Yes the title style is cheesy and played out. I don’t care, it makes me chuckle a little every time.
I’ve never had the guts to write a diary because I am of the belief that if I am going to ask people to invest their time in what I write- it better be good. Comments are one thing, diaries are another. But the recent influx of "Obama lied", "Public Option dead", "I’m so connected I know the final bill already", and "Oh look I know the future" diaries are starting to make yell at my computer screen.
Please follow along.
The whole time I have been a member of this site and the whole time I lurked before joining on, I thought I was among politically like minded people. Little did I know that some of those very people were omnipotent and psychic as well. It’s actually very reassuring. Now, whenever I have a question about any of life’s mysteries or my family’s future, there are finally people I can turn to. Why was I such a non-believer in tea leaf and palm readers before now? I mean with the ability some of these diarists have to absolutely know what is going to happen... good FSP, I must have been wrong all along. What is my world becoming?
Let’s understand this fact:
Not one of us knows what is going to happen; not one.
Not a single one! Those who take their speculation as fact are doing a disservice to not only this site but themselves as well. Write the doom diaries all you want and continue thinking you know the future. They will most likely be forgotten the same as this diary will. You will still remember though.
When this is over you will remember the day you stopped calling your congressperson, when you stopped calling your senator, and when you stopped going to town halls because you knew the outcome already. If you are right you’ll remember how you "called it". You will know you gave up on something at the right time because the outcome was inevitable. If you are right I will apologize to all of you and work every spare second I can to remove from office those who voted for the bill. I will work with you on a primary challenge to Obama even if it is a near impossibility.
But if you end up being wrong, and we do get our compromise to single-payer with a public option; you damn well better own your mistake. Own your mistake the same way you bask in your speculation. Write as many diaries saying you were wrong as you wrote claiming you can see the future. Put it in your sig line that you were so far off on this, it’s actually embarrassing for you to still post. I will if I am wrong.
We are going to lose this if you quit. Everything we did to get Obama elected will be worthless if we don’t continue to push. This defeatist bullshit isn’t the reason I pulled my pregnant wife over to see the site I just found. I remember that day; I felt at home with people I had never even seen. I still do, but I never thought I would see the time when people just said "I quit". I’m not going to give the obligatory sports analogy here but we do not just stop "playing" when we realize we may lose. That’s precisely the time we fight harder. At least I will.