I’m going to be quick here: I’m fucking repulsed. The news of environmentalist and indigenous leader Berta Cáceres’ assassination at the hands of thugs in Honduras was only just out when Sanders supporters then have the fucking gall to write a diary that all but treats Hillary Clinton as culpable for the murder, based on a lot of one-sided assessments of the rocky end of the Manuel Zelaya’s presidenccy, which culminated in a standoff that many feared could devolve into a civil war in Honduras. Cáceres’ work for indigenous peoples was amazing, she’s one of a sad, mournful string of such murders as Dorothy Stang’s and Chico Mendes. That’s why its disgusting to see her death instantly politicized in truly disgusting attack, that simplifies the deep divisions and conflict emerging in the face of Zelaya’s attempts to become a Leftist Strong Man as so many have become in the past in the region (often by taking on mantles for the poor, while really just enriching their inner circle of cronies and maintaining power), into which the U.S. had to act. The idea that a complex multi-national negotiation between Zelaya and acting President Roberto Michelleti who had already established power and had the backing of military figures and was enforcing a crackdown on dissent, and other regional powers, to avoid the worst case scenario, is some kind of endorsement of one particular group’s domestic politics is fucking stupid.
They’re basically saying, “Everyone came to the table on this. The result was shitty. The people who’ve been dominating the country since then are shitty. Therefore, Hillary Clinton is the embodiment of evil and therefore obviously the secret mastermind behind this.” It’s the kind of idiocy that doesn’t recognize the limits of diplomatic power, nor the primary work of Secretary of State’s to react to ongoing situations largely beyond their control and that such reactions are not by nature political, but based on assessments, generally made career bureaucrats and passed up to the Secretary of State, of what course of action will prevent unfavorable results such as civil war and/or increased instability into neighboring countries. So it’s disgusting in more ways than one, turning Berta Cáceres murder and her work in life into the footnote of a swiftboat attack on the Democratic frontrunner, which once again, makes Hillary Clinton the all-powerful, all-knowing center of evil in the world that so many of the fucking nutcases come on here doing, and get rec’d to the top of the list doing.
What really pisses me off is that this is a Democratic site, meant to promote progressivism through the Democratic party yet a big chunk of the people recommending these inflammatory diaries, writing these inflammatory diaries, are not Democrats. I know people on facebook constantly trashing Clinton and threatening the Democratic party and its voters with “You won’t get my vote if you don’t do what I want” and these same people fucking voted for Jill Stein in 2012. They don’t speak for the party. They aren’t involved in working in the Democratic party, donating time and money to build connections even with local politicians and leaders they don’t agree with (look at what conservatives did for decades; this is how you build influence and shape policy), and plenty didn’t even vote or support the most leftist President we’ve had in our lifetime, or did so while gagging at a figure who is resoundly and deeply popular among Democrats and as a party leader, and now scoff at and implicate us in assassinations and coups and treason against the United States (still seeing that one from Hillary), and going fucking nuts, and telling us how we’re the ones destroying the left and how they’re going to take their ball and go home. Seems kinda tainted if you ask me — because they were never playing ball with us in the first place, they were off somewhere else playing ball by themselves, came over to us, put their ball down and said “If you let me dictate who the teams are and what the rules are, I’ll grace you with my presence playing ball with you, if not, I’m going to go back over there.”
The rec’d list today in general is a shining example of that.