Clinton Is The One Dividing The Party

[Dr Ron]

http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=3257

Clinton Is The One Dividing The Party

May 11th, 2008 by Ron Chusid

Donkey Dish has a similar take as I have on the manner in which the Clinton campaign and supporters are dividing the Democratic Party by dismissing liberals, especially affluent white collar ones, as elites whose votes do not matter. They write:

Grasping at straws as she continues to stay in the contentious Democratic race, Hillary Clinton claimed the following in an interview this week:

“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on… Senator Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me … There’s a pattern emerging here.”

This followed Democratic strategist / Clinton supporter Paul Begala’s quote during Tuesday night’s coverage of the Indiana primary on CNN:

“We cannot win with eggheads and African-Americans. Okay. That’s the Dukakis coalition, which carried 10 states and gave us four years of the first George Bush. President Clinton, you know, reached across and got a whole lot of Republicans and independents to come.”

With their dismissive strategy and divisive remarks such as these, the Clintons are indeed reaching across the aisle. Right to John McCain.

Barack Obama just spent a month being labeled an elitist by Clinton and the mainstream media for his comments about “bitter” Pennsylvanians who “cling” to guns, religion and antipathy towards others…

If the Democratic party is to unite and defeat John McCain this November, these politics of division must end. And despite Obama’s “bitter” slip-up, the main culprits in perpetuating this damaging cycle are his formidable rivals.

As I’ve written many times, the old New Deal coalition is dead. In order to win, Democrats need the votes of working class voters, but also need the votes of blacks, independents, Star Bucks Republicans (who are now voting Democratic) and affluent white liberals. Bill Clinton only won because the vote was divided three ways in 1992 and 1996. By alienating the black vote and the vote of affluent liberals, Hillary Clinton is forming a coalition which will have a difficult time winning national elections. Democrats need a candidate such as Obama who can bridge these gaps and bring new voters into the party.