This Is A Great Column On The So. Carolina Primary

[Leonidas]

Edit: Sorry. Meant to say NORTH Carolina in thread title.


http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/...r/2008/05/tThe Democratic civil war
Terry Mancour
May 1, 2008 9:00 PM

The Democratic civil war | Comment is free

Comparing anything to a civil war is a dicey proposition in North Carolina - the state lost more men than any other, and several bloody battles were fought here. Issues of heritage and hate, slavery and secession are not mere historical artefacts here, but real, breathing factors in people's everyday lives - the war and the Reconstruction that followed bit indelibly into our culture. So the term is used with appropriate caution - and it's fully applicable to the struggle between senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in their quest for the White House.

It would be simplistic to make this just about race and say the white folks are lining up behind Clinton and the black folks are lining up behind Obama. Simple, but inaccurate. While there is no doubt that an overwhelming majority of African-American voters are supporting Obama, there is a small, hardcore following (including former poet laureate Maya Angelou) who are sticking with Hillary. And the number of whites supporting Obama is impressive - far in excess of what pundits unfamiliar with the local politics might expect. This is a struggle between two ideals, and one tainted by a concerted effort by the Republicans to do as much damage as possible along the way.

Right-wing blowhard Rush Limbaugh has taken special interest in interfering. He has organised Operation Chaos, an attempt to use conservative independents and Republicans willing to change their party affiliation temporarily to vote in North Carolina's open primary for Hillary Clinton. Of course the exit polls will reflect this as a surge in working-class white support, and the media will condemn Obama's inability to close the deal with them - but the honest truth is that many of those polled would not have voted for a Democrat in the general election this fall anyway. This third-party action has succeeded in stirring the pot, but there's a lot more going on than that.

The Democratic civil war is being felt here. The battle lines are in our workplaces, our Ruritan clubs, our closest circles of friends. It's had an impact: friends and colleagues argue over minor policy points and other minutia; women, even those who support Obama, resent the misogyny shown by some Obama supporters. The scandals of the first Clinton regime are hashed and rehashed. And of course race is an issue that returns again and again. It's getting ugly out there.

This most divisive and tender of issues always comes to the fore - but in surprisingly unusual ways. Two of my friends surprised me with their views. One, an older black man I was sure would be an Obama supporter, put a Hillary sign on his lawn. When I stopped to chat and brought it up, he shook his head, sadly, and told me: "They ain't never gonna let a black man be president in this country. Better stay on her good side." He was also suspicious of Obama's Muslim heritage (the relationship between African-Americans and Africans in North Carolina is a strained and complicated thing) and didn't feel he had the experience to be president - although he conceded that he would be much better than the current officeholder.

The other surprise occurred when I ran into my step-brother-in-law, a young deputy sheriff for a local municipality. In many ways he's stereotypical of the southern lawman: white, gun-happy, nominally racist, middle class and unburdened by an overabundance of education. I felt sure he'd pull for Hillary or McCain, but it turned out that he preferred Obama to both. His largely unprintable rationale was both sexist and racist in nature, but it came down to a passionate hatred for the Iraq war and the party who dragged us into the adventure. Race came into it, of course, and when I queried him about the Democrats and the choice they offered, he suggested Obama would probably be a better president - but immediately qualified his reasoning by insisting that it would be the only way to get the politically active African-American community to "shut the hell up" - and that Hillary would just screw everything up because of menopause, anyway. Hardly a glowing testimonial - but a case study in how we can't pick our in-laws.

My gay friends are terribly split - Hillary has a nominal history with gay and lesbian affairs apparently undeterred by her husband's support of the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy and the Defence Of Marriage Act. The split seems to cross the gender (and trans-gender) lines. The gay political pragmatists seem to favour Obama and his inclusive rhetoric, while the gay Hillary supporters seem to be far more idealistic in their view of what their candidate can do for the LGBT community in the face of the conservative opposition - a contrast to the usual portrayal of Obama supporters as starry eyed idealists and Hillary supporters as politically practical. It's strange.

But the most depressing part of this civil war that I've heard came from a young black girl I spoke to while we were both waiting on Chinese take-out. A report about the race came on the television, and she shook her head sadly. I asked why she was bummed. "Because she's just waiting," she explained, nodding toward Hillary. "She knows that some dumb redneck is going to see it as his mission in life to stop it. She's hanging in there, waiting for an assassin's bullet. She's like a vulture in a pantsuit, and she pisses me off. And she gives every racist in the state a convenient excuse for why they won't vote for Obama." There was undeniable loathing in her voice.

And that's part of the war. Over 100,000 shots have been fired in the struggle, as early voting ballots keep rolling in - it's a record turnout already, and new voters are being signed up in droves. But the race has held up a mirror to North Carolina and allowed us to see our friends and neighbours, colleagues, co-workers and relatives in an uncomfortably revealing way. No one is shouting, no one is actually fighting, but both sides are learning some truths about who they are - and who their opponents are. And it's not always a flattering picture.

Civil wars rarely are.

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