An Open Letter To Taylor Marsh
Dear Taylor:
I write this because I consider you a peer, an honorable person and one who has given your all to Hillary Clinton.
Formalities out of the way, I have two or three real beefs with you about your "handling" of Clinton supporters, which comes at a time when emotions are very raw. In one week's time they/we (and I mean every person who supported, voted for, worked for and donated to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign) experienced anger and deep sorrow when she ended her presidential bid last Saturday.
Not 48 hours after her "concession" speech, they/we were told by the main online voice for Hillary Clinton's supporters to (I'm paraphrasing here) get over it, deal with it, move on, get behind Hillary Clinton and vote Democratic. This has been followed by ever-louder admonishments, referring to Hillary's supporters as "dead-enders" who are caterwauling, and calling for them/us to do a "Reality Check" because they/we (apparently) aren't acting appropriately.
First, verbally abusing Hillary's supporters is just wrong. How often did they/we hear and read the same kind of overused, flame-throwing rhetorical hyperbole thrown at them/us by Obama's supporters in the blogosphere during the primaries? Calling Hillary's supporters "
dead-enders" - no matter how much you disagree with their/our decision/action at this moment - is not only counterproductive, it throws rock salt in open wounds and begs for in-kind treatment. And characterizing their/our anguish, complaints, actions, and behavior as
crying or screeching like a cat in heat; making shrill, discordant sounds (as in
caterwauling) smacks of
Camille Paglia nastiness.
Second, this year's presidential election campaign is a huge first: one very talented, very smart, very methodical, very experienced U.S. Senator - a
woman - ran side-by-side with a smart, talented, young(er), upstart U.S. Senator - an
African American. We can argue about the methods and tactics his campaign used to beat Hillary Clinton. But these "firsts" in our history - one who is a winner and the other who lost the primary - have engendered very strong emotions. Those on the losing side require a little time, distance, mourning and reflection to integrate the loss and move forward. Figuratively smacking the losing side's supporters around as they/we undertake these emotional tasks is like (and pardon the imagery here) kicking the dog or the cat because you're angry, smarting, frustrated, wounded.
You just.don't.do.that! Ask any woman who has been raped, sexually assaulted or abused about this and you'll understand...if you don't already.
Finally, we get that you're a Democrat and that it is country/party, or party/country first and personal loyalties second. Not everybody in the
TM circle is a Democrat and not everybody in the TM circle has your lengthy political history. We can argue about what loyalty means and to whom or what we plead fealty. A lot of Clinton's supporters aren't in your Democratic camp and they/we don't necessarily have your lengthy political perspective. For those of us who do have political perspective, I'd argue that politics is personal - one person, one conversation, one vote at a time. Supporters to a cause or a party aren't won by a) verbally haranguing; b) dismissing and minimizing their/our emotions, values and beliefs; and c) admonishing them/us to get onboard the bandwagon.
If you really want to encourage Hillary's supporters and cement their/our loyalty and trust, I'd start by putting myself in their/our shoes and really listening - not just to the words, but to the deeper wounds that underlie the words. Until you - their main online voice - do this, and do so with an expansive understanding of how they/we feel and why they/we feel this way, no amount of yelling for unity to defeat the Republicans will suffice, because underlying the forced necessity of doing something without being heard - and as a result, valued - will always be seething resentment at being told the ultimate outcome was more important than the individual voices and the sometimes-anguished process required to get there.
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