By Jeffrey A. Rendall
Competing female Democrat presidential losers take opposite approach to party strategy
If Hillary Clinton says to do something, shouldn’t you automatically just do the opposite?
You definitely should if you’re anyone but a Democrat, and in the case of liberal party members themselves, they should probably take the 2016 Democrat presidential nominee’s advice with a grain of salt in addition. Big Bubba Bill Clinton’s first lady has always seemed like she’s a step behind in practically everything she’s ever been involved with – her marriage, her career, her political wherewithal, and the hearts and minds of Democrats in general.
But the fact she came up short in her bid to become the first woman president in history ten years ago clearly still bothers HRC. People are always reminding Hillary of how the political winds were with her in 2016, and how she should’ve done this or that and that Democrat constituency x didn’t turn out for her because of a multitude of reasons, etc.
It’s all a load of baloney, though. Simply stated, to know Hillary is to dislike her. There’s a reason why she was likened to Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth all those years ago:
“Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here
And fill me from the crown to the toe topfull
Of direst cruelty…”
Ambition has not been a disqualifying talent for Madam Clinton, but the ability to put on a pleasant look has certainly evaded her. She was never the “stand by your man” kind of wife, but now, in a futile attempt to keep her name in the conversation and as part of her persistent quest to remain politically relevant, Hill’s got some counsel for today’s divided (over socialism/communism) fellow Democrats.
In an article titled, “Hillary to hard left: Let’s make up”, George Caldwell reported at the Washington Times last week:
“Hillary Clinton is urging Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed’s supporters to make peace with establishment Democrats ‘that they were vilifying online.’ She said of Mr. El-Sayed and other hard-left Democrats, ‘I’m just hoping that the people who come across well on the screen are also people who can produce results, because that’s not always the same thing.’…
“Mrs. Clinton, the former secretary of state and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, told journalist Kara Swisher in a video published Friday that Mr. El-Sayed must resolve the contention from Ms. Stevens’ camp if he’s going to win in November’s general election.
“Mrs. Clinton said beating the Republicans will ‘require a lot of outreach and a lot of willingness on the part of the winning candidate and his supporters to know that they need the people that they were vilifying online,’ adding that ‘there were a lot of really nasty personal attacks’ against Ms. Stevens throughout the primary. Ms. Stevens faced online mockery for her speaking style and mannerisms.”
Sounds like a family squabble, doesn’t it? Or is it a grudge match over sandbox supremacy among kindergarteners?
I recall a player/coaches/parents team meeting prior to my teenaged daughter’s school softball season where the head coach all-but forbade his players – and their parents – from posting anything that could be construed as critical towards teammates or other teams’ players. It was more than just providing “Bulletin board material” to add extra motivation to a rivalry that motivated the talking down (to us).
No, it was basic common sense.
Girls will be girls and boys will be boys and the team manager thought it best to nip potential problems in the bud before trusting those involved to realize the wisdom of such a self-control regulation on their own. Intra-team jealousies crop up for just about any reason, and why create glitches that would only fester the longer they’re allowed to endure?
In this sense, I’d say Democrats are just like teenaged school girls, but this isn’t exactly true. The fact Democrats mocked Stevens for her speaking style and looks/mannerisms is about as juvenile and catty as you’ll get in today’s adult world. But Democrats can’t even provide a definition for “What is a woman?”, so they’re not exactly female in orientation anyway.
But it’s curious how Crooked Hill felt a need to scold El-Sayed’s backers in this instance.
Anyone with a smidgen of tact and knowledge of history must realize that ticking off members of your own “team” isn’t the smartest thing to do, particularly when your candidate just narrowly won a primary with less than a majority of party voters choosing you and you’re facing a daunting general election where you’ll need every single vote – and then some – to compete.
I don’t know much about Abdul El-Sayed other than the fact he’s Muslim and has concrete ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and although he’s not an official member of the Democratic Socialists of America, he’s thought to be one of them, nonetheless.
El-Sayed already has a lot of strikes against him; he doesn’t need more, particularly in a party that has a problem with a major constituency within itself. No Jew, no matter how leftist and liberal, should feel good about getting behind the candidacy of someone who’s said plenty of inappropriate things about Israel and the Palestinian situation in the not-so-distant past.
No wonder Crooked Hillary is speaking up now. She’s about as “establishment” as it gets in Democrat ranks these days, and she’s not about to see another Bernie Sanders disciple get ahead and edge out a Democrat who would basically vote for almost exactly the same things but will claim to be “moderate” and “bipartisan” regardless.
Political pundits and commentators compare the present Democrat situation to the turmoil Republicans went through in the past decade and change, the time when brash outsider Donald J. Trump tossed his hat into the proverbial ring and ended up taking over the GOP from the inside as though he owned it all along.
The epic battles between Trump supporters and the establishment have been the stuff of legends, and though the president has certainly been successful in vanquishing the Never Trump separatists, the conflict still persists.
The United States senate has become the last bastion of anti-MAGA RINOs, and only time and public pressure will purify the political heretics on Capitol Hill. This year’s elections have continued the forced attrition, but there will be some leftover holdouts going into the next Congress.
The Bushes and the Cheneys are all gone, as are wishy-washy idiots like former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger and former Senator Jeff Flake. In a lot of cases, these losers were replaced by straight-up Democrats, a trend that could reverse itself now that establishmentarians like Crooked Hill and “Chucky” Schumer are sounding desperate in preaching “unity of Democrats.”
Hillary Clinton should save her breath. The rabid socialist/communist/anarchists don’t care about playing nice with the traditional Democrats, and they sure as heck don’t pay much mind to what someone like the former First Lady and failed Democrat presidential nominee thinks. Ditto for trying to make nice with the backers of Haley Stevens.
These old-style Democrats are viewed as part of the problem, not the solution by the activist nutcases of the DSA. The “new” breed of socialists/communists harbor the same philosophies as the old Democrats, they’re just more confident about sharing their true feelings and saying so.
Speaking of washed up, Kamala Harris made news last week for suggesting that Democrats need to have more “ruthlessness” in their unfriendly interactions with Republican voters. According to the Washington Examiner (by Carter Schroppe), cackling Kamala said, “As I travel the country, people are saying ‘we want our leaders to fight … And in this fight, I say we start by getting comfortable with some things, including having a certain kind of ruthlessness.”
So, one Democrat presidential nominee loser says her party honks should just get along and work together, and a different one preaches that Democrats should cast off the niceness and get a little down and dirty and… ruthless.
Who’s right? Crooked Hillary is correct in mentioning that the Democrat Socialist-types will need “traditional” Democrat votes to win statewide elections, and cackling Kamala is somewhat prescient to imply that Democrats need to show a “fighting spirit” to appease their untamed and unreasonable voter base.
Crazy-eyed Bernie Sanders seems to understand both points-of-view, but Sanders is too old to remain leader of the movement for long. Something’s gotta give.
By the same token, neither Hillary Clinton nor Kamala Harris could step in to lead today’s Democrats. Both are inexorably linked to the “old” Clinton/Obama/Biden establishment, and the party’s young upstarts aren’t about to pay heed to the dying breed. Democrats will continue to try and find themselves somewhere along the continuum.
Any hints on where to search?
Jeff Rendall is editor and publisher of GolfintheUSA.com and has written about golf and politics for over a quarter of a century. A non-practicing attorney from California, he moved to the east coast three decades ago to pursue and combine his interests in all things American history and culture. Jeff has worked as an intern on Capitol Hill and in various capacities in grassroots organizing and conservative organizations and publications, including a nearly two-decade stint at ConservativeHQ.com. Column republishing or other inquiries: Rendall@msn.com .