Now's the Time

"In politics if you want anything said, ask a man.  If you want anything done, ask a woman." - Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister of the United Kingdom.

So much has plagued me this week.  If it's not one thing, they say, ... I know; I know.  One of the many issues racing through my brain at random hours of the day and night is this Twiggy-thin election that has divided the American Left, leaving it weaker and, perhaps, paralyzed.   It's no secret that I'm enthusiastically in favor of Senator Clinton, but, for too long, it seems that I'm missing out on the secret that has fueled increasing support for her chief rival.

Perhaps the issue is more salient now that the Texas primary, an oh-so important one, is upon us.  While I haven't lived there in over two-and-a-half years, I visit often, and I will always have a connection to Austin, no matter where I reside.  Now, I look to Texas, a place not known for its thriving liberal and, when need be, militant population.  I'm looking toward Texas to restore the public's confidence in the Senator.  For too many weeks, the rest of the country's liberals have failed to unite behind its long-time standard-bearer at the end of eight years of life with the "Shrub," as he was known to the late great liberal, Molly Ivins of Austin, Texas.

Enshrined in the  person of Senator Clinton lives the realistic vision for the moderate liberalism that will redeem the country's plummeting economy, improve the quality of crucial American judges, safeguard the health of average US citizens, and dust off the West's image across the globe.  She is the timely hope for all Americans, those from the loopy left all the way over to the Religious Right.  So, you can imagine why I am puzzled at the seeming abandonment that she's suffered at the hands of liberal Americans.  If I didn't know better, I'd say that the Right is thrilled at the idea of a moderate Republican facing off with a far less moderate democrat than Senator Clinton.  

When Senator Clinton called out the current president on his hypocrisy surrounding his relationship to the work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I was convinced that she was someone, along with her husband, who understood the weight of Dr. King's special mission.  She disclosed, "One day, after laying a wreath at the tomb of Martin Luther King, Jr., President Bush appoint[ed] a federal judge who has built his career around dismantling Dr. King's legacy."  

 As first lady and senator of New York, Hillary Rodham Clinton has demonstrated that she knows how to continue the work of civil rights for all Americans.  She has built relationships in minority communities that have, for example, won support of the African-American leadership in Harlem and the leadership of women's groups the nation over.   She's ahead of the empty rhetoric; she's already made the essential alliances.  Among the Senator's supporters are the lead chairman of the NAACP, Julian Bond, and the co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America, Dolores Huerta, who now sits on the boards of People for the American Way and the Feminist Majority Foundation.  Great liberals are behind her.  Why aren't you?

In certain circles, I have talked up the work of the Senator, and some have wondered aloud, "Just who do does he think she is?"  I can say with great conviction that she is a politician's politician, with all the power and baggage that comes with such a description.   She is a leader, fit to sit at the head of this nation's leading liberal political party.  Senator Clinton is the certain hope for political change on which every liberal must rely in twenty-first century America.

But, I haven't deluded myself into believing that the Senator is some sort of saint or even a figure of Dr. King's caliber.   As a person of deep faith, I must say that saints and ministers have no place in American politics.  Our soiled system will only soil their work.  No, these people, however revolutionary, belong in schools, synagogues, churches, temples, on television, lobbying and leading protests.  It takes a different sort of American to precipitate change in our current government.  Auspiciously, we have this political resource in Senator Clinton, a woman surrounding herself with wise and experienced liberals who compliment her own wisdom and work as perfectly as any voter could need today.

And, so, I beseech my fellow liberals in Texas, in Ohio, and in the rest of the nation, to place their votes, their time, their voices, and their hopes in the only liberal who can make history by effectively reversing the trends of Washington under the current administration.  Please reconsider what it means to be a liberal American today.  I entreat you to embrace the knowledge that Senator Clinton is our certain hope toward a powerful Democratic leadership which will begin the permanent change toward a wiser White House, filled with allies old and new.  If the Left does not support the Senator now with a thunderous voice, then we will fall divided.   A divided Left serves only the Right.

God save the distinguished Senator from New York, Hillary Rodham Clinton, liberal, feminist, mother, daughter, wife, and potential front-runner for the Democratic Party of the United States of America.