Hillary's "popular vote" argument and "Obamania"

DanTex

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Wed May-21-08 10:49 PM
Original message

Hillary's "popular vote" argument and "Obamania"

Hillary's "popular vote" argument is nonsense. It's fiction, and everyone knows it. I know, I know, there's some phony "debate" going on somewhere on TV where Lanny Davis is saying that "Hillary math" is the fairest way to aggregate the votes, and he's pretending that they've been saying the same thing consistently from the beginning blah blah. I know all about that.

But, in reality, all of these people are well aware that fair is fair, rules are rules, and the way the statewide election results are aggregated nationally is through pledged delegates and not popular vote totals. They understand how it works, and why it's done that way. They agreed to these rules, and they know they agreed to the rules, and they know exactly what it means to "agree" to "rules".

Hillary Clinton knows it, Terry McAuliffe knows it, Howard Wolfson, Lanny Davis, they're smart people, they know she lost the election, fair and square. But, they still want her to be the nominee. Of course, you can't just come out and say "Hillary lost the election, but we still want her to be the nominee". So they came up with the least BS-sounding talking points they could, and they hit the airwaves.

If you say "count all the votes" over and over again really loud, it sounds like you're fighting for democracy. That's the appeal. If you think about it at all, you quickly realize that there's no substance. But if you just stick to your talking points, your "meme" will make it into the media. At that point, logic and reason are out the window, and instead you get into phony debates with people yelling sentence fragments at each other.

Yup, that's the formula. That's what you do when you're trying to make an argument that's at odds with reality. That's how we got into Iraq. That's how you get middle and working class voters to support tax cuts for millionaires. That's how you justify bailing out investment bankers while letting millions of working people lose their homes.

Dumb it down to a level where logic is no longer applicable. Don't even attempt to make a reasoned argument. Just turn the whole thing into a shouting match, and then make more noise than the other side. It's complete, utterly shameless dishonesty.

And that's EXACTLY what Obama supporters are sick of. If you're trying to understand the "Obama phenomenon", look no further. "Obamania", briefly defined, is the belief that it's actually possible to cut through the thick layer of BS that resides between the leaders and citizens of this nation.

Obama is not just saying "if we do this and that, we can maneuver through this swamp of BS and get health-care reform passed". Barack Obama is willing to stand right in the middle of the great BS tornado that is American politics, and say:

Imagine there's no bullshit
It's easy if you try

That's what the "hope" and "change" is about.

See, as long as we're covered from head to toe in BS, we're not going to get where we need to go. Because BS, in and of itself, is harmful to the progressive movement. Progressivism necessarily entails a willingness to think abstractly, to accept subtleties rather than plowing through them with sophistry. We're the ones who undersand that harping on about "WMDs" blurs the distinction between a canister of mustard gas and a hydrogen bomb. We know that there are alternatives besides "appeasment" and aggression. And, yes, we know that assigning 0% of the Michigan delegates to Obama does not accurately represent the will of Michigan democrats.

And that's why cutting through the BS is so important. That's why it's not enough to just take back the White House, but the WAY we take back the White House matters.

And that's why I support Barack Obama.