The bigger Clinton’s margin of victory, the harder it becomes for the GOP to obstruct the proper course of government.
OK, I’m all in favor of an opposition party. But “opposition” is different from “obstruction,” and the United States of America needs to have a functioning government again. After eight years of having Republicans obstructing everything Obama tried to do and even failing meet their most basic responsibilities (passing a federal budget), the country cannot afford another four or eight more years of the same.
Here’s an important point to consider – this may be the highest level of obstruction the US has seen since the lead up to the Civil War. Now I’m not saying that we’ll get there, but the bigger the margin Clinton is elected by, the less likely THAT becomes, too.
And really, Congress has been investigating Hillary Clinton regarding Benghazi for four years. They’ve been digging into her private email server for something like two years and the FBI got involved. And the Clintons have been investigated so often and thoroughly by their political enemies that if charges could have been brought for anything they did, charges would have been. Eventually doing the same thing and expecting different results turns from “due diligence” to “insanity.”
Obstructing Obama had a little to do with policy and a lot to do with racism. Obstructing Clinton will have even less to do with policy and more to do with sexism, misogyny, and irrational Clinton hatred.
I’d love to say that rationality will win out in the end, but given the Republican Party nominated Trump for president and he’ll get probably 40% of the vote even though he’s a fascist who has admitted he’s sexually harassed and abused women, I’m not confident of that any more.
Categories: Politics/Law/Government
Progressive Culture | Scholars & Rogues 
Really? It has to be racism and sexism? It can’t just be a different idea of what the government should be doing? What about when it was Bill Clinton? What that sexism? Good grief.
I’d be the last to suggest that the GOP isn’t more nuanced than racism and sexism. However, at the same time, we have no choice but to acknowledge that there’s a LOT of racism and sexism on that team.
You’ve seen the same footage the rest of us have out of Trump rallies, so you know for a fact the level of racist vitriol in many of those places. You also know that not once did Trump repudiate it or tell people to cut it out. On the contrary, he egged it on. You also have to be appalled at how few other GOP leader called it out for what it was. You’ve heard the dog whistles, same as I have.
If I ran for office, there’s nothing I could do to stop the grand wizard of the KKK or a neo-Nazi leader from endorsing me. I could, though, reject the endorsement and make very clear that I reject their values and everything else about them. If I don’t, what does it say about me?
One more question. Look at where Trump is in the polls and ask: what happens on Election Day if the racists and misogynists stay home? Or, conversely, how much better off might he be had he rejected their hatred at every turn? He’s running against Hillary Clinton, and Trump is the Devil is the ONLY THING SHE HAS. If he had taken that away, he might be up 10 points right now.
I grew up Republican and have written about it several times. My girlfriend is Republican. I have a variety of Republican friends and relatives. So this isn’t about a dogmatic liberal spouting the party line. This is about, instead, a guy who grew up in the middle of it, who knows it for what it is, who once upon a time WAS it, calling the thing what it is. We don’t do ourselves any favors by misdirecting attention away from the ugliness.
Is there more going on in the GOP than racism and sexism? Yes. But Trump and his gutless enablers have allowed it to be the MAIN thing, and your response doesn’t acknowledge this truth. It says hey, Bill Clinton! Well, nobody here is defending Bill Clinton. I’ve been stomping his balls off since the mid-1990s, in at least one case before a large audience. But trying to make this election about him isn’t truth-seeking behavior that makes America a better place in the future, it’s partisan misdirection that goes in service of the very people who have ushered the GOP to the brink of disaster.
You’re a smart guy. You have to be more comprehensively open about what’s going on.
Sorry, I forgot to check the box to get responses and have been busy and just now remembered to check in again. I’m not saying “Hey, Bill Clinton!” what I’m responding to is “Obstructing Obama had a little to do with policy and a lot to do with racism.” I was with you up to that point, then it sounded like “I’d rather not engage the issues, it’s easier to make devils of my opponents, then their views are irrelevant.” I know your writing well enough and have been around here long enough to know you don’t do that, but still, it sounded like a cop out at the end.
What I am saying is that Bill Clinton was treated the same way, which weakens your racism charge. I’m not saying that racism isn’t a factor at the polls, but at the congressional level, which is where the “Obstructing Obama” is happening, I think it’s ideology. Hillary will get treated the same way, not because she’s a woman, but because a lot of people don’t like her ideas. Maybe I’m naive.
I had always assumed the first Black President would be a Republican. Someone like Colin Powell, Alan Keys, heck, I know a lot of folks who would vote for Ben Carson. I figured a Democrat would be too liberal and not pass on a national level. I guess that’s why I don’t see the racism as much, perhaps it’s because I’m in Kansas and not from the South that I see things differently than you. I know that your upbringing has had a huge effect on how you see the world.
I’m not voting for either major party candidate. Last year October I posted on FB that the scariest thing I can think of is a choice of Trump or Clinton. At the time I assumed Trump would fall as time went went on and maybe Clinton wouldn’t make it, but here we are.
The thing that has always baffled me – and that goes a long way toward explaining why I think so much of this is racism and sexism (not all, obviously – there are plenty of policy reasons to hate them all) – is that if you set aside a couple social issues for a second – Roe, for instance – Obama and the Clintons are Republican. Both are demonstrably to the right of Nixon, for instance, and they agree with Paul Ryan on a lot more than they disagree with him on.
The partisanship is past reason and is now deep into pure tribalism. I know that prejudice is a part of the equation. I don’t know what percent. But it’s enough that if I were still Republican, well, I’d quit the party. Maybe something more rational emerges from this election (assuming Trump loses). I don’t know. But the last year has been the ugliest I can recall, and I was alive during Watergate.