I am a bit more than shocked and dismayed at the level of vitriol being tossed back and forth between otherwise reasonable people, all (or at least most) of whom share an ultimate goal: the defeat of the eventual nominee from the Republican clown car and the reversal of the worst presidency in the history of our country. One comment today spat venom at Kos and said he/she was simply leaving the site for good. It's just getting to be a little overboard.
I vote in New York, so by the time primary season hits me, who knows if it will much matter who I support. I am a vehemently anti-war, homo-eco-progressive, with some notable policy exceptions which make my choices difficult. "Nuance" is my favorite word. I have committed to voting for the eventual Democratic candidate, regardless of who it may be. The stakes are just too high, and I learned my lesson in 2000. Coming from that viewpoint makes me dumbfounded when I read the degree of scathing, high school-level attacks against the "cliques" supporting one candidate or another on this and other progressive sites. Continued...
Ladies and gentlemen, by and large of voting age I should hope, this is not high school. I cannot speak of having any experience working for a campaign. I'm not sure I could stomach it. I know there are major stakes here, and the candidates have to win the playoffs before we get to the big game against the real foes. I'm not naive enough to think it can be all sweetness and light inside the party during primary season. But I've kind of had it. "Oh my god! Barack thinks he is just the coolest kid in school!" "No way, Hillary's friends are totally cooler." "Like no way, Edwards is having a huge party this weekend, and all the hottest kids are going to be there."
I have very strong opinions about the slate of Democratic candidates, and I, for one, find serious faults with all of them. Just as I cannot for the life of me talk seriously to anyone who still, at this point, claims to believe in or support George Bush, I simply don't understand blind faith and rabid attack dogs for any one Democratic candidate. Yes, by all means, support your candidate, make reasoned, impassioned arguments in favor of her or him, but the personal attacks, the defensiveness and thin skin...what good is this doing us? They all have serious flaws, from HRC's war votes, Obama's embrace of a contemptible homo-crite, Biden's bouts of brilliance intertwined with unconscionable gaffes, etc., etc. I am in no mood to enumerate further, you all know the drill. Every last one of them has some disqualifying feature if you come from a progressive stance and really want to shake things up (ok, maybe Kucinich is a good fit, but you know what? Unfortunately that's not going to happen!)
My personal opinion is that Kos is way over the top with the Obama "Gore slam" bit, but so be it. I'm not going to leave the site or freak out because of it. I will respectfully disagree and hope that others can move on as well. The fact is, the vast majority of us will ultimately find ourselves pulling the lever, or poking the chad, or touchscreening (heaven forbid) our votes for the Democratic candidate, and we're going to have to rally around whomever that ends up being without the recrimination and blood vessel popping that seems to be going on here in supposedly friendly territory. I make no bones about admitting that I will have to hold my nose to vote for another Clinton, but damn it, hold my nose and cast that vote I will! Save the venom for the enemy, and his name will be RomneyMcCainHuckabeeGiuliani. Not ObamaClintonEdwardsInsertYourFavoriteCandidateHere.