Goodbye to All That

Perhaps it's time to say goodbye to the primary campaign, I've been thinking. Reading the minutiae of campaign reporting and all the horse race blathering just drives me crazy. It seems more like a high school student body presidential election than a serious set of issues. And then I read Ted Rall's most recent column (read here at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucru/20080213/cm_ucru/thereshouldbeblood )

Rall reports upon his attempt to vote in the primary election in his state, his inability to pull the lever for Clinton, and then his inability to pull the lever for Obama. Like Rall, I realized, I have no dog in this race. In fact, most of the people I know well have no dog in this race. Maybe we are members of the infamous 'left wing of the Democratic Party,' a group whose identity I have not previously been able to discern. Since the Civil Rights bill, the Democratic Party has largely seemed to me not to have a significant left or right wing. It has Democrats and it has Blue Dog Democrats, but I'm not able to figure out some distinct set of policies/values that would sharply distinguish between left and center, as is clearly seen in the Republican Party between right and center.

But maybe this is it. NOT to be enthusiastic about Clinton or Obama may make one a member of the left wing. And you know what? We're in the same position as those in the right wing of the Republican party. They can love Huckabee all they want, but they have no candidate in this primary who has any chance of winning. Nor do we. Edwards probably came closest to being our Huckabee. But just as Gary Bauer has to creep out and 'support' McCain, we'll be creeping out one of these days and announcing our support for the Democratic candidate. But in the meantime, I really don't have to pay any further attention, I think. The primary, for me, is over. But at least, now I know who I am. I'm a left-wing Democrat.