'My heart will go on'

I’m a glass-half-full gal, a cockeyed optimist, and I’ve never let anything life has thrown at me get me down for long.

I just need to take a break, to back away from the “through the looking-glass” idiocy which is coming to characterize this Democratic campaign.

Last night I heard MSNBC’s Chris Matthews say, “I’m not a member of an organized party; I’m a Democrat.” Better put: that oft-quoted line from Walt Kelly’s “Pogo,” “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

I have regular readers who don’t want to hear any more about “perceived” media bias – bias which is slapping me in the face ‘round the clock. Never in my voting adulthood have I seen anything like it, and I simply do not understand why people are not bothered by its impact. If you don’t believe communications can cultivate groupthink, meet Joseph Goebbels.

Yesterday I left an innocuous little comment on a liberal blog, simply suggesting, in the end, that whoever the Democratic Party’s nominee is – Obama or Clinton – we must all pull together to ensure his or her election. My statement was followed by two lengthy comments denigrating Hillary. From an Obama supporter.

I’ve never considered myself naïve. I knew the far-right would trash a Clinton, but I never expected what is happening in the media and in my own Party.

Hillary Clinton is not a monster. She has spent her life in one form of public service or another. Her supporters are not uninformed anarchists, dashers of hope.

Yesterday I saw Ann Coulter telling an MSNBC anchor she will support and “even work for” Hillary Clinton against John McCain. We know Ann’s game: this pseudosupport might hurt Hillary and sell a few more books in the process.

Through the looking-glass.

As for rules, anything goes, as long as it benefits one’s chosen candidate. As I’ve noted before, the persons who claim rules cannot be broken when it comes to Michigan and Florida, despite the disenfranchisement of millions, are adamant that the rules governing superdelegates must go, because, well, they ignore the popular vote.

I have said repeatedly I will support the Democratic Party nominee, but I’m not getting that promise from fellow Democrats across the blogosphere.

The Democratic Party is blessed with two highly capable and dedicated hopefuls. Both are drawing new people into the political process – a good thing.

I have had both a total stranger and a person I thought I knew well suggest I’m racist because I don’t support Obama. I was not ready for that. To be frank, I have spent more time defending Obama to certain acquaintances than I have defending Hillary.

A comrade in arms of some duration spoke of my support for Hillary being “justified.” I don’t have to justify my support for any candidate. I am an American.

No one has called Hillary Clinton stupid. She has campaigned from the outset to appeal to the general electorate.

I believe this with all my heart: this country will not elect a candidate perceived as far left and anti-war. I hope I have to eat those words with a nice side dish of mint jelly. I base them on nothing less that U.S. election history.

Right now, I am heartsick.

But, as the Celine Dion song promises, my heart will go on, and so will this country. The path it takes depends, as it always has, on unity in diversity. Such unity is long overdue. The pendulum swings to the far left and to the far right, but it always comes back to the center. The time has come for a correction.

As I told a boss once, when personal tragedy hit my life, “I might be back in three months or in three days, but I’ll be back.”

I pray the same for my country.