Well you guys have won. The Anybody But Deanies. The Establishment Dems. The people walking around with taglines like "I will vote Green/Before I vote Dean". You brought him down. Congratulations.
But the game's not really over. You've beaten us, your compatriots, but you shouldn't want us gone. You shouldn't want us silenced. George W. Bush is as massive a threat as he's ever been. And you need us to beat him.
So the current behavior-- both on the blogs and in the real world-- in which anti-Dean Democrats suddenly stand up to demand loyalty, or pour salt in the wounds of very committed Democrats, or mock people who have finally conceded defeat, or (most egregiously) purge Democratic organization of lower and middle-ranked workers who happened to support Howard Dean, is counterproductive.
This is the candidate that is most important to beat:
This is the candidate that is using the deaths of 3000 Americans for political gain. This is the candidate who has rolled back American civil rights more than any other President in the last century. This is the candidate who deceived the nation into entering an immoral war. This is the candidate who failed to plan that war in a way that would allow us to get out. This is the candidate who's dismantled American environmental protection more than any other President. This is the candidate who has lost more jobs-- both in hard terms and as a percentage-- than any other President since the Great Depression. And this is the President that seriously thought pursuing his own pet project in Iraq should be a bigger priority than capturing the worst mass murderer in American history.
We have to work together to beat him. That means that now, in victory, it's in your best interest not to drive away Democratic voters. Howard Dean gave many of us a reason to care about politics again. A reason to pay attention. A reason to donate money and volunteer time. Believe me, you want us in the tent pissing out rather than outside pissing in.
How do you do that? First, stop the condescension. Too many of the "unity" pleas have taken the form of "Dean's organization was great, but he sucked because...." This is not an effective plea for help. It's merely alienating; it very blatantly signals that you care about Dean's voters and money and not at all about his message. It's very transparent. We're not children, we supported Dean for very clear reasons. Try and appeal to those reasons.
Second, stop trying to bully people into publicly declaring that they'll support the Democratic nominee. 99% of us will. But, as with ANY human endeavor, nobody will support you if you're constantly at their throats. Leave people alone, let them cool off, don't provide a target, and they'll see that both Kerry and Edwards would make far better Presidents than George Bush.
Third, at least try and pretend you care about what we're saying. Don't fall back into the reflexive DLC position of pretending that just because someone is a Democrat, his vote is assured and he therefore should have no bearing on the future of the party. Unity means taking what we say into consideration. You have a historic opportunity here to change the relationship between the Democratic Establishment and its base for the first time since the mid-90's. You can either continue to alienate us-- and consequently drive down turnout and continue to face stupid but sadly effective 3rd party challenges-- or you can at least listen to what we have to say.
Fourth, and most importantly, speak out about the purges. The idea that some low-level functionary working for a policy organization, or a lobbying organization, or for the party itself might lose his or her job just because they supported the "wrong" candidate is undemocratic (and un-Democratic) in the extreme. Nobody here benefits from that turn of events, and it promotes the worst sort of divisiveness just when we need unity.
Basically, if you leave us alone, let these wounds scab over, and stop kicking us when we're down, the vast majority of us will come to your side. And the vast majority of us will devote the same passion and energy we had for Howard Dean to defeating George Bush. That's something everyone should want.