Five Stages of Grief

Sometimes one of my ideas comes to me in a flash of lucidness. Unfortunately for me, these flashes are too few and far between. One such flash, however, occured today while I watched coverage of the Puerto Rico primary. After Senator Clinton's crushing (and expected) victory in the commonwealth, out trotted a plethora of Clinton surrogates. A veratable who's who of political spin doctoring. Rather than being angry or even annoyed at the ludicrous attempts to paint Senator Clinton as still relevant, I found myself more sad than anything else. Sad for these people who obviously care a great deal for Clinton and who, for one reason or another, simply refuse to see the writing on the wall. In actuality, the writing has made it beyond the wall and covers the floor, the ceiling, the sky, the Great Wall, the Hubble telescope, and every other collection of cells in the Universe that is able to be written upon.

I was reminded of the now famous five stages of grief, introduced by Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, and it is very easy to see which stage any one of her supporters are in by the statements they make. I firmly believe it is up to Senator Clinton to heal the political wounds her supporters feel. As long as she continues to press forward and in a sense be trying to say the nomination has been "stolen" from her as she spews out her own fuzzy arithmetic of the popular vote total, I don't believe her hard core voters will move to the Obama campaign. Therefore, in an effort to unite the party, I present for your consideration, the five stages of grief and how we as Obama supporters can help the Clintonites move through them.

Stage 1: Denial & Isolation
You may recall that Senator Clinton herself, after the May 6th primaries in Indiana and North Carolina, recoiled from public view for as long as a Presidential candidate could conceivably do that. She cancelled all of her planned network tv appearances for the following morning. This was a perfect example of isolation. The folks that are still trying to argue that she has a path to the nomination are stuck in this denial stage. On Meet The Press this morning, Harold Ickes had an epic exchange with Tim Russert where when Tim asked him a question about what Clinton will do once Obama is declared the nominee, he very defensively retorted that (the Clinton camp) believe she will be the nominee. The way to move through this stage is for the rest of the party to coalesce behind Barack Obama and declare him the winner. Until that happens, there will be some Clinton holdouts clinging to their delusions.


Stage 2: Anger
I think this is where many of Clinton's hardcore supporters are in the stages of grief. While some may harbor anger that they keep inside, many are overtly expressing their anger. One example of this was the protest at the DNC rules and bylaws committee on Saturday. This group of protestors is so angry that they audibly booed when Obama's name was mentioned, and after the meeting were arguing and truly disgruntles for what amounts to 4 delegates. You can see even more hateful rhetoric from some Clinton supporters on a number of blogs as they gleefully talk of voting for McCain in November rather than vote for Obama (I will address the lunacy of this thought process in a future blog). They feel their leader, Hillary, has been wronged, and in order to move through this stage of grief it is going to take Hillary coming out forcefully and repeatedly to tell her followers that they must vote for Obama because he is clearly the best option on the table to run our country.


Stage 3: Bargaining
Once the anger dies down, the bargaining or negotiating kicks into high gear. One prominent Clinton supporter already has indicated she is in this stage of grief. Senator Feinstein of California last week told an interviewer that Barack Obama should select Clinton as his running mate. Many other Clinton supporters have hinted at such a "unity" ticket, but not many have openly come out and said that she deserves to be givin the VP nomination. If they do not encourage Obama to give her the VP nod, many will undoubtedly be campaigning for her to get a high level cabinet position or possibly the Senate majority position. The problem is that no matter what role she plays in government after the election, there will be a good chunk of her base that is unhappy with it. This leads us to the fourth stage of grief.


Stage 4: Depression
The final realization that Clinton will not be the nominee, and quite possibly not fill the perceived desired role in the next administration, will lead to a great deal of sadness among her supporters. Not many of them are in this stage right now, although I have seen some blog comments that indicate some of her voters have reached this stage. You'll know it when you see comments such as, "our party has a nominee," or "it looks like she's not going to pull it off." This stage could last quite a while for many of her biggest supporters, and in fact might last much longer than the general election does. For those who are able to cope with their depression and sadness, they may move to the final stage.


Stage 5: Acceptance
This is what we all hope the Clinton supporters can eventually work themselves towards. I don't believe many, if any, are at this culmination of the grief cycle yet, but as the summer goes on and possibly by the time of the convention in Denver, we might see more folks at this point.


Ultimately, Senator Clinton herself needs to move through these stages of grief before we can realistically expect her supporters to do the same. In the end, I believe as long as the majority of her voters are at least past the anger stage, they will see fit to vote for Obama in the fall. Our work as a party then, is to move these people past the bitterness and anger that many are feeling now. Angry Clinton voters equals either votes for McCain or voters staying home from the polls in November.

It's sad, really.