Kossack Clytemnestra is upset over the loss of good Kossacks who are being hammered by others here, and so am I.
For the past few months we have lost many good kossaks. They either are tired of getting slagged in their diaries (bondad comes easily to mind) or they've watched others getting pummeled (Phill S 33 is the newest to leave over this).
It isn't just slagging. It's more general flaming, and various kinds of trolling. Others have left because of attacks by Kossacks on President Obama.
I'm here to have the debate. Criticism doesn't bother me. Losing good people does.
What to do, then?
Flamers and trolls are quite rare here, compared with any other public discussion I have been in. My advice on them is
Never wrestle with a pig. You get hot, tired, dirty, and angry, and the pig enjoys it.
You can label or HR such posts, but don't get into the argument.
I am more concerned with handwringer fear and Circular Firing Squad blame. But again, I don't see any point in extended argument about them. I have written several diaries about why the handwringers are wrong, and Democrats need to get on with the program and hammer Republicans in November. For example,
The South will fall again about the steady decline in racist and bigoted opposition to anything worthwhile.
The sum of all GOP fears, about Republican fear that any kind of health care bill will spell their doom. Of course we must be careful. As Rachel Maddow told Bernie Sanders just two minutes ago, this carries with it the danger of vast numbers of Democratic victories in November. Go, Rachel!
I plan to write more about the lack of need for handwringing or mutual annihilation. Then I can just link to one or two in reply to various nonsense, as above. You are welcome to use mine, or anyone else's that addresses the point, in this way.
On the CFS threat from ourselves, Eleanor Roosevelt is supposed to have said,
First-rate people discuss ideas.
Second-rate people discuss events.
Third-rate people discuss people.
She, or whoever did first say it, was right. Forget how Rahm Emanuel or Evan Bayh is ruining America/the Democrats/your day. This isn't about individuals. It's about the Republican Southern Strategy of racism trying and gradually failing to prevent us building the real America of the Declaration of Independence and the original Pledge of Allegiance: One nation with liberty and justice for all.
The end of racist majorities even in darkest Mississippi and Alabama is in sight, as I explained in Second Civil War or Tipping Point? and The Young South is Ours. Keep your eyes on that prize.
Yes, in fact, we can. We shall overcome, again. But not by lunchtime tomorrow, not in a contest that has already gone on for centuries, in a world that has struggled with governance for thousands of years.