Miss Blue has a diary on the recommended list that makes a point in an update to that diary that I feel deserves its own diary.
It seems some posters here don't feel the need for any new supporters. Seems if we weren't on the O-train from the get-go, we are not to be trusted and our votes aren't required. It is nice to see that is not a majority opinion, but it is a dangerous one, nonetheless. Obama will need every vote he can get to beat John McCain. And Obama's message seems the opposite of exclusionary. Perhaps the veteran Obama supporters could get their wayward fellow supporters to tone it down.
I agree completely. Indeed, I am a veteran of Daily Kos, and I guess a veteran supporter of Obama (in that while I always liked him and supported him, I didn't start officially supporting him over all other candidates until after Iowa (but before New Hampshire)), so I suppose I will be the one to remind my fellow Obamaniac-Kossacks that we need to echo Obama's call for healing and unity, and not display the very same division and attacks we decry.
It is very easy during a primary campaign to view your friends as enemies, especially when friends support different candidates. And it is very easy for a passionate supporter to be become hostile to supporters of our opponent in this primary, especially considering the fact that those passionate supporters may view the tactics of the opponent's campaign as horrid and divisive on a scale never seen before in Democratic politics. And thus we devolve our feelings on our opponent's campaign unto our opponent's supporters. Or even non-supporters of our candidate, like Miss Blue and many others here at Daily Kos who just want to win in November, no matter who our nominee is.
But the easy thing is not always the right thing. It is easy to be angry. It is easy to not welcome new supporters to our cause, especially when those supporters weren't with us through the battles and the despair. It is easy to punish the supporters of Hillary Clinton, and not welcome them into the fold.
But we must do it if we truly honor the words of our candidate. We must do it if we truly want to change this country. We must do it if we truly seek unity. It is not easy, and there are and will be many mutual hard feelings between the Obama and Clinton camps.
But please, let us be an example. Let's extend the olive branch. Let us echo our candidate.
Let us be the healing we are looking for.