It rings true to me when Obama says, ”It is about the past versus the future.”
What do Rush Limbaugh, BartCop, and many Clinton supporters have in common? A certain nostalgia for the Clinton Years – or is it nostalgia for the Clinton Wars?
Hillary promotes this idea - a replay of Clinton battles with the “vast right-wing conspiracy". She repeatedly reminds us that she has already fought this war, and knows how to fight it. Many of her supporters think she is the best candidate precisely because they anticipate a rehash of the same battles they fought through the Clinton administrations.
They know the kind of accusations that will come.
Counter-arguments and defenses are well-prepared.
It’s all so familiar, almost comfortable.
Remember, both Limbaugh and “the anti-rush”, BartCop, built their careers on this fight over the Clintons. For them, those truly were “the good old days”. Nostalgia.
On the other hand, Obama is a wild-card. He pretty much came out of nowhere. He has not been fully “vetted”, some say.
So, although we may guess what the attacks from the right wingnuts will be – Foreigner, Muslim, Color, etc. – we don’t exactly know how he will respond.
What we do know is that the battle will be something new and different. If he is our candidate, “they” will dig up or make up new ugly accusations. He and we will have to develop and promote new strategies. Hard work.
Certainly, many Clinton supporters really feel nostalgia for the Clinton presidency and all that peace (except for the bombings and war) and prosperity. Still suffering the outrages of the Bush regime, it’s easy to look fondly on the Clintons’ time.
But let us not forget that it takes two to tango.
The Clintons framed their battles as much as their enemies did.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996, passed by the Congress and signed by President Clinton, empowered the echo chamber of “the vast right wing conspiracy” that Hillary railed against.
Alan Greenspan thinks “Bill Clinton was the best Republican president we've had in a while.”
I don’t feel nostalgic for even the “best” Republican president or reruns of the all-too-familiar battles a Clinton campaign or administration will bring. I’m ready for a new and different future.
At least MoveOn, which also sprang from fighting the good Clinton fight, has. moved. on.
1 comment:
The telecommunications act was a tie in the senate broken by Al Gore who voted in it's favor, taking away a communities right to govern placement of cell towers.
To make sure that this seamless network was created, Congress also decreed in effect that though local governments could exercise their usual zoning powers in deciding where towers went and how tall they were, they could not simply say no to cellular phone companies that wanted to put towers in their cities or towns. If localities resisted unreasonably, the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 said, the Federal Government could override them.
[link:query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04EED71330F932A25750C0A96E958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all|NYT]
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