The Party or the Person

Now that the Rules and Bylaws Committee has ruled, there is talk that Clinton supporters are still angry. The question becomes, regardless of what the Clinton campaign does, whether those supporters are going to support the person or the party. I realize that Clinton wants to hold herself out as the last hope to her supporters to use that position as leverage against the rest of the Democratic party. Whether her supporters understand their role in this drama is another question. If they choose to remain loyal to Hillary, and only Hillary, they are choosing the person over the party, and ultimately should be held responsible for their lack of commitment to the ideals of the center left as embodied by the Democratic party. Obviously, there is no mechanism for holding them responsible beyond shaming and guilting them into realizing that they really don't care about universal health care or ending the war in Iraq or the political makeup of the Supreme Court becuase they refuse to accept the outcome of the process. Such absolutist thinking is detrimental to the Party and ultimately to the country.

For these reasons, I think that on a micropolitical level, by which I mean interactions between Obama supporters and Clinton supporters on an interpersonal level, Clinton supporters choice of the person over the Party, will collapse. It is untenable in a face to face interaction for someone to maintain loyalty to Clinton, whom they have likely never met, over the ideals which both Clinton, Obama, and as previously mentioned, the Democratic Party, represent. I would probably be writing the same about Obama supporters if the results had turned out the other way, and by results I mean the votes.