The Strange Democratic Hatred For Hillary Clinton

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These days I'm seeing a lot of hatred for Hillary Clinton among Democrats who support Bernie Sanders. In fact some are shredding her as much as Republicans are. GOP strategists must be rubbing their hands with glee.

The hatred doesn’t make sense because Bernie Sanders has doggedly refused to play dirty. He’s all about love and respect, not hate, and building on truth and the positive. Which is what his followers seemed to admire him for in the beginning and still do. So it’s not a leap of logic to believe that they were and are sick of the dirt in politics, the negativity and the hate campaigns. And here some of them are, hating and smearing Hillary Clinton. Respect is nowhere on the horizon. Oh the irony.

Somebody pointed out the other day that these detractors are doing Sanders’ dirty work for him, and he’s not telling them not to. I don’t know if that’s true or not. Maybe he has said something but if he has, they aren't listening. Makes you wonder. 

In all the negative comments I’ve read about Clinton lately I've yet to see a specific example that illustrates the point being made; it's all just broad generalizations. She’s evil, she’s in bed with Wall Street, she flip-flops for political gain, she’s actually a Conservative, she’s too hawkish, she couldn’t please her husband so how could she please American citizens—yes, I actually saw that one. I wonder how many people who spread these generalizations could quote specific instances to justify their hate, and I’m talking about dates, times and individuals that have names. If they can, why aren’t they doing it?

If they can’t, what are they basing their opinion on? And how can they say that the reason they support Sanders is because he’s all about love, respect,truth, clean campaigning and everything that’s positive? They are making sure that that isn't true.

For years and years massive amounts of money, press coverage/media 'reports' aka opinion have gone into well-organized GOP campaigns to vilify Hillary Clinton while she's been giving her all, working for, among others, the very people who have manufactured opportunities to tear her to pieces, relishing the act every time. Very worrying is that the campaigns against her seem to have affected Democrats, just as those against Barack Obama have done. 

Worrying because in his case Democrats were so affected—or maybe infected is a better word—that they gave away the House. Can’t blame that on Obama, or on Republicans. Can’t blame it on politicians. Or on the media.

Most worrisome is that if Sanders doesn’t win the nomination Democrats will have contributed in no small way to the GOP smear campaign against Clinton and lessened her chances against the Republican nominee. Sanders might not be about hate—and I believe that he genuinely isn’t—but many of his followers are recklessly engaging in it ostensibly on his behalf.

Hate is like toxins that seep into the soil; it knows no fences or boundaries. And, to continue with that metaphor, suddenly you realize that your own crops are stunted and your own drinking water is poisoned. 

#Porte Ouverte: the French Spirit Will Never be Conquered by Violence

French solidarity, generosity and courage is a miracle that leaves me in awe. Parisians tweeting #PorteOuverte with their address for people in need. Some were afraid. But mostly courage and defiance reigned.

People who had nowhere to go also used it. And their tweets got retweeted virally. Taxis switched off their meters. It was a massive surge of love, care, protectiveness and courage.

As somebody pointed out in a tweet, the kindness towards strangers even though they’d all been attacked by strangers is incredible. They could have given in to paranoia but they haven’t. They could have been cowed but they weren’t. They could have stayed indoors and their fear would have been completely understandable but they didn’t. I saw long lines of people waiting to give blood.

The French showed indomitable courage with the Resistance against Hitler and the Nazi Occupation. And they showed it after the attacks on Charlie Hebdo. They’re showing it again. I saw a man sitting in his local cafe talking about the horror of the attacks, weeping with raw grief that was difficult to watch and that made me wish I could be there to try and comfort him.


He turned away from the camera. Amidst the tears he couldn't contain he said “We can’t let them succeed. We won’t.” It's easy to say that in the abstract. It's incredibly difficult to say when violence has blown up in your face and you're threatened with worse. 

Around the world people have been burning candles in their windows and sharing images and messages of support on social media. Public buildings have been lit up with colors of the French flag. Facebook created a tricolor filter for your images. Desmond Tutu sent a tweet that said "Hope is being able to see the light despite all of the darkness" with an image of Paris in darkness but the Eiffel Tower lit up. Hope and courage. #Pray for Paris, yes.

But I learned a lot from Paris, too, and I’m grateful to Parisians and the French in general for their open hearts, spiritedness, courage and refusal to be controlled and conquered by fear and violence. Liberté, égalité, fraternité.