Hillary and Hatred

I saw Hillary Clinton give a barn raising speech for Barack Obama last night. Her sincerity came through in a superb delivery which hit all the right notes.

But then there was Hillary in the primaries.

Also yesterday, I got a headache watching a video and listening to the vitriol spewing from the mouths of white Americans who were moving along a line to get into a Republican rally. Their prejudice was astounding.

I can understand and excuse it as ignorance when someone equates Barack Obama with Ayers or calls him a communist, a socialist, un-American. That comes from following puppet-like a smear-filled, lying, Republican propaganda campaign.

But there is the viciousness of race hatred here. Barack Obama is hated just because he’s black. Primal prejudice in the raw.

I even got to see earlier shots of the man with his Barack Obama monkey. In later videos, he was more circumspect. Sitting in the bleacher, with the camera on him, he finally removed the Obama headband and gave the monkey to a young child. But in this earlier footage, he's positively beaming as he bounces his monkey for the camera.

It’s sickening. It’s frightening. It’s America.

But that’s not my main concern because I can understand prejudice. I even wonder if there may be a “prejudice” gene which developed in the cave man which helped his survival. Back then it was very, very important for this guy to pick out the “bad” immediately. He had to know that the cute, furry bear lumbering towards him was not a potential pet; he had to know the “leaves of three, let them me.” adage. Immediately. There was no room for pondering in those days. “It’s bad!” “Run away!” had to be instant responses.

As we learn that so many of the “free will” decisions are really hard wired in our genes, maybe, through natural selection, a whole bunch of humans are still carrying the prejudice gene. It could explain a lot.

However, my problem is Hillary Clinton. I remember during the primary she said she could get this type of voter to vote for her. They would have a beer with her before they would vote for Obama. Of course, she didn’t refer to them as bigoted no-necks. During the primary, they were the working poor, the good, old boys, the meat and potato factory worker.

But she was talking about the people I watched in these videos. Her claim was that she, not Obama, could bring them to the Democratic column in the voting booth.

She may have been right. And, if she had been, she would have brought a deadly virus into a Democratic administration. A virus which has remained sub rosa until this election cycle when it had to come face to face with its unreasoned hatred of a mixed-race candidate. A virus which perhaps I had naively believed was an anathema to the Democratic party.

Was she planning to reform them?

Was she just playing the panderer’s hand which unfortunately has become so common in American politics?

What was she thinking?