In politics, as in so many other aspects of life, anger is a combustible
fuel. Affirmed and titrated, it helps us move forward. Suppressed or
self-indulged, it’s likely to blow up in our faces.
With the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination coming to a
close, there’s plenty of anger in the air. And the elements are distinctly
flammable. As Bob Herbert wrote in the New York Times on June 3, "the
Clinton and Obama partisans spent months fighting bitterly on the toxic
terrain of misogyny, racism and religion."
Herbert doesn’t spread the blame evenly. And, as an elected Obama delegate
to the national convention, I don’t either. But at this stage in the
nomination process, the returns of blame aren’t merely diminishing -- they’re
about to go over a cliff.
The anger that’s churning among many Hillary Clinton supporters is deserving
of respect. For a long time, she’s been hit by an inexhaustible arsenal of
virulent sexism, whether from Tucker Carlson, Rush Limbaugh or Chris
Matthews.
If Barack Obama were facing defeat now, his supporters might be more
inclined to dwell on the thinly veiled, and sometimes unveiled, racial