no sense: you say you can't afford health insurance? We'll fix that by mandating that you buy it.
3. Her choice to eschew Senatorial responsibilites to attend a vote to withdraw our troops in favor of making campaign appearances in which she calls for the withdrawal of troops is duplicitous at best. Again, she is not the only one campaigning right now who is doing it at the expense of the job the people have already hired her to do, however she is pretty brazen about it.
4. Her shameless attempts to ingratiate herself with various groups by attempting to become "one of them" are embarassing and ridiculous. Her attempts to adopt the accent, mannerisms, etc of whomever she is speaking to smack of low self esteem and a general lack of personal distinction.
We got a recorded call last night to come out on Tuesday and meet Bill for $25.
I'm not going.....
Not because I don't like Bill I do.
I'm not sure about Hillary though especially after seeing a youtube video of her statement about Overseas Outsourcing and H 1-B Visas.
And then voting FOR the Peru trade agreement and reading her "Flippant" statement saying that she will be voting against other trade agreements coming down the pike...
Sorry but the use of Overseas Outsourcing and H 1-B Visas results in the same thing:
LOSS OF AMERICAN JOBS!
And those who disagree still have THEIR JOBS!
I think it is mostly because they think it is the cool thing to do....
Perhaps the question is not why democrats hate Hillary, but rather why Hillary hates democrats. For years democrats have been loyal friends to the Clintons. We supported the campaigns. We have defended the indefensible. We bought the books. We sent cards and letters and prayed for Bill when he was in the hospital. Everytime Hillary was in need, democrats have been there for her. Democrats believed in Hillary. And yet, when democrats have needed her most, Hillary has always let us down. When the crucial votes have come to the floor, it's not the loyal democrats that Hillary thinks of, rather it's her own political agenda.
I don't like Billary because of the waffling,
and I think she's got that Chili Peppers song
playing, giveitaway, now, or something. I don't
think she's got an earthly clue nor a prayer
of doing anything about the runaway budget
deficit etc., and unfortunately regardless of
what party these people are in, her included,
they all seem to be spending or inclined to
spend, spend, spend, like mad dogs. I also
think she'll keep right on keepin' on instead
of sticking with her original, 'if elected, I
will end the Iraq war' and all that other
stuff she was peddling early on. I also think
she'll fold up like a cheap kite on immigration,
and we'll see another 20 million people amnestied if she's in office. Is that enough,
or should I continue? Oh, and she already
had her turn. Put DOWN the tiara, and slowly
back away
LOL
First, I may not be qualified to respond to this post, as I do not "hate" Hillary, and I've never "bashed" her.
But - except for the completely irrational among her opponents - most of those who are viscerally opposed to her are really opposed for these reasons:
1. At a time when we need an inspirational change in our politics, Hillary simply does not personally inspire. Her association with her inspirational husband only emphasizes this failure to move people. Presidential elections are not primarily about "qualifications", in a tenure or technical sense. If they were, Joe Biden or Bill Richardson would be walking away with the Democratic nomination.
2. Her ruthless cynicism about the process of politics - which she markets as a selling point, by the way, to deal with the "vast... conspiracies" - is repellent. This is especially true after eight years of the most repellent ruthlessness and cynicism from the Bush administration.
3. She is an accomplished woman, but she is in her position primarily because she married a preternaturally talented man. This is the root of the estrangement that many talented, truly self-made women feel from her.
4. She does not bear the mantle of transforming exception - The First Woman President - very well. Neither, by the way, would Condi Rice. Even Nancy Pelosi (bless her blinking self) would do better, or (if we could only change the Constitution) Michigan Governor (and Canadian-born) Jennifer Granholm.
5. She has defined no path whatsoever back from the precipice of partisan polarization that she has suffered from and benefited from for years, and seems actually to enjoy.
6. The only quasi-executive governmental responsibility she has ever had - the health care effort - was a miserable disaster. She says that she "learned" a lot from the experience
In a time when many Americans and most Democrats crave a truly transformational leader, with at least the potential to be an effective governor, Hillary is simply unqualified.
Others may be capable, but none of them has demonstrated the capacity to broadly inspire.
Which is why Obama is leading or gaining everywhere.
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