Last night was a triumph for the electorate and represents an important change in the American experience. I hope that Obama is one of those rare politicians whose words match his actions. The jury is still out on that.
Tom Brokaw thinks that the greatest generation were the people who fought and lived through WW II. I think that is a MSM sound bite that does not reflect reality. Those who fight and die for our country are victims of our leaders' bad decisions. The "greatest generation" leaders got us into WW II and have put America into a post war turmoil that they created.
The Wall Street crowd supported German rearmament before the war and created a conflict with the USSR after the war to line their pockets. Unfortunately, the post war baby boomers have been so propagandized with Cold War skewed history that they have led us into the mess we are in today. It is the Obama generation that has a chance to move ahead unencumbered by the distorted militaristic values of the early baby boomers. Which brings me to my point about Hillary, false choices, and friendship.
Anita and I are friends of the Clintons. Unfortunately, we are not in their inner circle of advisors. I have personally disagreed with her political choices when she ran for the Senate and some of her votes while in the Senate, especially the Iraq war resolution. I wrote a piece on the Huffpo a few weeks ago, The Real Hillary: A Problem Of Perception Versus Reality http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheldon-drobny/the-real-hillary-a-probl_b_77518.html, that received almost all negative comments. I was accused of being a traitor to the true liberal cause. What I was really doing in essence was writing a letter to a friend who I knew was making wrong and false choices.
Friendship invariably creates conflict in that the love of someone making bad decisions puts one in a difficult position. I believe that a good friend will pat you on the back when you succeed. But, a real friend will speak the truth to you and risk ending the relationship. Friends do not stand idly by and watch someone make self-destructive decisions. And I have tried to do that in my relationship with the Clintons. Hillary has spoken at charitable fund raisers for child advocate causes that we support. She took time out in her busy schedule to do that in 2004 while campaigning for John Kerry. That event raised 4 times the amount ever raised by that organization. I don't forget things like that.
When Hillary ran for the NY Senate I told her that her support of the death penalty was not necessary in NY and that she should change her position on that. Bill's position on the death penalty was also a false choice and to this day the DLC thinks that was a good choice. The DLC is an organization that advocates choices that are politically expedient. They have done so much damage to the Democrats because they advocate supporting issues for political benefit rather than conviction. Hillary has been a person of conviction that has been poisoned by the momentary success of the Bill Clinton presidency. She may very well be a believer in that cause to her detriment.
The DLC and their ilk have given Hillary some false choices to her detriment. Those of us in the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party would like her to come home to her true values that propelled her into political success. At the risk of losing her friendship, it is important for her to know this if she expects any chance of winning. And I still consider myself her friend.