Hillary Care, Ha!
Still trying to respond to the primary season. I have no insights, just a kind of wonderment. Hillary might be knocked out in the primaries! That's delightful, but it's stunning. And it's certainly not because Obama is an especially strong candidate. He's new, he's young, he's appealing, he seems smart enough, sort of, if you don't press the point. But, if he were not so easy to like, there really wouldn't be much there.
But he may upset the queen? That has to be because people don't like the queen.
That's easy for me to understand. I'm a Republican. I've never liked her. But for a Democrat not to like her? Hill? The next in line? The Hill of Bill&Hill of two-for-one? Pretty extraordinary. It seems quite possible to me that a great many Democrats don't like her anymore than I do, because she's not likable. But they support her, because she's a Democrat, and everyone knows, she's next.
I think this may be the whole explanation. We've had eight years of story line, this is what has been written and said and thought: Bill is out, Bill was great, Hill is running, Hill is next. The inevitability of Hillary might have been no deeper than that, with judgments as to her capacities and suitability no deeper than that, and since no one in the last eight years emerged as a new and powerful face, it would be Hill 'cause it couldn't be Bill. This was true as everybody knew, and the sheep and the goats were together. Possibly not many really wanted her but they all sorta had to want her because they knew everybody else did. That was that, the truth, a fact.
But then a new face appears. New, and it didn't leave. It takes a while, but specific groups support him, support grows --why not? he's a pleasant guy, and these are only the primaries, protest, Hill is a pain-- and then something snaps...
That snap apparently was the stumble over the immigration question. Not a biggy. But it didn't go away. I think the reason it didn't go away is because so few cared if it did. A true supporter can cover any fault: "Old news, let's move on." But how many said that? Not so many as to make it disappear, and it was in seeing this embarrassment linger that the ordinary Democrat got a slap: Not everybody out there loved Hillary! It's like waking from a sleepwalking daze. All of a sudden the eyes open and there's the cognition that maybe the world isn't only more Hill&Bill. There is sunshine on the mountain, and there's a perfectly pleasant fellow standing right next to her.
I think this is what happened, a simple change in gestalt. For years and years there was only the vision of Bill, and that meant Hill. What once had been success, would be success again. It was belief, it was habit. But suddenly, surprisingly, seeing so many not thinking that thought, then why not someone else? There was that pleasant fellow there, standing, the big ears, the wide grin.
To change a gestalt is to shatter presumption is to begin a cascade. That may be happening. If you don't have to have Hillary, why have her at all? To flee Hillary is to have a new life, and that's really what the Obama supporters mean when they say they want change.
But he may upset the queen? That has to be because people don't like the queen.
That's easy for me to understand. I'm a Republican. I've never liked her. But for a Democrat not to like her? Hill? The next in line? The Hill of Bill&Hill of two-for-one? Pretty extraordinary. It seems quite possible to me that a great many Democrats don't like her anymore than I do, because she's not likable. But they support her, because she's a Democrat, and everyone knows, she's next.
I think this may be the whole explanation. We've had eight years of story line, this is what has been written and said and thought: Bill is out, Bill was great, Hill is running, Hill is next. The inevitability of Hillary might have been no deeper than that, with judgments as to her capacities and suitability no deeper than that, and since no one in the last eight years emerged as a new and powerful face, it would be Hill 'cause it couldn't be Bill. This was true as everybody knew, and the sheep and the goats were together. Possibly not many really wanted her but they all sorta had to want her because they knew everybody else did. That was that, the truth, a fact.
But then a new face appears. New, and it didn't leave. It takes a while, but specific groups support him, support grows --why not? he's a pleasant guy, and these are only the primaries, protest, Hill is a pain-- and then something snaps...
That snap apparently was the stumble over the immigration question. Not a biggy. But it didn't go away. I think the reason it didn't go away is because so few cared if it did. A true supporter can cover any fault: "Old news, let's move on." But how many said that? Not so many as to make it disappear, and it was in seeing this embarrassment linger that the ordinary Democrat got a slap: Not everybody out there loved Hillary! It's like waking from a sleepwalking daze. All of a sudden the eyes open and there's the cognition that maybe the world isn't only more Hill&Bill. There is sunshine on the mountain, and there's a perfectly pleasant fellow standing right next to her.
I think this is what happened, a simple change in gestalt. For years and years there was only the vision of Bill, and that meant Hill. What once had been success, would be success again. It was belief, it was habit. But suddenly, surprisingly, seeing so many not thinking that thought, then why not someone else? There was that pleasant fellow there, standing, the big ears, the wide grin.
To change a gestalt is to shatter presumption is to begin a cascade. That may be happening. If you don't have to have Hillary, why have her at all? To flee Hillary is to have a new life, and that's really what the Obama supporters mean when they say they want change.
posted by mouse at 10:53 PM
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