Let me warn you, this is a rant diary about a once-legitimate political community, so if you don't care, you might want to move on now.
I've been active on Daily Kos for about four years now and I love the community. There have been some angry, heated debates, many of them involving Kos and other front-pagers. What I love about Daily Kos is that I can disagree with or criticize one of the people with administrator status on this site and not worry about that person silencing me rather than engaging me.
I had lurked at MyDD occasionally before and during much of this primary season, and it has only been within that past few months that I have begun posting regularly on that blog. Many of you post there as well and probably understand the harsh administration policies there. Many of you also know that Jerome Armstrong, the founder of the blog, loves to post anti-Obama material whenever presented with an opportunity.
This is Jerome's latest doozie:
What I do find lacking is Obama's response to the hate on Clinton displayed by Pfleger:
"As I have traveled this country, I've been impressed not by what divides us, but by all that that unites us," he said in a statement. "That is why I am deeply disappointed in Father Pfleger's divisive, backward-looking rhetoric, which doesn't reflect the country I see or the desire of people across America to come together in common cause."
Instead of this rhetorical blah, what Obama should have done is taken the opportunity to making a call out against the most belligerent of his supporters, to stop making sexist and needless attacks on Clinton.
The Clinton camp noticed the very same thing:
"Divisive and hateful language like that is totally counterproductive in our efforts to bring our party together and have no place at the pulpit or in our politics. We are disappointed that Senator Obama didn't specifically reject Father's Pflegler's dispicable comments about Senator Clinton, and assume he will do so."
Obama's declaring victory again Tuesday night apparently, but he still can't figure out how to do basic outreach to his opponents supporters, and totally missed what this occasion called for doing. It's the same sort of avoidance of taking the main topic head on, that he initially showed with Jeremiah Wright.
Apparently Senator Obama's condemnation of Rev. Michael Pfleger's comments as "divisive" and "backward-looking" is "rhetorical blah" to Jerome. Armstrong finished by saying
His letting this Clinton-hating speech hang out there with no specific denouncement, by someone whom he has deep ties with, isn't helping his unity campaign.
In light of Jerome Armstrong's obvious attempt to nitpick at Obama's clear condemnation of the remarks (after calling the Clinton RFK reference "gotcha" politics on a story with no validity), I felt that I had to respond and call him out on his repeated smearing of the clear Democratic nominee. I wrote:
Quick question? (2.00 / 1)
Do you want Obama to win?
The way you drum up controversy in your front page posts would seem to indicate otherwise. Do you honestly think he won't be our nominee? Because if you don't, you seem to be trying to drive the Democratic candidate for President into the ground.
by chicagovigilante on Fri May 30, 2008 at 12:09:21 PM EST
I said nothing that a reasonable bystander wouldn't accept as the truth. It was obvious that Jerome was trying to make something out of nothing, participating in the same "gotcha" politics that he had criticized just a few days prior. A few minutes later, Jerome responded:
Re: Quick question? (none / 0)
Are you a troll? Of course I want the Democratic nominee to win. You know, I gotta feeling we are going to be doing some serious housecleaning here of the Obama supporters who think there can be no criticism of Obama at all.
by Jerome Armstrong on Fri May 30, 2008 at 12:22:30 PM EST
I was apparently the first task on his list of "housecleaning", because after he posted this response I lost my ability to comment, reply, and post diaries. Apparently, I made the mistake of calling "The Blogfather" out on his continued attempts to drive a wedge in between supporters of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Not to mention the fact that he called me a "troll" for criticizing him, which is grounds for hide-rating because he name-called a fellow user.
If Jerome Armstrong wants an army of sheeple who nod their heads uniformly at his opinions, he will probably continue to ban those who question him. If, like Markos, he valued dissent and honest discourse, he would attempt to rebut his critics rather than to silence them.
So if you're an Obama supporter who posts on MyDD, be prepared for a "housecleaning". Because, according to Jerome, it's coming.