The Political Voices of Women

Here is a guest post by No Blood for Hubris — On Wearing The Scarlet ‘Hillary’

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My political head hurts.

Using Cheney’s adjective: “Big-time.”

I don’t deal well with intra-party rancor. It makes me want to throw up. (Not to mention that I don’t deal well with rancor in general, which I won’t mention.)

All this name-calling and intra-party partisan hysteria, in addition to making me want to throw up, makes me want to call up Tony Benn, my social democrat hero, and ask if I may please, please throw myself onto his lap, sobbing, while he pats my hair paternally and reassures me that, sooner or later, everything’s going to be alright.

Which may or may not be the case. And may or may not be what he would say. It’s, you know, a fantasy.

Meanwhile, besides work, I try to amuse myself making green curry of duck, endless steaming pots of chicken soup, and digging in the garden, and indulge in aimless streams of thought: “Windy today, by the way. I like that poem by Czeslaw Milosz. I don’t think anybody read it. People don’t like poetry. Well, Americans don’t like poetry much, certainly. South Americans do. In my experience, everrrybody in South America can quote Neruda. Here it’s such an egghead thing. Why do Americans hate eggheads? Why do they hate intelligence? Why did they elect Bush? Why do they hate Hillary so?”

Ok, then, why do they hate Hillary Clinton so? In particular, why does the so-called left wing of the Democratic party hate Hillary Clinton so? Why are they so aligned with Karl Rove? Beats the crap out of me.

Not in RL, but in blogtopia and SL, I belong to a shockingly despised minority because of this.

It’s been very unsettling. I am one of the many commenters at Kos who fled after the Great Anti-Hillaryist First Purge.

Seeing my dendrobium send out a pre-bloom shoot this morning, I was reminded of John Aravosis, fellow orchid-fancier, whose blog I regularly visited, commented at, and really enjoyed until his Great Anti-Hillaryist First Purge. (Now John’s written, “Go Away You Horrible Human Being,” and he’s not talking about Dick Cheney.)

Ditto Democratic Underground and BuzzFlash and HuffPo and on and on. Oh, and now we have John Edwards and NARAL throwing Hillary under the bus. Way to offend people you really don’t want to keep on offending, people. (Or should I say, “sweetie”?

In SL, though friend avs remain friendly (I think), once I’m in a larger political social grouping, the slightest show of Hillarysupport from me results in an automatic “INCOMING!”

I’ve toyed with the notion of making a little sign above my avatar saying “Pariah Clintonista,” just to get it over with.

I think it’s important to be supportive of whoever one’s supporting, but there’s an edge of virulent hysteria here with which I’m both suspicious and uncomfortable. Now it’s starting to spread over into virulent anti-Obamania, and I just can’t go there, either. Not at all.

So, Tony, dear — you once called yourself a “biological Buddhist.”

Where is the Middle Way?