On Race, Betrayal, and My Growing Appreciation of Hillary Clinton (UPDATED SLIGHTLY with a PPS)

Lately there has been some rather over-heated discussion in the papers and on the airwaves about the notion of betrayal.

The unsubtle agitprop "Betray-us or Petraeus" ad (yes, literally untrue, but a useful provocation), became a short-term totem which might re-emerge during the desperate and venal months ahead as an "election issue" to bore the pants off us all. Bush and the remainder of his team, who seem like mid-level Staples floor staffers, must be the actual target for such consideration, not one of his lesser uniformed functionaries.

So the Move-On ad whipped up various bores of the right into a frenzy of priggish obfuscation which in turn fueled a news-cycle or two worth of bush-league outrage in the US Congress and on Fox. The dew-laps on the representatives shook, the speeches were made, scorecards adjusted, Rome continues to burn. Elected Democratic representatives of both genders, in their ever-ugly ill-tailored suits ran for cover, like maladroit and husky kids at a grim game of musical chairs. People turned away from Move-On (and on and on), to watch Kid Nation, Perez Hilton, or Top Chef.

But today, this particular Thursday of 2007, I'll tell you who the real betrayers are, and let's see where the chips fall: The betrayers are every one of those GOP candidates for President who have declined to show up at the African-American voter forum tonight. The betrayers are Romney, Rudy, McCain and the irrelevant and entertaining Thompson.

Race is everything in America today. As much as mismanaged war. As much as fiscal malfeasance. Race is everything. It is at the core of justice and poverty and opportunity and education. Race is everything.

The no-shows, off to their fund-raisers, etc, are betraying a spiritual compact which democracy relies on. Because every white politician in this country running for national office has a huge and terrible compact inherent in the job, an awesome and final responsibility to insist that minority children be thrust into a safe and shining future, an equal one -- a more than equal one.

Because not to attend is a symptom of deep cultural amnesia. Not to attend is to give short-shrift to the civil rights movement itself. It is owed to the memory of Dr. King. Not to answer that call at that forum is to reveal oneself as out of step, out of tune, and out of time. To not go, is to fly over New Orleans and turn around towards Washington, in the manner of the impeachable President we now enjoy. To decline this forum is to reveal a thoughtless pragmatism of the sort that should make one ineligible to even vote let alone run for office.

It is not an act of racism by these men; merely one of shallowness so short-sighted as to be worthy of ideological LASIK surgery.

Whither the romance of a white politico who can excite an unmoved, unimpressed, disenfranchised black electorate? (Oh yeah, they tried to impeach him for lying about his libido.)

And to those who wish to write letters about the stupidity of black Republicans -- don't bother. I don't see why African-Americans shouldn't expect the GOP to offer them an alternative to the anemic soup of the Dems. Every time I write a post, there is a slew of feverish letter writers who reduce the subject at hand to a dullards' game of isolationist and partisan tag.

As I have said before, the mystical and romantic power of this nation is on the wane. The invisible beauty that sometimes runs below the surface of American life is fading away. For years, as a kid, I watched the whites of South Africa become sallow and gummy with indifference and hardness. White politicians in America owe the black electorate their full attention and nothing less. Or else you can hardly blame African Americans for turning to sharpies like Sharpton for leadership and a boost of serotonin, can you?

PS Some months ago I wrote of a run-in I had with Hillary Clinton at an L.A. fundraiser. I watched her on the compulsively entertaining and strangely marvelous Joe Scarborough show last week and found her to be stirring. And then she laughed on FOX like Redford in The Candidate and I liked her even more. The real person was showing up, and she's been running circles around the other would-be nominees. What the hell is happening? Is it that I turned the TV back on, and my brain is no longer whirring away like the dreidel it is?

PPS : Sat, Sept 29. Regarding my after-thought of an observation on Hillary Clinton, which seems to have provoked a number of responses: A slightly closer-reader would note that I did not endorse her in my little PS. That was about mood, tide, an internal, and emotional polling. She was suprising, and it signaled a kind of relaxation in her which was attractive. It could even be construed as an ironic and very back-handed compliment to note that a politician seems more flesh and blood and less mechanical this week than she has in the past. The PS is a minor footnote to my assertion that in order for this country to even approach a condition in which the American dream come near to realizing the mystical glory it craves - as a notion - all of us white people might want to start understanding that we are ALL African-Americans today, or else, we are not Americans at all. Romney, Rudy, the hapless Thomson, and (sadly)
McCain, are, in this bloggers opinion, lesser Americans, and unstatesman-like, because of the choice they made not to bother going to the debate in question.

