Originally posted at Liberal Street Fighter
It’s all over the “liberal” blogosphere, the wailing and gnashing of teeth about how the mean ole’ press is picking on Senator Clinton again:
Atrios has written a very important post today on why we should be alarmed at this latest breathless girly gossip about Hillary Clinton. I have received a lot of emails and comments to the effect that Hillary is a (fill in the blank) and so deserves itand therefore we should all be happy that the New York Times is doing God’s work by destroying her candidacy. This is a very short sighted and historically clueless way to look at this. We call these “Clinton Rules” but they are not really about the Clintons — it’s about the press corps and the way they treat Democrats.
Geez, give it a rest already. Hillary Clinton has only herself to blame, and this goes for the most of the rest of the Democrats in Congress, as well as most of the putative candidates lining up for 2008 who aren’t still in the Congress.
Lets do a quick thought experiment. Tell yourself, quickly, a story about Senator Clinton. Who is she? What does she stand for? What is her story? What are her formative experiences, and how do they inform what she does now?
Can’t do it, can you?
No, no, not her curriculum vitae … that’s not what’s missing. Her people spew that crap out on cue. Not her voting record, not her latest plan or faux centrist compromises or flip flops … none of that is what we’re discussing here.
Senator Clinton is the embodiment of everything that is wrong with the Democratic Party in DC.
Senator Clinton epitomizes the empty hole that the DC Democrats leave in our government. She, and they, are a negative space, defined by what is around them. They can’t tell you who they are, so Republican whisper campaigns do it for them. They are unable to spin a tale of their lives, compelling reasons for anyone to look to them, support them, lift them onto the people’s shoulders to represent the nation’s hopes and dreams. Notice, remember, understand … everytime another feckless loser is elevated to lead the party, it is done so with appeals to giants in the past, with little or nothing to connect the present empty suits with those who created the New Deal, the Civil Rights Acts … politicians who built coalitions, busted heads, fought and strove to achieve not only their ambitions, not only to fulfill their careers, but to leave a mark, impact the world, BE someone, focus the power and hopes and goals of their supporters.
Do another thought experiment. Think of the story of Bush’s life. Yes, yes, we know it is a lie, but we all know the narrative. We all know of the wastrel’s life. We know of the love of a good woman, and the Love of his Savior and his redemption on his fortieth birthday. We know of his steely resolve and his “values” and how he will fight for those values. It doesn’t matter that we, his opponents, know that this story is a lie. He’s has set it into the public mind. He and his machine have described it and spin it out over and over again, and they weave that story into the tapestry of what they do now. Many of the Republicans do this … go ahead, think about Delay or Santorum or Brownback. They are adept at this essential element of politics. It’s not enough to have plans. It’s not enough to be an “expert”, to offer some promise of prowess and managerial skill, and that’s about all that most of the Democrats offer. How many times have they promised to “win” the war in Iraq, to basically continue the story that Bush started, only to do it “better”?
This isn’t just a question of having the right argument. A politician, a LEADER, must have a reason other than their own ambition to lead. There must be some goal, a goal that is tied somehow to her life, her experiences, her compassion and understanding based on having lived and struggled and worked to become someone, something, to bring something better into the world than was there before. Sadly, many politicians and “leaders” have only pretended to do this, but they at least had the good sense to tell a convincing yarn and make it believable.
Politics is the art of forming collective action out of the shared beliefs of a group of people. It can be focused through a personality or a party or a Constitution or some manifesto, but it is necessary to have some lens to focus that energy. Any group who can’t do that will be defined by one that can. Distortions will be pinned to them like tails on a donkey.
Neil Gaiman, in at Wired, wrote a piece about Superman that is instructive:
About a decade ago, Alvin Schwartz, who wrote Superman comic strips in the 1940s and ‘50s, published one of the great Odd Books of our time. In An Unlikely Prophet, reissued in paperback this spring, Schwartz writes that Superman is real. He is a tulpa, a Tibetan word for a being brought to life through thought and willpower. Schwartz also says a Hawaiian kahuna told him that Superman once traveled 2,000 years back in time to keep the island chain from being destroyed by volcanic activity. Maybe it happened, maybe it didn’t, but it does sound like a job for Superman – all in a day’s work for a guy who can squeeze coal into diamonds.
Politicians are just human beings. Great politicians are people who convince people that they represent something more, and they fulfill that promise. They become, in a sense, a tulpa, a living embodiment of the promises made to their followers. There are, in history, few great politicians, but Senator Clinton has NO chance of becoming one. Failing to define herself, she is defined by her enemies. As Marisacat puts it:
The other thing about the DC Dems is that they have spun losing as winning for so long, they are in terminal confusion.
They are trapped in this self-defeating cycle, and they lack the will or the life experiences to help them escape. There are a few exceptions to this, like Senator Feingold, Representative Conyers or Representative Saunders, but they are the exception that proves the rule. (Go watch Senator Feingold’s campaign ads to see how he deals with Republican distortions, the way a man with a mission can set his own agenda, write his own story, and do it with humor and integrity).
Bitch all you want about the media, but in the absence of another narrative, backed by sincere belief and righteous certainty, the lazy wretches trying to maintain their cozy corporate checks and perks will keep regurgitating the same tired stories, and those stories are all being written based on Republican whispers.