Yale Daily News - Fad of hope rhetoric blind to existential reality
For those of you who may have missed it, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama staged a watershed moment in the history of stupid presidential campaign rhetoric earlier this week in Wisconsin. Two days before the state’s primary, the Bloomberg headline read: “Clinton, Obama Trade Barbs in Wisconsin Over ‘Hope.’ ”
That’s right: barbs. About hope.
“It will take more than just speeches to fulfill our dreams,” Sen. Clinton said, really going out on a limb. “It will take a lot of hard work.”
“Don’t tell me words don’t matter,” Obama retorted. “If we don’t inspire the country to believe again, then it doesn’t matter how many policies and plans we have.”
Clearly, Obama is the worse offender here. At least Hillary, with all of her experience, knows that getting Americans of all ages “involved,” and “energized,” is cruel because it will inevitably lead to disappointment. This explains the cautionary tone of her rhetoric: Nothing scares away hip young voters like the threat of “hard work.”
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