Call it vanity, call it curiosity, call it whatever, but on rare occasions I, for reasons unknown, take it upon myself to put on my biohazard suit and wade through the sea of vitriol and foamy-mouthed ranting otherwise known as the Free Republic to see what the right-wing nutjobs there have to say about us. Most of these freeper-diving expeditions leave me feeling like I need a shower to wash away the irrational hatred, but once in a long while I'll hit upon something useful...
As much as they may hate us, there seem to be many among the right-wing nutjob contingent who realize how relevant and powerful Daily Kos is. Of course, this acknowledgment of our influence and relevance doesn't usually translate into respect or even tolerance, as we are what they fear most--an active community of individuals who stand and fight for the best interests of the American people (and people around the world)--interests that, once realized in our government, will bring an end to their war-profiteering, corruption, and extremist social agenda.
Thus it's no surprise that the nutjobs at the Free Republic are watching us and encouraging their readers to skew the results of our polls. First Fox News and now this... it's a big evening for the Daily Kos in the eyes of the right-wing it seems. Still, childish as their actions may seem, we can draw useful lessons from them (and have a laugh or two at their inability to comprehend the workings of our diary system).
The poll in question is one of the ubiquitous "who will you vote for in the 2008 primary?" polls. Take, for example, this comment, where the freepers discuss their "strategy":
"Vote" for Gore. "Other" is pretty meaningless.
What we want to do is make [Hillary Clinton] and [Barack Obama] look weak.
And this quote, which in my opinion, is particularly revealing about the kind of mindset and behavior prevalent among their right-wing community:
Algore is doing really well with our help...LOL. My guess is that the other critters on Daily Chaos (sic) will pull a lemming-like move and vote en masse for Algore after seeing the current results.
Perhaps their motivation is simply to pull a childish prank on people they perceive to be their enemies, but I think we can infer at least three meaningful things here:
- The right fears us and realizes that our 2008 candidates resonate better with the true interests of the American public than anything they have to offer, leaving them to resort to attempted sabotage. This seems especially true of our strongest candidates in terms of fundraising, who have just demonstrated their ability to vastly outdo their republican counterparts.
- Even in the shrill right-wing melee of the Free Republic, despite their hatred of us, they realize our relevance and power and acknowledge that recognition through the attention they pay us.
- What separates Daily Kos from the likes of the Free Republic is our willingness to accept and civilly debate (and yes, even learn from) differing points of view among a diverse community. Here you are not censored if you disagree with the majority, while the opinion expressed by our freeping visitors clearly demonstrates the blind conformity to those in power expected in their little corner of the internet.
I, for one, am glad I'm here at Daily Kos on the winning team.