PUMA sent out an email this past weekend advertising an upcoming conference in DC in about two weeks. The stated purpose of the conference is to get organized for protests in Denver this summer at the convention. (I won't be providing any links about it because I do not want to promote it at all).
PUMA, in case you don't know, stands for Party Unity My Ass. It is a group of Clinton backers who have failed to accept the results of the primary and now are actively campaigning against Barack Obama.
Joining together with other groups who oppose Obama for one reason or another, they are part of a larger coalition called "Just Say No Deal."
As someone who was a strong supporter of Hillary Clinton I am truly saddened by this organization. Unfortunately, I suspect they will be able to garner media attention well in excess of their actual numbers in Denver from reporters anxious to find and push a story line about a continuing rift in the party.
There is no rift. Most Democrats who supported Clinton now support Obama 100 percent. We had a tough primary fight, but it is done. Obama won.
(More on the flip)
To the extent that I am actually sympathetic to some of the arguments raised by these folks regarding the primary process, Obama won fair and square. Furthermore, any sympathy drains away once you discover that some of the other anti-Obama groups with which they have made common cause are nothing more than fronts for common and ignorant bigots. For example, I looked at some of the websites linked at the "just say no deal" site, under the banner, "If you thought you were alone, you're wrong." Of the four I looked at, two prominently argued against Barack Obama's election on the ground that he is a Muslim.
This, in and of itself, defines these people as on the fringe, perhaps a bit untethered from reality. To the extent they ever sincerely supported Hillary, their moral compasses are way off.
Look, if you don't want to vote for Obama, that's fine. I can understand that you may agree with John McCain that we should be in Iraq for 100 years, that we should bomb Iran, that all abortion should be illegal throughout the United States, that wealthy people pay far too much in taxes and that our health care system is adequate. I don't agree with that, but whatever -- that is why we have elections.
But these folks believe just the opposite. As best I can tell, they are just ticked their candidate did not win.
I really respect folks who are able to organize politically, and I can't help but be impressed at the skills of these folks. They have gotten pretty far considering the utter lack of substance to their cause.
But the fact is Obama is our candidate, and notwithstanding my support for Hillary in the primary, I am certain Obama will be a great President of the United States.
I wish these folks were putting their considerable skills and talents toward helping elect him President of the United States, rather than the self-aggrandizing fool's errand on which they seem set.
Some people will never vote for a black man, just like some people will never vote for a woman.
BTW, that was the impetus for the modern Democratic primary and convention system today, with proportional delegate awards and super-delegates. Believe it or not, it was intended to prevent what happened this year.
Speaking of which, has anyone considered what the popular reaction is going to be if Obama losses? Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004 were tame compared with what this country will go thru if McCain wins. No matter what the facts are, the "Bradley effect," Republican dirty tricks, voter suppression, and voter machine tampering will be widely accepted as reality, justified or not. I can see where posters on this diary are already accusing these Hillary groups as being Republican fronts or Republican funded, with no apparent evidence to support it. (If that is in fact the case, why aren't Democratic groups getting behind Bob Barr?) I am worried that we are teetering on the brink of being unable to accept the results of any Presidential election as final. Our Constitutional, peaceful transfer of power hangs in the balance, folks, so be careful of your assertions.
That said, I am pretty sure that Obama will win.
Having said all that, the self proclaimed liberal PUMAs truly puzzle me. If they truly understood what Hillary Clinton stood for and fought for all her life, they couldn't possibly consider voting for McCain. He is the polar opposite of everything Clinton and any feminist has believed in or fought for.
McCain is anti-abortion. He has said he will appoint "strict constructionist" judges to the Supreme Court. That would not only affect a woman's right to choose but would also impact discrimination law suits, equal pay legislation and a host of other issues that also affect women and all working people.
It troubles me deeply that these women, and some men, are so angry that they would cut off their noses to spite their faces. And even worse, their anger has blinded them to what a truly good candidate Obama is. We had an entire field of excellent candidates in the primaries and for PUMAs to turn their backs on the Democratic Party and its principles in a fit of anger hurts them and hurts all of us.
Responding with anger, though, does not help the situation. We can't win all of them back. But we should try to convince as many as possible that it's time to move past anger and to focus on what is really at stake.
We do that by countering their every argument with facts about McCain and about Obama. We also counter it by appealing to their hearts as well as their heads with a compelling narrative about what can be lost by tossing their votes away foolishly. And we have history and illustratons to back it up: Nixon in 1968 and Bush in 2000. That's what happens when disgruntled liberals turn their backs on everything they truly believe.