The Election Was Stolen

My Top 3

San Francisco Chronicle:

So many women feel that the election was somehow stolen, and by their own party, to boot. They thus feel much the way many Democrats feel about the 2000 election: bitter. When one side feels that they lost an election fairly, any bitterness recedes early on. But when the adjective “stolen” leaps to mind, bitterness is apt to prevail, vanquishing any desire for reconciliation and cooperation. That is what many former Clinton supporters are feeling now.

We are disgusted with the party we have long trusted to represent our interests. We are disgusted with ourselves for being snookered - again. We assess the party leaders’ rejection of Clinton as a cynical strategy. If Clinton had ended up as the candidate, the Democrats stood to lose the votes of many African Americans, who then might not vote at all. But if they made Obama the candidate? Well, then, the women always vote, and they will come around. Women always come around, no matter how badly they’re mistreated.

I am reminded of a particularly chilling passage in Vladimir Nabokov’s novel “Lolita.” Humbert Humbert, after raping the 12-year-old, is pondering why she has come back to his bed. “You see,” Humbert tells the reader, “she had absolutely nowhere else to go.”

That’s just how I feel. And they want my enthusiastic support? The Democratic Party can fend for itself.