dkos diaries - stop arguing, start organizing

I haven't been involved in the Ohio diaries battles, but man am I sick of them.  I'm not tired of the substantive issues such as whether or not the votes should be counted (of course they should) or whether Republicans are disenfranchsing african-americans (of course they are).  Rather, I'm tired of reading a diary with 300 entries and 200 of them are debating whether someone deserved a 2 or a 4 for their post.  There is a lot of ratings abuse going on here lately, but I don't care much about that (for the purposes of this diary).

What I care about is fighting Republican efforts to take this country even further to the right, and right now we're not helping ourselves.

What I care about is the fact that these diary battles are evidence of why we lose to Republicans.  Right now, Republicans are out there working to use their election victories to make us a theological fascist country - and we're all aflutter because someone said "Fuck" in a diary title.  [Note: I'm not interested in revisiting that issue.  If you need to comment on that diary, do it elsewhere.]

And what are we doing?  Instead of organizing letter writing campaigns or battling O'Reilly and his "progressives hate Christmas" bullshit, we're writing 700 diaries about the debate over Ohio.  We're not going to win that way.  We need to let bygones be bygones, realize that there is a much more important battle out there, and start working towards pushing our agenda rather than merely responding to Republican attacks.

•  Put egos aside

  The battle is bigger than our egos.  We're not going to get anywhere if we're going to battle the amazingly disciplined conservative movement while battling ourselves.

  by patagonia on Thu Dec 16, 2004 at 05:36:27 AM PDT

•  Part of the process

  If we're to change the way we do things, we have to shake loose from our stagnant structures and processes.  That only happens with concomitant upsetting of apple carts.  The possesors of said fruit-laden displays would rather their apple carts in fact remain in their original upright position.  What we are seeing at dKos is a microcosm of exactly that which is playing out in the party as a whole.

  Not pretty, but necessary.  

  by Dancing Larry on Thu Dec 16, 2004 at 05:41:22 AM PDT

•  In case you missed it

  RedDan posted a diary yesterday about reorganizing the party.  
  Organizing for Success
   It gives an excellent starting point, and lots of ideas, which I found most helpful.
  Worth a read even for those who are interested in working outside the party.

  by kdrivel on Thu Dec 16, 2004 at 07:13:07 AM PDT

•  Bravo- I agree with you!

  Some of the blah blah and negative comments and egos is fast turning me off from some of the blogging. Yes its great to have a forum, but talk is cheap and there are a lot of just talkers around and they are beginning to TALK DOWN to some on their side.. We don't need in fighting.
  I need to do something and am trying to find the people that would like my help. No one seems to be able to direct any of us to a DOING place. If anyone knows where one can truly take some action please tell us.

  "Time is for careful people, not passionate ones"

  by roseeriter on Thu Dec 16, 2004 at 07:52:49 AM PDT

•  Sad

  That this diary didn't make the recommend list, like those other ones. I stayed the hell
  away from them, and I intend to keep doing so (though I was tempted to duck into the
  "the case for not fucking Ohio" one and say we shouldn't fuck Ohio, because its a bad lay
  and doesn't give head).

  Election reform is an issue, but there are lots of issues. Getting stuck on this one is damaging our efforts elsewhere, and frankly, is turning into political liability.

  Let's roll this issue into the boarder issue of reform, and get a reform minded party leadership in place so this won't happen again, rather then fight the same battles over and over.

  by Goldfish on Thu Dec 16, 2004 at 08:44:12 AM PDT

•  People will justify it

  Because we need to be different from the republican party. To become an echo chamber and show solidarity is not what democrats are about -- we're about criticism. Which, for a lot of people, means revisiting what went wrong in 2001, or 1993, or ...

  For so called progressives, there's a lot of attention paid to a few myopic, smallminded opinions here. (On both sides -- the "FIGHT THE STOLEN ELECTION" crowd and the "FUCK IT" crowd. Why can't we all agree to "investigate step by step"? Because that's not what we stand for, appearantly.)

  Sorry to vent. I know there are more voices of sanity here than I'm acting like right now.

  by danthrax on Thu Dec 16, 2004 at 08:58:09 AM PDT