Have you heard Hillary Clinton’s latest?  Hear it here. 

I would like to seriously give all of America – not only Southerners and African Americans –  a lot more intellectual credit than the scraps that Hillary is throwing them.  Every American should be offended, but not because she did a horse crap job of quoting a “Negro Spiritual”, and not because she has the crummiest Southern accent any of us have ever heard.  Americans should be offended that Hillary actually believes that this goofy charade is resonating with a particular group of our populace, and actually believes that we are stupid enough to buy in to it.  (That, or maybe she just didn’t think that the bloggers would get a hold of it.) 

This is, of course – in fairness to Mrs. Clinton – nothing new. Pandering to certain groups of people for political gain has been in existence for thousands of years.  The human race has truly progressed, haven’t we? 

I remember when I was a young girl, and Jesse Jackson showed up in our neck of the woods to do his ‘pandering’ to the local dairy farmers. He visited farms and pretended to be interested – and connected to – our dairy farmers. One girl in my class – whose parents were dairy farmers – went with her mother to one of these ‘farm visits’ and told me how great he was and how much he loved farmers and wanted to give them more money, and that her mommy wanted him to be President. I remember, even at a very young age, thinking that my friend and her parents were gullible fools. I remember thinking that there was no way that Jesse Jackson, a man from the big city and attempting to run for President, gave a rat’s behind about men in Wisconsin wearing overalls and pulling on cow’s mammaries (I apologize for the visual, but it was necessary).  I knew – even then – what he was up to, and I told my friend so. She then proceeded to tell me that I was a racist. No kidding. True story. 

Another example that comes to mind was the last Presidential Election, when John Kerry was visiting our lovely state. He was speaking for a crowd at our historic and beloved Lambeau Field, and called it ‘Lambert Field’. Seriously. On the steps of the greatest of all football stadiums, in the city that made Vince Lombardi and so many other football greats legends, here stood the possible future President of the United States, in front of the most die-hard, all-American football fans this side of heaven, calling their ‘Hallowed Ground’ by the wrong name. I wasn’t insulted by the blunder, per se (my husband was), but instead was insulted by the fact that he was attempting to make us all believe that he had some sort of common ‘connection’ with us, as Wisconsinites – and failed miserably, I might add.

Don’t get me wrong, here… I understand that politicians have to be ‘liked’, and need to at least appear as if they have empathy and concern for their potential voters. My point is that all of this insulting and patronizing is just that – insulting and patronizing, and should drive moderately intelligent folks away from voting for someone. One of my biggest beefs is having my intelligence insulted, and political pandering is the embodiment of this offense.

But, I have to again be fair to Mrs. Clinton… She is married to “The First Black President”.

*Check out La Shawn Barber’s Blog for a great perspective on this story.

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