Comments

[ccalee]

So, you love Hillary's laugh. Well, she's laughing at you.
She's a demicon war-monger.
She has no moral compass. She's in the pocket of Murdoch and the rest of the corporatists.
Look at her votes. Look at her husband, who has spent as much time with Geo. "Carlyle" Bush as he has with Hillary. Her husband's legislation helped create the great divide between the ultra-rich and everyone else by throwing yet more money and power to corporations. Media consolidation started under smiley Bill.
What do you want? Twenty-four years of uninterrupted fascist rule? If so, get behind Hillary.

[repearwo]

Wake up. Hillary has sold out big time. She said that "if whe knew then what she knows now" about Iraq. When we are imbroiled in another fiasco with Iran what will she say. She lies just like the "Liar and Chief".

No, no, not Hillary.

[Congoboy]

Yaznaioutibia, Actually, if you and other libs sit this one out you will elect a right-wing Republican. And please don't imagine that you will be helping things get worse so they will then get better when people form a third party. Ain't going to happen. Your choice is a Republican or a Democrat; all other choices are self-indulgent sophistry. No more Ralph Naders, please!

[BlueBoomer]

I SECOND that plea!...And raise you one for consideration of JOE BIDEN...THE REAL DEAL.

[CarmanK]

By playing the game with Repukes, there are black Americans i.e. Justice Thomas and Condi Rice who have done quite well for themselves. When Michael Steels was Lt. Gov of MD, he did nothing to rock his Governor's boat. And like many Repuke elites, they believe themselves above the fray. The candidates who avoided the debate are just following the example of the Blacks they know. Act and then apologize with a little sugar.

[WorkingClass]

There are more white Americans living in poverty than black Americans. Race is not everything. CLASS is everything. Hillary is a class warrior and she is on the wrong side. Stop watching teevee. Especially black and white teevee.

[avergejoe]

Spot on. It is class division hurting the country!

"The real person was showing up, and she's been running circles around the other would-be nominees. What the hell is happening?" - She is chasing after joe "I never met an Arab I liked" lie_berman to find out the next piece of war mongering hate filled legislation that he wants her to vote for!

[nihilon x]

Class and race are almost always related in this country.

Class is NOT everything -- a wealthy or middle-class black man is just as likely to be followed through a store or pulled over for DWB in a white neighborhood as is a poor black man.

I can't speak for latinos, but I'm sure that they have to deal with similar issues.

[leftLibertarian]

I appreciate Clinton's way with words. Give her the topic of Iraq and you won't know if she's for or against immediate withdrawal. A true politician who would betray you without batting an eye.

[Maddlizz]

How stupid can a real Democratic be to say that he/she will never vote for Hillary.
For all of you Democrates who hate Hillary so much, just vote for the Republican Presidential nominee and you will get the government you deserve.

[brutus948]

no there is also Nader

[BlueBoomer]

How do you spell Nader? REPUBLICAN VICTORY.

[Rhydderch69]

The Democratic party has been running on empty for a long, long time -- in essence since the Marines landed at Da Nang in 1965.

We got lucky with Carter and Clinton I, just lucky enough to convince the party that internal reform was not necessary.

Frankly, I can see benefits to a come-from-behind Republican victory -- it'd keep Dr. Dean as chair of the DNC, and help extract the gumbi-doll that serves as the Democratic party's spine.

[BuckarooBanzai]

As long as the war rages, there is nothing else.

It kills our children, destroys our honor, it poisons us.

Race, while extremely important, is secondary to war.

The point I a making is that Hilary wants to continue the war. She says a lot of clever things that suggest she wants out but they all end with "if the situationa allows it".

I was 14 during the 1968 election. What Hilary is saying is word for word what Richard Nixon was saying he'd do in Viet Nam. "The strategy has failed", "I will get us out, I have a plan" etc. etc.

We got out after 25,000 Americans and millions of Vietnamese and Cambodians died. `

Hilary just signed a bill declaring the army of the government of Iran a terrorist organization and stating as fact that Iran is killing our soldiers (none of which has been investigated). That's a cause for war folks.

Hilary and the Washington elite do not want to leave the middle east. They fear, with good reason, that if we leave Iraq, we will cease to be the great power. They lack the imagination to see a world without US military hegemony. They feel they have to stay there with troops, no matter what.

Elect her and there will be more war, a draft and many gold stars in our windows.

[UNCLEJOE]

58,000 Americans died in the Vietnam Civil War; only 54,000 more American deaths in Iraq to catch up to the Vietnam debacle. Hillary can catch up on those 54,000 more American deaths easily when she invades Iran as our next POTUS.

