Muttersehnsüchtigkeit= mother-longing

The Washington Post had an article on how Hillary Clinton showed a teensy-bit of cleavage on the floor of the Senate. Just like with John Edwards' $400 haircut, the media pounced.

But the issue reminds me to post on my strong support for Hillary Clinton's 2008 Presidential Campaign, and the psychosexual underpinnings of it.


^{(You heard me! Get to bed by nine!)}

Hillary Clinton would be the perfect mom -- disciplinary but indulgent, proud but demanding, strong but suffering -- but she's not your mom. In American culture, this forces the male figure -- me, Adam Schenck -- to have a strong attraction/repulsion reaction to Hillary.

Typically, the works of Ernest Hemingway, Leslie A. Fiedler, William Faulkner, Bruce Springsteen, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Mark Twain, among others, focus on the repulsion side of how American men relate to women and their mothers. Springsteen's "Hungry Heart" goes:

Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack
I went out for a ride and I never went back
Like a river that don't know where it's flowing
I took a wrong turn and I just kept going

American men run away from female authority and, like "gangsta" rappers, objectify women into sexualized idols. And male Republicans try to outlaw women's choice on family planning.

Now, knowing all of this, I am confronted with the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. I believe that I have passed on from the adolescent male understanding of women. In accepting the attraction side of the "attraction/repulsion" scale, I am forced to admit that as a candidate, I like Hillary Clinton far more than I did Bill Clinton, Hillary's run-around, ultracharismatic husband.

I agree with her moderate-left politics, her grasp of federal policies, her ease with foreign policy, and her willingness to admit mistakes gracefully, and her idealism (i.e. for health care). I see Hillary as the next step for the tradition of the founding fathers. She is a bright thinker, confident but by no means arrogant. She will do good for our country as President.

Then, yesterday, I read some excerpts from letters that Hillary wrote to a high school friend when she went to college at Wellesley. She is self-conscious, tentatively trying to find herself and define herself, yet sure of her inner resolve and willingness to lead.

This short portrait of the politician as a young woman only increases my Muttersehnsüchtigkeit. The fools seek the pretty unthinking women for mates, but the poet, the poet idolizes the liberated, brilliant woman. In college I would have so been into Hillary Rodham.

There are many reasons that I support Hillary's candidacy -- can you imagine the transformation after she takes office in January 2009 and replaces the unspeakable Worst President Ever George W. Bush? But right now, I have tried to introduce the complex psychosexual underpinnings that make me such a big Hillary 2008 supporter. I want Hillary to lead me, and lead us.

Yes, I am a white male sized 6'1'' and a muscular 218 lbs., and I want to go door-to-door for Hillary Clinton.