There's No Accounting For Taste

Several decades ago Susan Sontag wrote an essay where she recalled sitting in a theater and realizing that all around her were people who had voted for Richard Nixon. She knew it was true yet she could not believe it was possible. I feel the same way about Hillary Clinton. There are people out there, millions of them, who love Hillary more than life itself and I simply don't understand.

For the past few weeks I have sought out bloggers who love Clinton (HRC is their preferred shorthand), trying to discern why. Why would they support the only human on the face of the earth capable of uniting Republicans to defend the White House? Why would opponents of war cleave to someone who has supported the colonial occupation of Iraq and as late as October 2007 voted support for war with Iran? What creates a fanaticism so powerful that it has led lifelong progressives (I hate this euphuism; we are liberals, damn it.) to make racial statements that would embarrass David Duke?

1. Sisterhood. There are millions of women who clearly state they have been waiting their entire lives to vote for a woman for president. For them, anything that stands in the way of this dream is misogyny. Oddly, or perhaps not so odd, this has led many down the path of misandry and racism. Read also. Also this poem on the theme.
2. Fear. Fear of the future (Prosophoba). Fear of change (Metathesiophobia). Fear of our differences (Xenophobia). "Obama scares me to death" wrote a emailer quoted here. This tendency of Clinton supporters to be afraid was behind the famous "3 am" ad. Mostly these fears are unspecified. I have not been able to find anyone who could articulate a basis for these fears. The fear of the future is expressed as a longing for the past, a fervent wish for a return to 1992, even though going backwards is impossible. The fear of change is more nuanced. Her campaign strategy is to keep red states red and blue states blue; her policy positions provide cosmetic change through continuity. HRC gives people who fear new frontiers a comfort place - sameness with an old/new face.
   
3. Health Care. This is the only liberal issue where HRC can be said to stand above Obama. Yet, it is such a murky, wonky issue. I doubt many Clinton supporters could explain the differences between them. There is also the fact that her plan is unworkable - barring an electoral landslide, Clinton would never get a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate for her plan. I have to wonder whether this issue is simply an excuse; a rational hook to hang an otherwise irrational opinion.
   

Here is strong support for Geraldine Ferraro and HRC from a conservative perspective.