[KenoshaMarge]

Lisette We rant because Hillary is wrong and all wrong for America. Could you try that as "We rant because WE think Hillary is wrong and WE think she's all wrong for America"? Just cause you think it don't make it so. Nor does what I think make it so either. But then rational folks know that. Huff-Po and its Hillary-haters are getting too-too boring. If I want that much venom about a Democratic candidate I would go to a Conservative blog. (Yuck, Ugh, I can't believe I even considered that.)

[elion10]

Your comment that the remaining Bush team "seem like mid-level Staples floor staffers", is an insult to mid-level Staples floor staffers everywhere.

[angel66]

Edwards aptly slammed Hillary at the debate for yet another Bush/Cheney engineered vote for war.

And she's a progressive? A Democrat? WTF?

So Jon, turn your TV off. Of course, it was Bill Clinton who signed the Telecom Act, thereby allowing the media news monopoly that effectively shuts down real issues.

[SensibleAmerican]

Well the Breck Girl's "slamming" is an obvious sign of desperation! He has not moved in the polls for almost 8-9 months now. Also, if I recall correctly he too voted for the "engineered" war?!

As for Hillary, she IS a TRUE Democrat. Not a far left looney but a REAL Democrat

[911wasAnInsideJob]

Kanye West has already said it; it's old news, Jon.
You need to try not to let words get in the way of what you wants to say.
Hillary is a problem, not the solution. Not even a temporary one.

[UNCLEJOE]

The REAL Democratic Party has now become the surrogate of the REAL Republican Party and Hillary has a wide stance with one foot in each Party. indubitably

[Iownpeterbilt]

If you want the U S to start acting like a nation and not the world BULLY, lets vote for Ron Paul.
He is one who I feel would end our Imperialism,
and get the troops home to start putting the mess here back together..

[Stevelagain]

Speaking of Hillary, Petreaus, Iraq, Iran.....I think that the left is starting to realize they may have lost the Iraq debate. Not just for now, but right up to the end. And it was that attack on Petreaus that clearly helped to know the radicalized left back on it's heels.

As far as "RACE IS EVERYTHING". Wow. Wow. Where to start with a comment like that? Some of us have "movedon" and it sounds as if Jon should to.

If candidates don't wnat to show up at a debate where they may be attacked by a hostile crowd....well SHADES OF DEMOCRATS AND FOX NEWS DEBATES! Was that RACISM TOO there? I think not and I think the same thing goes for this debate.

Lets get off the misdirection and deal with reality. How can we have a meaningful debate when one side only wants to pander to race conflict and race wars and call others racists?

[WolfLarsen]

Lost the Iraq debate? Are you delusional? Over two-thirds of the people in this country want us out of this war and an even higher number say the war was a mistake. You think because some Republicans can block an override of a Presidential veto is going to gain you anything? Do you think prolonging an unpopular war is going to help you in the long run? Bush, the former incompetent Republican Congress and an immoral and obscene war is going to sink the Republicans in '08. You will probably lose the Presidency, lose more seats in both the House and the Senate and most of the Governorships. All because you backed an incompetent boob, failed to do your job in Congress which is to oversee the war and then chose to prolong it for political reasons.

You won the 48 hour news cycle on Petraeus and a minor battle but in doing so you virtually guaranteed victory for the Democrats and the loss of the electoral war. But Republicans have shown they are very adept at one thing....losing wars.

Enjoy the wilderness.

[situationcritical]

Ron Paul - bigot, racist, Texan.

[audiophileguy]

Mr. Baitz must have forgotten that this is the same Hillary that pandered to co-sponsor the anti flag-burning amendment, perhaps the most ludicrous bit of legislation other than Alaska's bridge to nowhere. Mr. Baitz must not recall that this is the same Hillary that still defends her vote for the Iraq War, reminding us that she shares Mr. Bush's pathology of not being able to admit mistakes---ever. Yes, Hillary is laughing hard, because she is quite confident she has fooled us into believing she is the genuine agent for change. I consider myself a proud and serious Democrat, but I will never, ever vote for Hillary. As other posters have pointed out, Hillary is poised to prove once and for all that Democrats are losing intentiona­lly---putt­ing up candidates that unite all Republicans and divide Democrats---making even a marginal Republican candidate a sure bet.

[SensibleAmerican]

Hillary is the ONLY one who will WIN! Not something the far-left-w­ide-eyed-l­iberal-nad­er-loving-­herd is used to! Except ofcourse, screaming at the rain!

