Sitting on a bench on the 16th Street Mall, I saw the red white and blue colors of a Hillary for president sign. “This seems like a lost cause,” I thought to myself. When the mob of about 15 people got closer, I noticed that they were flanked by armored policemen and that many of their signs also claimed support for McCain. This was the first of numerous “Hillary supporters for McCain” marches that I saw through out the day.
A day after Senator Clinton gave an assertive plea for unity, this seemed a particularly egregious act where bitterness has taken over logic (after all, Clinton and Obama have much more in common policy-wise than Clinton and McCain). I also noted that not one member of the group could have been younger than 40. I wanted to find out how young Hillary supporters were coping with an Obama nomination (an Obamination?).
This turned out to be harder than I thought. I spent much of yesterday, and much of today making a fool of myself asking every young person if they had been or still were Hillary supporters. I took a tally, and it took 47 tries before I found one.
Josh Spencer, 27, a New York native (didn’t see that coming, did you?) spoke to me about what needs to happen for the party to come together.
“I understand people feeling bitter about losing,” he said. “I am still bitter about it. But that doesn’t make Obama a bad guy or a bad candidate. If anything it makes him a better candidate because it shows he can beat the most established. I liked a lot of Hillary’s policies better than Obama’s, namely her healthcare plan, but if you were to make a chart, there would be a lot more overlap between the two Democrats. It’s bad for the party and bad for the country for Hillary supporters to go for McCain, and I think everyone–from the media to people going to cocktail parties–need to to a better job of pointing out and talking about just how similar they really are.”
1 response so far ↓
Ben S // August 28, 2008 at 11:30 pm |
Of course, the often unspoken subtext is race. In the traditionally Democratic union households and Catholic enclaves of Ohio and Pennsylvania, Hilary is acceptable but someone with Obama’s name and background is frightening. Policy has very little to do with it, as I learned first-hand when I canvassed the largely Irish, Italian, and Russian neighborhoods of Northeast Philadelphia last week – areas that are overwhelmingly Democratic and went 75-25 for Hilary in the primary, but where McCain may actually have more support than Obama in the general election. When asked for a reason why their allegiance would transfer across parties, from Clinton to McCain, many voters expressed discomfort with Obama, and they weren’t just talking about his positions on any issues.