Obama has my vote. It's embarrassing that I have to preface my diary this way, because many have suggested that by criticizing Obama, I'm saying McCain is better.
Others wonder, why don't I "grow the hell up" or even "Shut the #@$% UP!!!"? Nobody's perfect, after all.
Of course that's true. But I don't have to trade in my independent, critical thinking to support a candidate. Why should I need to stifle my opinions, on a blog of all places, to be a good Democrat?
Here's why I bother criticizing our nominee for president:
It works. It produces better Democrats. By resisting moves to the right, we give guidance to political creatures who often take the path of least resistance.
What if Democratic politicians all learned that if they simply agreed with Republicans, that Democratic voters would still vote, volunteer and donate to them in the same numbers, plus they would get a few Republican votes, too?
We would be screwed. As in, DLC Chair Joseph Lieberman screwed. We would have no real Democrats. We would have Republicans with Ds after their names.
To those pledging to be no less enthusiastic no matter what, why would Obama ever have any reason to listen to you? You certainly aren't going to reward him with more enthusiasm. Your enthusiasm is constant, unwavering, uncritical.
We can hold our principles higher than our candidates while still voting for candidates who don't meet all our principles. But we shouldn't STFU about our principles in order to support our candidate. Nor should we become unprincipled in order to become perfect supporters of our candidate.
So, please, embrace the free and open forum that is Daily Kos. If you're cool with special protections for telecom companies that routed all their traffic to the federal government so that the Bush Administration could wiretap your calls without a warrant, feel free to express that. I will express my opposition. It'll be great. And nobody will have to order anyone else to close their sexually active tart receptacles.