For Better or Worse, People Here Care

I am totally sympathetic to the diarist who wrote this diary this morning.  I have been feeling the same way about this place lately, as I am sure have many of you.  It is rather frustrating and often times annoying to see every discussion about the upcoming election turn into a food fight between, often times, many of the same people.  It is enough to make me want to sign off for a while as well.  But, then I stop and remember how I felt in 2003.  And I get it.  I get their passion.  I get their frustrations.  Let me tell you something... in March of 2004, I was not going to vote for that stupid swiss-cheese-ordering-on-a-Philly-cheesesteak-John Kerry!!  But in November, guess who I voted for....

Well, duh!  John Kerry, of course.  And I was really, really looking forward to his Presidency.

I was a Deaniac last time around – still am, really.  If Edwards and Obama and Hilary folks are angry at each other now, imagine what it was like to work your butt off for a year for Dean and actually think that fantastic dream was going to come true, only to watch it quickly fall apart in the last few weeks leading up to the primaries.  Now that’s frustration.  Now that’s absolute loathing of an opponent(s).  But it was also raw emotion and not reason.  After some time had passed and I had accepted the reality, it was clear that John Kerry could do a pretty good job and that it was 100% ESSENTIAL that Bush was defeated – boy is that ever clear now.  Today, we face the same thing again – perhaps even more important now then in 2004.  A Democrat MUST win in 2008.  And the most rabid Edwards, Obama, Clinton (even Gore) supporters must cool off in the spring and summer of ’08 and re-group to support whoever wins the nomination....even if it’s (ducks) Hilary.

Back to what is happening now at Daily Kos... I too get frustrated by reading the in-fighting here about the candidates.  And, honestly, I’ll tell you, I get a little tired of seeing two diaries about what John Edwards had for breakfast that day in the Recommended Diary list every time I open the site.  Part of it is that I haven’t settled on a candidate yet.  I guess I’m still a Gore holdout at this point.  Thus, I can go from diary to diary with a pretty dispassionate attitude.  It allows me to see the points people are trying to make, or figure out when some are making more of an emotional point then a well-reasoned argument.  And I realize its ok.  People are excited about their candidates and are deeply invested in the campaigns.  And that is a GREAT thing!  The down-side to all this personal investment is the in-fighting, the arguing, the strong feelings that sometimes boil over into anger.  When I get frustrated scrolling through some of the arguments, I remember that this is a good thing.  It means the people here CARE!  And in this country of < 50% voter turnout, American Idol and trans-fats (I got that last one from The Boss the other day.... heh) that’s a good thing.  A damn good thing!

So, to those who are doing the arguing – try to keep in mind that keeping emotions under check will help your argument with those of us who are truly still trying to figure it all out.  Sometimes a comment questioning the sincerity of Edwards’ alignment with the netroots or the depth of Obama’s campaign beyond just rhetoric or the real concern that Hilary may not truly represent progressives in this country are real questions by decent, progressive Kossacks who are trying to figure it out and not concern trolls or right-wing talking point repeaters.  But at the same time, to the rest of us who get annoyed with the in-fighting, try to remember that the passion that many here display for their candidate is a really good thing and, if we have to put up with a little foolishness along the way because of that passion, it’s a small price to pay.

In the end, I am confident that 99.9999% of the folks here will remember what is truly important and come around to supporting whoever is the nominee in November 2008.  In the meantime – keep caring Kossacks.  Please!  

•  So with that...

  ...feel free to argue here Kossacks!  You guys are doing great work for all our candidates!  

  by TheC on Fri Oct 05, 2007 at 06:19:30 AM PDT

•  The most important issue is that the next

  president will probnably name a replacement for Justice Stevens. Do we want an ideological clone of Alito, or do we want someone more like Breyer or Stevens himself. Think about that!

  In the meantime, advocate for your candidate, but remember that who you do reflects on your candidate. Hold the threats; hold the donuts; and stop the circular firing squads. Remember also that many of us here are either waiting for Goredot or supporting no fricking clue. Don't waste your time preaching to the choir. Reach of positively to the rest of us without trashing the other candidates.

  by blue jersey mom on Fri Oct 05, 2007 at 06:24:56 AM PDT

  •  I guess my point

    ... is that I don't truly expect strong supporters of any of the candidates to be able to approach this as disppassionately and rationaly as you or me at this point.  But in the fall of 2007, that's not so bad.  The key is that they come around in the summer of 2008.  And I think almost everyone here will.  

    by TheC on Fri Oct 05, 2007 at 06:29:26 AM PDT

    •  I agree. I was a Dean supporter too, but I worked

      my tail off for Kerry in the fall of 2004. Here's the problem. I see a lot of RW talking points about other candidates, e.g., HRC "cackles", in some of the candidate diaries. This is already something that is being used by the wingnuts on talk radio. Let's not help the wingnuts do their jobs.

