{"id":282,"date":"2008-04-24T06:10:51","date_gmt":"2008-04-24T06:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/04\/whats-wrong-here-does-this-mak.html"},"modified":"2008-04-24T06:10:51","modified_gmt":"2008-04-24T06:10:51","slug":"whats-wrong-here-does-this-mak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/04\/whats-wrong-here-does-this-mak.html","title":{"rendered":"Will Democrats really be this self-defeating?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are Hillary Clinton’s supporters so rabid, so bitter, so determined to have it One Way Or Else, that they are willing to throw away a General Election victory in the Fall? That is increasingly becoming the question in the wake of more opinion polls showing that huge numbers of Clinton voters say they will never vote for Barack Obama, preferring to either vote for John McCain in November, or just stay away from the polls altogether.
\nIn the aftermath of the Pennsylvania primary came this disturbing news…
\nNews outlets reporter that in exit polls on the day of the Pennsylvania primary only 50 percent of Pennsylvania voters who voted for Sen. Clinton said they would vote for Sen.Obama if he was the Democratic nominee,.
\nOf that other 50 percent, 26 percent said they would vote for McCain. Nineteen percent of Clinton’s Pennsylvania supporters said they would simply take a pass and not participate in the fall election if she was not the Democratic nominee.
\nThe news media have reported that only half as many Obama supporters hold the same feelings.
\nWhat is going on here…? Somebody tell me where the spiritual side to all of this is. Has Hillary Clinton become the Ralph Nadar of 2008? Will she and her followers become the spoilers for all Democrats if she cannot have the prize they call covet?
\nAre Clinton supporters so incredibly short-sighted and angry that if their candidate does not win they will concede this country to the Republicans for another four years? Aren’t eight years of Republican policies and politics enough? <\/em>
\nAnd just does Obama have to say about this?
\nNews outlets quoted him on the evening of the Pennsylvania primary:
\n“We can continue to slice and dice this country … or this time we can build on the movement we started in this campaign, a movement that’s united Democrats, independents, Republicans, young, old, rich, poor, white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight,” he said.
\n“Because one thing I know, from traveling 46 states this campaign season, is that we are not as divided as our politics suggest.”
\n“Now it’s up to you, Indiana. … You can decide whether we’re going to travel the same worn path or whether we will chart a new course that offers real hope for the future,” the Illinois Democrat told a rally of 7,000 people there.
\nNow I want you to tell me…Why would Democratic voters kill their party’s chances of taking over the White House in November if Hillary Clinton is not the person to do it?<\/em>
\nWould you care to hazard a guess? It wouldn’t be because Barack Obama is black, would it? Please, say it isn’t so.
\nThe positions of the two candidates on everything from Iraq to health care to the economy is so identical that the primary campaign season has reduced itself to arguments not over policy or issues, but who can beat John McCain in the Fall. So if Obama would take essentially the same positions as Clinton on the issues once in the White House, what possible reason would Clinton supporters have to abandon his candidacy in November, should he win the Democratic nomination?
\nCould it be because he is not a woman? Please, say it isn’t so.
\nIt is said, never under estimate the power of a woman scorned. Is it possible that women — who are supporting Clinton by huge margins in these primaries in some cases simply because they want to see a woman in the White House — could become so bitter if Hillary is not given the nomination that they would take the entire Democratic Party down?
\nHas this campaign become so divisive that women are ready to play “We win or everybody<\/em> loses”?
\nWow. So it’s not about the issues after all. It’s about gender and race…
\nNo wonder the Republicans never have a problem. They don’t eat their young…
\nRemember the Reagan Rule? “Never speak a bad word about another Republican.”
\nWow. Somebody should share that little bit of wisdom with the Clinton Democrats.
\nWhew.
\nAND NOW A WORD, PLEASE, TO THOSE WHO SAY that as a spiritual writer and messenger I should not be blogging about politics…
\nConversations with God<\/em> says very clearly that “politics is your spirituality, demonstrated<\/em>.” What I hope to do not only on this blogsite, but through all the work I do in the world, is wake people up to the fact that we can’t have it both ways….we can’t say that we are ‘spiritual’ people in one breath, and then act very NON-spiritual in another. Everything we DO is a reflection of our innermost spiritual truth — and that pertains in particular to politics.
\nA politics without spiritual values is bankrupt.
\nI had hoped to make the point here in this blog recently that I really do not want to believe that people would vote for either Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Obama simply and only because of gender or race. I am wanting the best PERSON to win this nomination battle, not the only woman or the only black.
\nTo those who say that I am a racist, or am thinly veiling some sort of racist tendency by my (apparently failed) attempts to show impartiality in my political comments here, let me say that this is the first time in my 64 years that anyone has ever called me that.<\/em> I have been labeled many things, but never racist. I suppose there is a first time for everything…
\nLet me say this, and then move on to other subjects tomorrow…
\nI believe that all three candidates now actively seeking the presidency are deeply caring people of high intent. I do not always agree with their positions (as in the case of Mr. McCain) on the issues, or with their approach to politics (as in the case of Mrs. Clinton), but I am not ever going to impugn either their motives or their character (as some have tried to do with Mr. Obama).
\nI agree, in fact, with the Senator from Illinois, who said recently that ALL of the candidates — including John McCain — would be better than having George W. Bush in the White House. It took honesty, clarity and courage for Mr. Obama to say that…and that is one of his chief qualifications to be president, in my book. Honesty. Clarity. Courage. Yes, that is what we need at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
\nTomorrow we will return to spiritual-only topics here. But I do not apologize for having gotten into politics the past few days. We do not improve the world by ignoring it. And I hope I have made the case — let me state it here in clear and more unmistakable terms — that there should be, in my view, only one consideration that we take into the voting booth…and it is not gender, and it is not race. It is spirituality. Our politics IS our spirituality, demonstrated.<\/em>
\nWhich candidate, then, reflects your own highest spiritual truth? For me, that, and only that, is the question. If you were to use your vote to make a spiritual <\/em>statement, how then would you vote?
\nWhich candidate sets your soul<\/em> on fire? Which candidate do you <\/em>feel embodies the characteristics of Honesty, Clarity, and Courage?
\nIf you say, well, they all do…then take a close look at each of them. Which candidate says the things from the front of the room that you wish you had said?<\/em>
\nIs it Hillary? Is it John? Is it Barack?
\nTo me the choice is clear. Is it to you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are Hillary Clinton’s supporters so rabid, so bitter, so determined to have it One Way Or Else, that they are willing to throw away a General Election victory in the Fall? 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