Of course, the downside of being an essayist of exceedingly moderate
and highly localized renown is that I am oft beseeched to lend my Waterman pen
in support or in opposition to one Howard County issue or another (without even
the slightest hint of a promise of remuneration!). So, my mailbox is jam-packed with entreaties
to comment upon the wretched petit fascists swarming about in HoCo. There will, rest assured, be time to discuss
them and their ilk. But once again, this author feels compelled to offer
thoughts on the national scene.
Of late, Donna Brazile has been excoriated (in many cases, rather ruthlessly and unfairly) for her book
where she shared her thoughts on, amongst other issues, the Clinton 2016
presidential campaign and the DNC (insofar as those entities were “distinct”). As a political operator and strategist, there
is no disputing that she is top-flight. Having
enjoyed one of her earlier works, Cooking with Grease, I will most likely purchase
her latest tome, Hacks.
Frankly, I can’t fault the DNC for the arrangement they made
with the Clinton campaign in 2015. No
matter how many Democrats supported Bernie (the current author being one of
them), the good Senator from Vermont was not a Democrat. That left the watery gruel that was O’Malley
(clearly eyeing a Cabinet post or 2020), Chafee (clearly viewing Earth from
Mars via Providence), Webb (clearly out of touch), and Lessig (clearly engaging
in some form of performance art). When
you have a candidate who in 2015 (essentially) was the clear front-runner and likely
eventual nominee, and who actually belonged to the party, that person is…well… primus inter pares comes to mind.
But, some may sputter, what about the supposed precious
neutrality of the DNC? While the image
of the DNC as some sort of disinterested referee is quaint, it doesn’t square
with the mission of electing Democrats to public office. I still maintain that Senator Sanders would
have been absolutely savaged by Trump and the Republicans in the General
Election. Possibly enough to lose the
White House, and probably enough to burn the electoral dreams of many
down-ticket Democrats. Secretary
Clinton, neoliberal that she is, and the Clinton campaign, as bland as it
turned out to be, was the far safer bet for Democrats nationwide.
So, arrangements were made; nothing illegal (unlike the
allegations swirling around Trump, his family, and some of his top aides) and
frankly, I am not having a ton of ethical issues with the deal, as I understand
it. I find it helpful to learn the rules
of the game before playing it (a lesson forgotten by Clinton ’08 when it came
to delegate math) and clearly, Clinton ’16 had the primary campaign rules all
sorted out.
With so much “righteous” indignation coming from the Republicans
over this tempest in a Diet Coke can, I wonder if those Democrats offended by
the deal are wondering why they have all of these new-found allies on the right…and
who really stands to benefit from stoking the ashes of this “controversy.”
In solidarity.
