I was sitting at dinner this evening, talking to Susie about
what I had gleaned from the Washington
Post story about Hillary Clinton and the e-mail/server scandal, when
suddenly I remembered a passage from The
Great Gatsby that perfectly captures what is wrong with her and Bill.
"They were careless
people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated
back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept
them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
I freely confess that I really do not like
them.
You're going to have a hard time convincing yourself and others to vote for Hillary if she wins the nomination, which, you claim (and you're my electoral guru in this case), is probable.
ReplyDeleteI don't like Bill and Hillary either, but I guess voting for people shouldn't have much to do with whether you like them or want to have a beer (in this case, a glass of very expensive scotch) with them.
Tom and Daisy are pretty horrid, by the way. They're idle rich. Tom's a racist and a snob. Daisy kills someone and lets Gatsby get blamed (and then murdered) for it. Are Bill and Hillary that bad? Tom and Daisy almost have no redeeming traits, while Bill and Hillary must have a few.
It was the line, not the characters, that stayed with me.
ReplyDeleteIt's a memorable line and it does apply to the Clintons.
ReplyDeleteVince Foster?
ReplyDeleteHi there. With all due respect to my fellow American citizens of the world. If your chances are to choose between a lunatic fascist or a plutocrat demagogue...just go like H.D.Thoureau. There is always a Walden near Concord. Greetings from Europe.
ReplyDeleteLet me share with you one of the reasons, admittedly a completely idiosyncratic one, why I detest the Clintons.
ReplyDeleteI'm a Dylan fan and I especially like his pre-electric stuff. Any performance of a song like "Chimes of Freedom", first recorded in 1964, moves me as it takes me back to the days before Dylan (and I) took too many drugs and to a cause, that of civil rights, where right and wrong were 100% clear.
So here's a video of Dylan playing "Chimes of Freedom" Clinton inauguration. Are Bill and Hillary moved, as I would be and as I imagine anyone of my generation would be who recalls days when we were more innocent and when we, who marched for civil rights, actually had the angels and maybe God on our side?
No way. Far from being moved, they have the kind of phony smiles on their
faces that I would try to put on mine if invited to the birthday party of a someone I secretly detest, although I'm not as good at phony smiles as they are.
I think that says something about them, about their real commitments, certainly not to the civil rights movement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgYdY99co3U
I've never understood the likeability criteria for politicians. I can't imagine I would have liked any of America's great presidents on a personal level. I might have liked Lincoln if I had the chance to know him, but that's the only one I can think of. As a whole they are crazy ambitious egomaniacs with a healthy dose of snobbery. I just take it for granted that I'm not going to enjoy the company of anyone who would want the job of POTUS.
ReplyDelete