That Kool-Aid: So Much Tastier Than This Hateraide
I drank the Kool-Aid. And it was good.
I started off as an equal opportunity “wait and see but I support all and any of the three” Democrat in this campaign. Leaned towards Edwards, whose policies I felt were the closest to my own, but tried to hold back on committing until I could take good measure of the whole bunch of them.
But I got drawn in. I admit it. That whole Obamenon made me feel like there was something special and cool going on there that I wasn't hip to, that I was missing out on. Something that I thought I might want to be a part of, but I didn't know enough about to know why yet.
It was like walking down the street and passing a kickass house party. I could tell everyone was having a blast, and I wanted to just walk up to the door and jump right into the fray.
And eventually, I did. I watched the S.C. speech. I went back and watched the 2004 convention speech again. And later, after going right up to the punch bowl feeling real thirsty, the Iowa victory speech pretty much sealed the deal for me.
I drank the Kool-Aid, and it was tasty. And for a while there I was having a great time.
Then the buzzkills started coming in:
“Latinos won't vote for a black guy.”
“Jesse Jackson won, too.”
"He wouldn't have been my pastor."
“It's 3 a.m.”
Man, talk about harshing on my mellow. What a drag.
----------
What I hadn't realized until much more recently was that not only was I not alone in my resentment of the way Hillary has been running her campaign. There are a lot of my fellow Obama supporters who are a lot angrier and a lot more worked up about it than me.
I've been a passive reader of TPM for a fairly long time, but only recently made an account and took my first steps in writing a couple meager blog entries. And then I started reading the comments, too.
Wow. There are some really, really defensive and pissed off Obama supporters out there (and in here). Maybe I'm just naive, but that really caught me off guard.
It seems to me that Hillary has really done an outstandingly successful job of pissing in our cheerios.
And the big problem with that is that it's a kind of campaign success for her, and not an insignificant one in my estimation.
She's turned our Kool-Aid into Hateraide.
She's turned our rising tide of hope, positivity, optimism and good vibes into a groundswell of thinly veiled resentment, not-veiled resentment, downright outrage, smug eye rolling, angry lashing back... and the like.
Proudly proclaiming “Yes we can!” has given way to sourly scowling “There she goes again.”
----------
Now, don't get me wrong.
All the negative feelings I'm describing, I've felt them – and voiced them – too. I'm not saying they're not justified in many cases.
But we don't seem to be very good collectively at letting go. We're worse grudge holders than we think we are.
And my big concern here is that the Hillary camp has successfully squelched some of our Obama camp mojo.
Just when we had it workin' so good.
And come general election time, we're going to need it. Because the same hopeful, positive qualities that have attracted undecided Democrats like me en masse to Barack Obama, and led them to “drink the Kool-Aid” and become not only Obama voters but Obama supporters who can and will help to spread that infectious optimism, those are the exact same qualities that are going to attract undecided independents and Republicans who will be necessary to tilt the general election in Obama's favor.
How many more people are going to want to join our party if we can't remember how to enjoy it again?
How many people will want to come drink the Kool-Aid if they notice that so many of us have stopped drinking it ourselves?
I started off as an equal opportunity “wait and see but I support all and any of the three” Democrat in this campaign. Leaned towards Edwards, whose policies I felt were the closest to my own, but tried to hold back on committing until I could take good measure of the whole bunch of them.
But I got drawn in. I admit it. That whole Obamenon made me feel like there was something special and cool going on there that I wasn't hip to, that I was missing out on. Something that I thought I might want to be a part of, but I didn't know enough about to know why yet.
It was like walking down the street and passing a kickass house party. I could tell everyone was having a blast, and I wanted to just walk up to the door and jump right into the fray.
And eventually, I did. I watched the S.C. speech. I went back and watched the 2004 convention speech again. And later, after going right up to the punch bowl feeling real thirsty, the Iowa victory speech pretty much sealed the deal for me.
I drank the Kool-Aid, and it was tasty. And for a while there I was having a great time.
Then the buzzkills started coming in:
“Latinos won't vote for a black guy.”
“Jesse Jackson won, too.”
"He wouldn't have been my pastor."
“It's 3 a.m.”
Man, talk about harshing on my mellow. What a drag.
----------
What I hadn't realized until much more recently was that not only was I not alone in my resentment of the way Hillary has been running her campaign. There are a lot of my fellow Obama supporters who are a lot angrier and a lot more worked up about it than me.
I've been a passive reader of TPM for a fairly long time, but only recently made an account and took my first steps in writing a couple meager blog entries. And then I started reading the comments, too.
Wow. There are some really, really defensive and pissed off Obama supporters out there (and in here). Maybe I'm just naive, but that really caught me off guard.
It seems to me that Hillary has really done an outstandingly successful job of pissing in our cheerios.
And the big problem with that is that it's a kind of campaign success for her, and not an insignificant one in my estimation.
She's turned our Kool-Aid into Hateraide.
She's turned our rising tide of hope, positivity, optimism and good vibes into a groundswell of thinly veiled resentment, not-veiled resentment, downright outrage, smug eye rolling, angry lashing back... and the like.
Proudly proclaiming “Yes we can!” has given way to sourly scowling “There she goes again.”
----------
Now, don't get me wrong.
All the negative feelings I'm describing, I've felt them – and voiced them – too. I'm not saying they're not justified in many cases.
But we don't seem to be very good collectively at letting go. We're worse grudge holders than we think we are.
And my big concern here is that the Hillary camp has successfully squelched some of our Obama camp mojo.
Just when we had it workin' so good.
And come general election time, we're going to need it. Because the same hopeful, positive qualities that have attracted undecided Democrats like me en masse to Barack Obama, and led them to “drink the Kool-Aid” and become not only Obama voters but Obama supporters who can and will help to spread that infectious optimism, those are the exact same qualities that are going to attract undecided independents and Republicans who will be necessary to tilt the general election in Obama's favor.
How many more people are going to want to join our party if we can't remember how to enjoy it again?
How many people will want to come drink the Kool-Aid if they notice that so many of us have stopped drinking it ourselves?
