Democrats Eat Their Young

That's a phrase I've heard before. I vaguely remember hearing it for the first time many years ago, and I've forgotten exactly where I heard it. This current primary process makes me think of it now again.

Hillary appears to be using some very Karl Rovesque types of tactics recently, things that may hurt Obama not just now, but in the general election. Then again, this may also help to make certain types of attacks "old news" by then. The whole Wright thing, stupid as it was, is now basically yesterday's news. If McCain tries to revive it in the general, there might be a big yawn about it - the news cycle has already moved on to something else. Of course, the MSM basically worships McCain, giving him a free pass on everything, and that will be a problem in the general election, but I still think McCain will likely ultimately lose.

That said, Democrats seem to eat their young. I say that because it is in stark contrast to the Republican Commandment that "Thou shalt not say anything bad about a fellow Republican". Not that this is consistently followed, but I think the general authoritarian nature of the rank and file GOP leads to a much more unified party. Look at Congress. The GOP votes as a block. The Dems split on almost every vote. This means that for any Dem policy to really get implemented, you need to have a massive Dem majority, the likes of which has not been seen in decades.

The whole 'sexism' vs 'racism' thing between Clinton and Obama (and even moreso between their respective followers) is also a "young eating" moment. Comparing oppressions is just plain stupid. Yes, there's been sexism against Clinton. So? What the heck did you expect? Is this a surprise? Is this a shock? Guess what - sexism will NEVER be eliminated, because there will always be at least some people who are sexist. Success can't be really be measured by its elimination, for that reason. You measure sucess by when, despite the existence of sexism, women win elections, women get on boards, women succeed just as well as men. That sort of success isn't erased if, at a company run by a women with half women executives, some annoyed middle manager whispers "bitch" under his breath when his female boss is out of earshot. Because guess what? That middle manager would probably have some other nasty thing under his breath even with a male boss. Having bad things to say about the boss didn't start with women in the workplace. It won't end with them, either. But then, who cares if you're the boss?

I do admit, though it saddens me, I also see a little bit of poetic justice in the 'racism' vs 'sexism' sniping going on in the Democratic ranks right now in that the same sort of bullshit "reasoning" used against non-syncophants in general when discussions of racism or sexism take place on certain left-wing blogs is now being turned inward - and so all of those people who are usually on the sending side of that bullshit are now on the recieving end of it - and they are all finding that they do not particularly like being on the receiving end. Maybe they'll learn something from it. Maybe this will mostly die down once there is a nominee picked. I hope so. I certainly don't want a President McCain. I've gotten so sick of the noise I really don't pay any attention to the "race" in the media anymore. I read blogs and such that focus on other things, and so I hear snippets, like the latest thing, something about "bitterness" that I assume is just bullshit so I ignore it. Really, I just want the race to be over so I can see who won and move on. I don't expect to actually learn anything useful about any of the candidates from the media at this point. More to the point, I already know I'll be pulling the 'D' lever in November, so there's really no point in paying attention to any of the noise now.

Either Obama or Clinton will be fine as president. They'll certainly be way better than McCain. Mathematically, there's almost no way Clinton gets the nomination, so even that race, I'm not all that concerned about, and even if I were, paying attention to every last detail of the campaigns won't change anything. I've got better things to do than pay attention to the trivial minutae that passes for campaign reporting. Ooooo, Obama said something not so nice. Or Clinton said something mean and Rovian. So what? I don't care what they say. It is all just nonsense anyway - as if anything said on the campaign trail really means anything. Those trying to parse out words at campaign stops as if they really matter are rather pathetic, in the end, because governing is a far different thing than campaign bullshit (at least, it should be).

I just hope that Democrats don't eat their young and hand the presidency to McCain. You think Obama or Clinton is throwing you under the bus? How, exactly does throwing the whole Country under the "Straighttalk Express" fix that? Ugh.