The Lions with the Lambs

I've never been a big fan of the Clintons. When Bill first took office, I was a dittohead who despised them. And then at some point, I became a Democrat and I specifically registered to vote for the first time in order to re-elect Bill. But I was still never a big Clinton fan. I supported them because I had to, not because I wanted to. I didn't agree with a lot of what he did, in particular his embrace of conservative policies. Especially as he was put forth as the liberal stalwart, and so the further to the right he went, so shifted the entire political spectrum. But all the same, he was better than the alternative, and that's what I said at the time.

But without a doubt, conservatives hated the Clintons. Sheer hatred. And I've always believed that hatred to be eternal. Sure, they hated Bill because he was the Democratic president and they needed to hate him. But I always assumed it went beyond that. Or at least, after their initial revulsion set in, that the hatred had become eternal.

But with the Democratic race stretching on, one thing has become clear to me: Conservatives are actually quite the pragmatists. Sure, not all of them. Some of them have memories that stretch beyond yesterday. But most of them seem to have completely tossed their Clinton Derangement aside so much so that they've actually begun to embrace the Clintons. And it's one thing to see this from the Rush Limbaughs and Bill O'Reillys, who I've always known to be con-artists playing a game on the rubes. But I always thought the rubes had more integrity than this...or at least longer memories.

And looking back, I don't know why I thought that. Because most of them seem to have completely tossed their hatred aside and have actively embraced Hillary. Hillary! For as much as they hated the Clintons, it was always Hillary most of all that they hated. And they insisted that Hillary was really running the show, and that Hillary was the object d'hatred. And I understood that. For all of Bill's flaws, he had a certain lying charm that helped you forgive him. But Hillary never did. While Bill could shoot all-net without looking, even the shots that Hillary made were clunkers (that's a basketball analogy, don't you know).

And while you might be upset at the horrible position Bill got you in with his lies on not inhaling and whom he didn't have sex with, you understood. That was Bill being Bill and you forgave him. But not with Hillary. When you grinned at the lies Hillary told, it was out of a hostile politeness and not because you got fooled. She was part of the Clinton package, and you accepted her because you had to. And while I never had a hostile opinion of either Bill or Hillary, neither would have been invited to my Christmas potluck if I had a Christmas potluck; and if I had to have one over, it would have been Bill. Hillary has always struck me as being a little weird; a little fake. Bill might be lying to you, but Hillary could make the truth sound phony.

But now...now...I just don't know what to think. Because while I always thought the conservative hatred of Hillary was invented, I thought it was enduring. But now I see it was as much a sham as anything else about them. They believe whatever they need to believe, and they'll rub your face in their arrogant flip-flopping and pretend that you're the one who changed. But while I never was a big admirer of the Clintons, this totally took me by surprise. It's one thing to see the con-artist wingnut elite embrace Hillary. It's another thing to see the rubes themselves act like it was their own idea the whole time.

And what's sad is that they don't even know how it happened and can't even explain it. They've just somehow all internalized the idea that Hillary's alright, and they're going with it. Obama's the new Billary, and all is right. The new enemy is the same as the old enemy, and the old enemy is now friends. Weird. I can understand why an Obama person might feel betrayed by Hillary's outrageous performance, and why a Hillary person might feel betrayed by Obama's usurpation. But conservatives embracing Hillary? The end is nigh!