"Why I don't want Clinton as the nominee"

The title of this post is in quotes because I stole it from fester at Cernig's place. In my opinion his brief comments about the Clintons gets it exactly right. Their latter-day political achievements have has more to do with distancing themselves form their idealistic college-day roots than creatively presenting those same ideals in today's world. It's easier to betray principles than endure the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, especially if the fortune is is a rich as the one the Clintons have amassed.

...the Clintons came of age in a different time. In their formative political years in Arkansas, they internalized the lesson of distancing themselves from the dirty hippies. And it worked for them – both in Arkansas and in 1992. And that’s all fine – politicians have to play the cards that historical context deals them. More power to them.

But 2008 is a new world....

He's right, you know. Like him, I also didn't partake of all the Sixties had to offer. I was a musical snob until the era was half finished so I only went through the motions of putting up with acid rock and neo-folk music. Hendricks and Joplin were already dead before I caught on to what they were doing. Unlike some of my less serious peers I was more concerned with paying bills and trying to get a four-year undergraduate degree that took me eight years and a tour of duty as a draftee to accomplish. By then I was out of money. Going to work was more important than graduate school.

But at the core I was and continue to be a child of the Sixties. Despite the moral turpitude and streaks of violence and socially inappropriate behavior, we were right about pulling out of Vietnam, we were right to oppose the spread of nuclear weapons, we were right to be concerned with the plights of women and ethnic underclasses, and we were right to mistrust our leaders. We were right about a lot of things.

It was fifteen years later, in the early eighties, before the AIDs epidemic reared it's ugly head, infiltrating the heterosexual community and bringing free love to a screeching halt. I remember asking the manager of a singles bar how business was going and he said, "The sexual revolution is OVER. Business is really down."

Yep. The battle of the sexes was over and I didn't get to fire but one or two shots. Oh, well. There are worse fates than staying committed to one spouse and resigning one's self to decades of dreary slogging away rearing a family. After all, I was not born a DFH (see fester's link to explain). My roots were a lot more boring.

Thanks to free will we are not bound by every thread of our birthright. As we grow, we can cut those that imprison us and weave together new ones that make us stronger. There is an old saying that anything that doesn't kill us can make us stronger. In the case of the Sixties, I emerged cleaner, freer and more liberated coming out than I did going in. It's too bad not everyone did.

This is partly why I like Barack Obama better than Hillary Clinton. The title of this post is misleading, but only because it says "don't want." What I want and what I'm gonna get are two different realities. I still think she will be the nominee.

And when I cast my vote for her, it will not be because I like or approve of her. It will be solely because she is the only candidate running from either party who seems smart enough, connected enough and mean enough to do something about universal health care. At the moment, for reasons best left alone, that is the issue closest to my heart.