I spent a few hours last night making phone calls to Nevada caucus goers on behalf of Hillary Clinton. Their enthusiasm was infectious, reminding me once again how important it is to connect with others who share your views. I talked to young people and older people, men and women. Those who couldn’t make the caucus – because they had to work or were going out of town – were apologetic. Only one person was negative.
Staying involved in a campaign has the result, at least for me, of keeping up your spirits. The tone of this primary has evolved to a disappointing negative one, much of the writings focused on why a certain candidate should not be elected. I’d much rather focus on the positive aspects. And a few phone calls to Nevada reminded me of that.
Technorati Tags: Hillary Clinton
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
The tone didn’t just evolve, Vivian. A certain candidate took it in a disappointing negative direction, showing why she should not be elected.
Yeah. I always hate it when people say nice things about how LBJ worked with Dr. King to get Civil Rights legislation through Congress, too. It’s nice, too, how the sides completely flipped when Obama said nice things about Reagan and then his supporters got all defensive. The Democratic Party’s message of the month for January is apparently “tell everyone who your favorite President is so we can explain why that means you shouldn’t be elected.”
Stay tuned next week, when the Democratic field piles on Dennis Kucinich when he states that “I don’t think we really appreciate the contributions of President Taft as much as we should.” He will defend himself for two days before apologizing and backing off his previously held beliefs.
In all seriousness, though, Spotter, I don’t think you get it this time around. If you look at the polling data, you ought to notice that Obama voters are far more anti-Hillary than Hillary voters are anti-Obama, and those Anti-Hillary voters have been nasty, angry, vociferous people far longer than Hillary’s supporters. It distresses me because I feel more and more disinclined to group myself in with the rest of the Obama supporters. I can’t even go to the rallies and meetups anymore because I’m simply not meeting fellow optimists anymore, they’re crowded with bandwagoneers and Hillary haters who only make me feel more cynical than I did before.
So I’m just going to sit around here and lament the declining tone of public discussion and hope that eventually we can get to talking about what sort of nation we want to be in the 21st century and how we’re going to address the challenges facing our country at home and abroad.
False hopes, anonymous. That’s what I heard Hillary Clinton, a supposed Democrat, say three times. False hopes!
Okay. Please take that scene from West Wing about how there’s no such thing as false hope and put it out of your head.
Hope is an important thing. It’s where progress begins, it’s how we dare to set goals. Goals help us define plans. Plans help us guide our actions. But it’s action that’s the key to progress. It’s true that nobody ever achieved anything worth doing without having the daring to dream of something better, but it’s also true that no one ever accomplished anything without a plan or action, except by accident.
I’m perfectly comfortable having someone challenge my candidate of choice to define how he’s going to translate optimism into change.
Great diary. I’m a Clinton supporter and will be calling for her shortly. I’ve validated that her positions and her voting record match my wants. And I like that she has a history of “fighting back” as Kenton is diarying about so eloquently.
But I’m disturbed that so many Democrats are perpetuating the Republican smears on Senator Clinton. It’s kind of frightening to me to a degree. And it’s prevalent on some of the more-read blogs here in Virginia. And now that she’s won in Nevada, I even read a very disturbing blog entry that belittlied Latino working class women who voted for her. Aren’t we better than this? Doesn’t look so.
Sleepless in VA: I even read a very disturbing blog entry that belittlied Latino working class women who voted for her. Aren’t we better than this?
Yes, we are, which goes to the point of this post, I think — when you make the calls, talk to real-life people, the vitriol of the blogs tends to fade.
“Aren’t we better than this?” After the last couple of weeks, can you even begin to appreciate the irony of this question, coming from a Clinton supporter?
Yes, we are better than this. That’s why I won’t be supporting Hillary Clinton.