Flying Pink Unicorns

Through the looking glass.

I have officially been through the looking glass. This past Wednesday, I saw, first hand, what that famous expression from Alice in Wonderland is all about.

I innocently went to the last Astoria for Hillary meeting. I volunteered for Hillary, handing out leaflets in the days leading up to primary day in New York, and on the day itself. Several of the people at the meeting did a LOT more work for Hillary, including visits to Ohio, Pennsylvania, etc., sometimes for days at a time. Some at the meeting were fairly politically minded, like me. Others are real activists, who have devoted considerable amounts of time and energy in volunteering for political campaigns over the years. A few of the women counted themselves as staunch feminists. Well, I consider myself a feminist as well, so that's fine.

Anyway, there we were, among other things, voting on whether to endorse MCCAIN, Obama, or no one. I expected some whining and gripes. Sure enough, the leader of our group, and one or two others, expressed mild hope that the superdelegates would reverse themselves and back Hillary, hoping for some huge Obama meltdown. Not gonna happen. And they seemed to know it. Anyway, the leader spoke for about 10 minutes explaining why we should endorse MCCAIN. Yes, the leader of Astoria for Clinton, a self-described democrat, who has volunteered on any number of campaigns, wanted the group to endorse Mccain. He railed against the Obama campaign, as did others, complaining that it dissed Hillary and her supporters. Well it did. That's politics, dude, grow up.

He also complained, as did several others, that the DNC f***ed Hillary. Well, Florida and Michigan voted out of turn. Both states (one controlled by Repubs (Florida) one by dems (Michigan) knew that they risked penalties by holding their primaries before Super Tuesday. They did it anyway. And the dems, fairly, stripped them of half their delegates. This was FOLLOWING THE RULES, that Hillary not only agreed to, but publicly backed in about November, by saying Michigan's then upcoming election "wouldn't mean anything." "I personally did not think it made any difference whether or not my name was on the ballot,"

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19188859

Now explain to me how that's the DNC screwing Hillary?

Anyway, what's THAT got to do with whether to endorse JOHN MCCAIN?

In my short speech (and I'm proud to say I went well UNDER my allotted 3 minutes) I listed two main reasons why I strongly support Obama:

1) We only have 2 parties, and one of them has gone badly off the rails, telling us that 2+2 = 8 and a half for over a decade now (a point which Andrew HAMMERED, relentlessly, until I got it through my thick head. I'm proud to say I got it long before the gigantic majority of America. I'm not proud that it took Andrew a good year + to get it through my head....). With only 2 parties, its REAL bad for one of them to completely lose touch with reality. A big loss in 2008 would likely cause Republicans, grass roots on up, to do some real self criticism. The party, and ultimately the country, would be hugely better for this. If McCain wins, why change?

2) Health care. Obama might well sign a radical reform bill. Old Man McCain won't. Its that simple.

There are many other reasons, but I kept it short--these are the 2 biggies.

Then everyone else spoke. Look, I expected some whining, sour grapes, and genuine grievances. What I did NOT expect was that the meeting ended with 3/4 of the people that came sitting down and getting to work on a plan to WORK FOR MCCAIN. They all had this look on their faces that nothing terribly unusual was happening. These were staunch feminists, lifelong dems, with a solidly leftist tint. Sure, there were slights. And I was one of the 3 most pro-Obama people at the meeting. Trust me, I ain't pro-Obama. Read my blog for heaven's sake. I could, without help, think of literally 500 dems I'd rather have as the nominee than Obama. But so what? I hugely prefer him to Johnny Mac, and that, in the end, is what counts.

And so ended my journey through the looking glass.