by Stanley Crouch, Aspen Daily News Columnist
It is beginning to seem as though the rush beyond judgment is tilting
against a Hillary Clinton presidential choice; “too much baggage” is
usually the explanation.
Part of what is still to be done is removing factoids from influential
power, what Hillary Clinton once correctly called “a vast right-wing
conspiracy.” That’s more than a mouthful.
I once observed: “When she testified last week for seven hours before
the congressional committee and was not swayed by the nipping of rubber
teeth attempting to wound, I thought of seeing her in person at an
unannounced appearance following Nelson Mandela 10 years or so ago.
“The audience did not know she was there until Clinton turned the
microphone into a flamethrower. Suddenly, the little woman who could not
be recognized from a distance sent forward a voice that all had heard
but not that way. She spoke about getting up off the canvas, because a
real champion knows what it takes. No matter how often or how much one
has been hurt, an unfair opponent will be sent back to the opposite
corner with a pocket full of defeat.
“Sometimes, when a bear is being pursued and decides to stand up and
fight it out with those hunters, the bear will be slightly distracted by
some little dogs biting at its paw. The dogs will be hurled into a tree
if unlucky, and perhaps killed.
“Those who refer to Bill Clinton as ‘the big dog’ now know Hillary
Clinton is a twin not to be messed with; she has earned her spurs in
every way possible, and knows how to use them.”
That may have been true when she spoke about what had happened in
Benghazi on the night the Republicans have turned into a factoid
scandal; repeating supposed “fact” about incompetence at the top. The
bullhorn of exaggeration, lodged in the national throat, needs to be
spat out.
No matter the plundering of the environment, recurring disasters
transporting the muck of dirty oil, the disruption of trust for our
banks that began with the Great Recession, and the distracting
entertainment of racial protests, the supposed redneck vision stays in
place, shifting as much as possible to maintain controlling power.
I see embarrassing examples of intellectual failure on the parts of the
Republican elected lawmakers, who seem to be sure that Americans can be
manipulated by the claims of dangerous people in the federal government,
from the very top to the very bottom. These claims of reruns being in
place come from elected men like Ted Cruz of Texas, Louie Gohmert of
Texas and Rick Perry of Texas. Cruz is a bad photocopy of Sen. Joe
McCarthy, even though McCarthy was elected in Wisconsin; Gohmert is a
blustering man possessed of the gall to talk down Attorney General Eric
Holder; Perry always seems somewhat soft in the head, regardless of how
long he was seated in the governor’s chair of the Lone Star State.
This is happening while American cities are facing or assenting to
female leadership, which is a very serious answer to the failures of
low-level thinkers among the GOP women like Sarah Palin and Michele
Bachmann, longtime drivers of what Chris Matthews calls “the clown car.”
Hillary Clinton will not be run down by the clown car while crossing the street.
It may or may not be her time. If it is, she and the country will
benefit, perhaps on the level of what Angela Merkel has brought to
Germany, raising a nation through the brutal memories of 20th-century
history very effectively. If it is not her time, everything seems to be
coming to a point in which the pimple of bigotry and its Siamese twin
greed and corruption will pop because Republicans followed what Richard
Nixon called the “Southern strategy.”
Pimples break but do not maintain the unpleasant look and feeling. This
is almost guaranteed by the presence of brilliant politicians and
powerhouse executives like Loretta Lynch, Claire McCaskill and Elizabeth
Warren, who symbolically match the Michael Brown family with heat,
determination and superbly responsible thinking. Even Big Oil is about
to stub its toe in New Jersey because of Gov. Chris Christie, having
become too slick to hide like a hog in a blanket. Squeals are on the
way.
Stanley Crouch can be reached by email at crouch.stanley@gmail.com
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