      by blue jersey mom on Fri Oct 05, 2007 at 06:33:55 AM PDT

      •  I don't know

        I don't think the wingnuts need our help to go negative.  It is a bit lazy when we use these arguments too, but we are human.  Her laugh after hard questions was pretty obvious.  Calling it a cackle, though, is just emotion getting the better of folks I think.  I just hope that people use that emotion most often positively for their own candidate, then negatively against another.  I think that is the case.

        by TheC on Fri Oct 05, 2007 at 06:38:07 AM PDT

  •  The Dems

    have quality candidates no nutters there. H,J or B has the ability to be the next President of the USA. What have the Repugs got ?
    In my opinion less than Nothing.

    by langerdang on Fri Oct 05, 2007 at 06:41:43 AM PDT

    •  Going even further

      Even our next tier is pretty good.  I am actually leaning toward Dodd these days.  And, our saviour in the wings is actually a great candidate - Al Gore.  Look how the Repubs' savior in the wings is doing.  Thompson is pathetic.

      by TheC on Fri Oct 05, 2007 at 06:47:06 AM PDT

•  I have tried to stay out of candidate diarys

  because I want to make up my own mind. Still holding out for Gore, too. The in-fighting doesn't help. And we must remember that others are watching.

  by Owllwoman on Fri Oct 05, 2007 at 06:30:21 AM PDT

  •  Gore, Edwards, Clinton,Obama,Dodd...

    I'll vote for whoever is the Democratic candidate as I have voted for the Democratic candidate all of my voting life.  Right now I'm a Gore/Edwards person and have commented so a number of times on this site.  Fortunately for me, I have not been drawn into any type of argument and I generally stay out of a lot of those types of diaries.  I just look away and that helps me a lot.  We need to be careful here and I agree with the circular firing squad thing.  

    by churchlady on Fri Oct 05, 2007 at 07:24:27 AM PDT

•  Very Nice.

  Thank you for a nice positive bit of writing. You are exactly right. It's all about passion in the direction of rescuing our nation from the evil forces that have kidnapped it. The fact is, that with the triangulation and corruption of ideals in congress, and their inability to do their constitutional duty in the name of the people, the right choice for President is more important now than at any other time in history...at least in any time in the 47 years that I have been alive.
  Some candidates understand this, (in the interest of collegiality I won't mention any names), but are smart enough not to state it outright. The Congress of the United States, the "People's House", is broken. Look at what this congress has allowed to continue in the executive branch. No need for the laundry list, we all know the disgusting, illegal, immoral, and reprehensible perversion of our nations core foundations that this criminal administration has visited on the soul of our Republic. The inability, or lack of will or desire for congress to do anything about it makes the choice of our next President absolutely CRITICAL.
  In a properly balanced government, one where there really was a balanced seperation of powers, the Office of President would be less important. With a strong judicial and legislative branch, we might be able to slide by with the occasional executive bumbler and be none the worse off, because that idiot would be held in check by a responsive Legislative branch.
  But that isn't where we are at now. Our system is utterly decrepit with corruption of ideals, goals, and direction. It is going to take not only a visionary President, but also a President that is beyond reproach. The next President is going to enjoy a ridiculous imbalance of Power due to this criminal "unitary executive" cabal of criminals. The next president is going to have to not only have to be the missing backbone of congress by directing it in the right course forward, but the next President is going to have to restore the balance of power back evenly to the legislative branch once the damage to our constitutional soul is corrected. In other words, the next President is going to have to use the improperly unbalanced  power of the executive to actually make the executive WEAKER when they leave! That's right, I contend that the next President has to be so special of a person that they will actually give BACK power to the other two branches!
  A very special person indeed. So I am in agreement with the diarist. Passion is not only good, but it is well founded when the stakes are properly recognized and put into perspective. I only hope that we are not restricted in our passions to be merely keyboard activists and actually work for our candidates. If all we do is make noise on Daily Kos, without actually getting off our asses and stuffing some envelopes or marching and canvassing for our candidates, than this is all just so much mental masturbation anyway, and we might as well be watching Jerry Springer and eating Bon Bons.
  Very Nice Diary.

  by irishamerican on Fri Oct 05, 2007 at 07:23:54 AM PDT

  •  Now that's a comment

    And I agree with you.  This country really needs a special human being to sit in that office right now.  I really believe there is a sense of decency in all our major candidates right now - I have to believe that.

    Thank you for your comment.

    by TheC on Fri Oct 05, 2007 at 10:38:39 AM PDT