I happened upon a PBS documentary of Marie Antoinette last night. It was fascinating and brought the woman and her era to life in a fascinating and instructive way. Toward the end of Louis XVI's reign, but before the revolution, the press started vilifying Marie in incredibly nasty ways: calling her a harlot, illustrating political cartoons with her as a monstrous beast, etc., etc. The fury these whipped up, combined a host of other historical factors, led to the end of their reign and her death by guillotine.
I bring this up because much what I saw in the documentary last night reminded me of the highly-emotional attacks on Hillary Clinton that have surfaced—especially recently—many of which are beyond the pale.
Like many liberals, I began this election season feeling that regardless of who won the Democratic nomination, I'd be happy to pull the lever. I had a slight preference for Obama, but could envision voting for Clinton. That has changed dramatically since January, however. I've since become full-throated in my opposition to Clinton and in my support for Obama. In my judgment, many of Clinton's campaign tactics have been unforgivable—especially against another Democrat. She has crossed lines that I just can't accept. Furthermore, I just think she'd be a terrible general election candidate. That said, I've done my best to keep my opposition based on issues, record, and character assessments.
Emotions are high, of course, and things get said in the heat of the moment that are regretted later. But still, it's incumbent upon us to not dehumanize our opponents, regardless of how vociferously we disagree with them. (Yes, DeLay, Rumsfeld, and Cheney, et al., make this difficult, but we're strong, we can do it.)
Just my two cents.
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