[BlueBoomer]

WIN WHAT?...

If the unfortunate happens and she becomes the nominee, there's a good chance SHE WILL NOT WIN THE GENERAL ELECTION.

THEN WHAT?...

[SharonWantsToTalk]

The GOP's failure to show up, just reinforces their inherent disconnect from the rest, or the real America. They don't show up because its not politically beneficial. They don't show up because they really don't give a shit. Never have. Never will. They just simply don't live in the same America. Hillary, her votes are consistently contradicting to the real change we need. They scare the shit out of me. The only hope I have is that she chose these votes so as to be more appealing to the majority. And if she is elected she will rectify the BS by doing the right thing. Her hubby Bill is the smartest President I remember. I hope he has a huge influence on her if she makes it. BTW, I'm not voting for her in the primaries.

[JCRepublican]

Jesus Was, And Is, A Conservative Republican Fundamentalist

Liberals twist the Bible to try to force it to support Liberal causes like Gay Marriage.

The Republican ideal is the same as the Christian ideal, which is the same as the Conservative religious ideal which is present in every single human culture that ever existed in any way.

The Democrat ideal is the same as the atheist ideal, which is the same as the Liberal secularist ideal, which is the same as the dictatorship of the proletariat throughout all cultures in all times in all places in the history of the world.

Take any primitive tribe on earth, past or present and they can be neatly divided between the Conservatives and the Liberals, the religious and the irreligious.

They go under different names throughout history but their agendas are always virtually the same.

A Democrat is a Democrat is a Democrat. Once you have seen or heard one you have seen and heard them all for all time.

Clearly God is a Republican, and Lucifer is a Democrat. Clearly Jesus was a Conservative Republican.

BTW: There is nothing democratic about the Democrat Party or any Democrat.

[kilnwmn]

««Jesus Was, And Is, A Conservative Republican Fundamentalist »»

You might want to read this Sunday's Gospel...Jesus' parable on how the rich man, not poor beggar Lazarus, is the real derelict...and there's the rich man burning and thirsting up a storm in hell and he's still asking to have Lazarus run his errands for him...some people never get it even when they're burning in hell.

[JudgeMoonbox]

"Jesus Was, And Is, A Conservative Republican Fundamentalist"

Do you mean that Jesus who stood against Traditional Family Values by speaking for the "Good" Samaritans? Any Pharisee can find far more than 8 obscure passages in Scripture against them.

That Jesus who spoke against School Prayer when he said "Be not like the hypocrite who prays in the streets and in the synagogues to be seen of men, but when thou prayest, go to thy closet and pray, and for that prayer which is in secret, God shall reward thee openly?" (Mathhew 6:5,6)

That Jesus who showed his Communistic leanings when he drove the moneychangers from the Temple? No true Christian would under any circumstance refer to it as a den of thieves.

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

Do those values include hanging out in airport bathroom stalls and proposing fellatio to men? Just wondering... because, maybe I'm not educated enough on the Christian "ideal".

[andyboy]

Partisan Poppycock.

Both parties are made up of an array of members who hold as many positions on the different issues as there are in existence.

That said your argument is totally null and void.

I mean take Rudy Guliani. Guns and abortion?

I'd say those two issues go straight to the heart of the Republican "ideal" (by the way there is no such thing it was a construct the blogger used to try to make his point not a thing that actually exists) wouldn't you?

Or John McCain trying to go bi-partisan from time to time becasue he knows that in reality we are all Americans with common needs and the same problems.

Your rhetoric only serves to keep us all polarized. It's a my side against your side scorched earth never cede and inch to your fellow American because we have to win the next election atitude.

[situationcritical]

In truth, Jesus is the greatest liberal in the age of God and man.

[Congoboy]

Mrs. Clinton is a decent, intelligent woman who has walked the walk her entire life. I do not agree with all of her stances, but she has shown a capacity for growth and change and adjustment to circumstances, all necessary qualities for a good president. She's going to win, so all the haters out there need to tone it down. Not since Eleanor Roosevelt has a first lady been this unfairly vilified...and her husband was elected to four terms. The great joy I receive from my certainty that our next president will be Hillary Clinton is that it will also mean 8 more years of the most talented Democrat of the 20th and 21st centuries, Bill Clinton.

[Mojane]

Please, you insult Eleanor. I doubt Hillary will be ever be held in as high esteem as Mrs. Roosevelt. Ever.

[SensibleAmerican]

Maybe not as high but probably higher! She was the First Lady AND will be the first woman President of the US of A!

Wow! First woman Speaker and now the first woman Commander-In-Chief!