"Hillary Goes for the Kill"

You heard it first from The Huffington Post:

Hillary Goes for the Kill

It's amazing.

It's as if politics is a professional wrestling match. Or an action movie. Or a day at the carnival.

Notice any substance in this coverage or in much at all in any of the discussions or debates leading up to the election? Not really. Not serious substance.

One of the many reasons I don't like Hillary Clinton. Because she's too caught up in the grudge match philosophy of American politics. She thinks too little. And she thinks playing politics like it's professional boxing is an adequate substitute. As long as you're winning, that is. It's the biggest reason I don't trust either of the Clintons, these days, with as many good things as I've had to say about Bill Clinton in the past.

Because they seem to relish the grudge match. And take way too seriously both the fighting, itself, as if one ideology or party really is going to come out on top and be recognized as the winner by serious historians, and take way too seriously their role as the truer messiahs of their parties and their causes.

I don't trust people who think that highly of themselves. And I trust them less when they have a gaggle of party faithful certain of their ability to save the world from the evil that is their opponents.

There's plenty not to like about American politics, right now. Like imperialism at the turn of the 20th century, hyper-aggressive, hyper-competitive and dominance-centered democratic politics in the early 21st century is Lord Acton's concerns about power over a hundred years ago played out all over again for an audience that is all-too-easily convinced that they are in on the gag.

Does this really look like thoughtful engagement to anyone?

I learned something different about politics in college, I suppose, in all those political science and history and philosophy and scholarly discussions. I learned it was about humble conversations around the most serious issues that we face today, with people genuinely committed to seeking out the deepest and most honest answers to the problems we experience together. I had heard it was about people putting aside their more self-centered pursuits to wrestle with problems that face all of us, some of us more than others, sadly, and seeking out the most genuine and decent and honorable and enlightened solutions for those issues.

I suppose that was naive. I suppose that the best that politics has to offer is the language and practice of predation. I suppose the best that politics has to offer is going for the kill.

I suppose Hillary Clinton has one or two things to teach Barack and me and all the rest of us about politics.

Politics is about power. And if you doubt that, just ask Stalin. Or Hitler. They'll let you in on the dirty little secret that the sweet, naive, wholesome people of Kansas just could never fathom.

Hillary Clinton is going to teach Barack Obama what people have been trying to get through my thick and quaint but foolish little soul my whole life. Cynicism is not a sin. Cynicism is just a more honest accounting of reality. And if you doubt that, just watch while Hillary Clinton pushes Barack Obama's face into the sand. And then tell me that politics is not about power, you whiny little baby.

The truth is that Barack Obama and Joe Biden and John McCain and Rudy Giuliani and all the rest of us have something to learn about power from Ms. Clinton. And she's going to teach it to us.

And if you doubt that, just wait till she steamrolls you. And then you'll know something about smart power.

And thank God we all have Hillary to teach us that lesson. Because what would we do with without that kind of wisdom in office?

We might just find ourselves expecting something better.

Love,
Ben