For the past week or so I've seen diaries and other assorted commentary popping up left and right telling me and others like me to STFU with any and all criticism of Obama. "You must continue sending money to Obama, and you must continue volunteering to Obama otherwise you just want the republicans to win."
I'm writing this diary because I've had enough. If you continue to try and tell me and others like me to just STFU and fall in line like a good little boy/girl, you're just a republican.
**UPDATE**
Some of you have taken to believe that this diary means that I'm not voting for Obama in the fall. Oh, I'm definitely voting for him in November, but the fact that some of you even think otherwise is the precise problem that I have.
That dissent and criticism in any way isn't actually our highest calling, but instead something to be stamped out is the problem. It's a disease quite frankly. Haven't we seen enough of that from the Republican party during the Bush years?
This political detonation by Barack Obama, shuttering quite possibly the most effective, well funded, and well known 527 on the left or the right, completely douses the incoming fire that John McCain and the Republicans have been throwing his way for the past several weeks regarding campaign finance reform.
Something dawned on me as I contemplated the upcoming Presidential Election. We are about to witness one of the greatest turning overs of the Supreme Court in the history of the United States.
While in my despair over what the Wright controversy could do to his candidacy, I pondered the following:
The one benefit of this is that it does give him a platform to talk about Racism, Religion, and their place in America. The country will be listening to how he responds over the next few days and weeks to this situation.
He has a unique chance at this point, so it's incumbent upon him to seize it and try and turn vinegar into wine.
If my very first diary here at DKos was titled "A New Hope", the flurry of events over the past several weeks would surely be "The Clinton's Strike Back". Or perhaps "Attack of the Kitchen Sink".
In the past 24hrs, however, Obama has unleashed a stunning onslaught that I believe will put him in an even stronger position to finish this battle and officially take the Democratic Nomination.
For the past day or so, the story on Obama and his long time connection to the Trinity Church and Reverend Jeremiah Wright has swirled and swirled in the national spotlight.
As I've sat back and thought on my own experiences with Christianity, Father Figures, and controversial/hateful religious speech, I've come to realize that I would've handled this situation no differently than Obama has done.
Note: For the purposes of this diary, I will focus on the >>LGBT<< community. My point regarding the title comes in later.
For many years now, I have seen the >>LGBT<< community remain strong in its support of Bill and Hillary Clinton. I was only 15 when Bill Clinton was sworn in in 1993, so I obviously don't remember firsthand the early struggles of the >>LGBT<< community. However, I do remember many of the high-level >>LGBT<< leaders voicing their support for the Clinton's because they provided our community a national political voice for the first time in American history.
What followed over the next 15 years, however, is something that should give those in the >>LGBT<< community, and those who support the >>LGBT<< community, pause in their quest to see Hillary Clinton elected to the White House.
So I had a long and detailed argument with someone on another forum. We took it to IRC, and the following is the result.
Honestly, I just don't understand. Someone please help me understand this kind of thought process.
Btw, this was a different part. We were arguing different things, but I thought these bits crystallized it. His comments are in the quotes. My comments are responses to him.
That said, please let me know what you think of my arguments.
**UPDATE** I bolded the bits that I thought stood out in this back and forth as requested by one of the posters.
Basically, my debate partner believes that the Iraq war vote by Hillary was the correct and pragmatic decision given the climate of the country at the time. I disagreed strongly.
He has also stated that while he believes and trusts and knows what Hillary Clinton would do in a political fight. I have argued that her political expediency, which is what he says she used and was pragmatic and correct in doing, would overrule anything and everything that she would theoretically fight for as President.
Whether it be healthcare, taxes, immigration reform, gay rights, you name it.
I was reading a diary earlier today in which the author, CanyonWren, spoke about Hillary Clinton's experience and Obama's chauvinistic statements on said experience. I was originally content to leave it be as commentary in her diary, but then I felt the need to respond with one of my own. This is due in part because I realize that there are a lot of people out there who feel the way CanyonWren does, but may not have seen her diary.
Hillary Clinton's response regarding the healthcare failure in 1993 prompted during tonight's CNN/Politico debate in California stoked my remembrance of the Judicial Watch findings published late last week.
Last Friday, the non-partisan Judicial Watch organization released the documentation it subpoena'd from the Clinton Presidential Library regarding the 1993 Healthcare fiasco dubbed 'HillaryCare'. Its findings should trouble anyone looking for a President who will maintain a transparent and accountable government, particularly in light of the past 7 years with George W. Bush running the nation.
One thing to watch over the next 10-15 years is the political isolation of the United States with respect to oil producing nations.
Today we notice that Russia and China fall over themselves to make sure that countries like Iran get what they want in the UN Security council. You also saw them "protect" Iraq before the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein by doing everything in their power to water down the inspection process. Successful or no, they have positioned themselves as "friends" to oil producing nations. As we hammer away at countries like Venezuela, they embrace them.
As oil becomes more scarce and more expensive as time goes on, the political damage that George Bush has done during his presidency will become more prevalent. If you look around the world, we have less friendly oil producing nations in our stable than we did just a decade ago.
Even the Iraqis, a people that the neoconservatives were hoping would not only become a bastion of democracy but a friendly oil nation as well, are asking us to leave. The prime minister told US troops in 2006 to leave, and the Iraqi people have desired in several polls, by large margins, for attacks on US forces to continue, and for us to get out.
