C'mon People Now w/Pole
Thu Feb 07, 2008 at 09:20:20 PM PDT
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now.
I've been looking attempting to look through various diaries on our two remaining candidates (sorry Mike) to help me reach a decision. The decision isn't which one to vote for -- I've already done that -- but which one to support for the rest of the primaries. I don't mean monetary support. I mean support in the sense of helping friends and family in yet-to-vote states reach an informed decision. Ideally, I'd like to to be able to point them to diaries here which illuminate our candidates positions, history, strengths, weaknesses ...
My problem is the very high degree of Obama and Clinton venom which permeates every diary I open here. How can I recommend this site to a friend when all my friend will find here is constant comments tearing our own candidates down. I sometimes feel like I'm on a Republican site for all the negativity. It is especially noticeable in comments that are negative toward Hillary. Are her detractors really that filled with rage about her possibly winning the nomination? Yes? Then what are you gonna do if she wins it? Are you gonna just stay home? Vote Green? Vote for McCain???
Here's my suggestion, for what it's worth. If you begin reading a diary or comment thread and you come across something that you know is factually incorrect, state your correction (with respect and a link) and move on. Maybe don't even go back to see if anyone responded. If you come upon a diary or comment thread that you simply disagree with, don't comment! Just move on to some other diary. You don't have to comment.
It isn't mandatory (and even unwelcome at this point) to tell someone who has just stated "I think this" about their candidate to butt in to merely say some form of "well, I think that." It is especially unwlecome when the form of "well, I think that" takes the form of "How can you possibly think that? Are you blind? Don't you pay any attention? And look at this fact about my candidate, BTW."
This is a site at which a stated goal is to elect Democrats. I ask again, what will you do if your candidate, either one of them, doesn't get the nod? Will you support the other candidate of our party? I hope so. I hope you will join those of us who believe in the goal of a solid D majority and stop tearing down a candidate who you could very well have to support after the nomination.
We have two strong candidates, unlike the Republicans who have zero. Please don't work to weaken one of ours. Build up your chosen one, tell us why you are so proud of them and why you admire them and about the positions they hold that you strongly support. Help make this a place I can refer undecided voters -- Ds, Rs and Is -- to. But don't tear down our other candidate. Don't go looking for diaries to spew bile in. Be a grown-up. Be a Democrat.
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