I first got home internet access when George Bush was President. And one of the things that amazed me were all the sites where Republicans just gushed over him. How wonderful he was, how glad they were that he was president, how fortunate that "Sore/Loserman" lost in the Supreme Court.
But I quickly discovered Democratic web sites where there were people who saw the wrongs of the Bush administration and were not afraid to say so. And I discovered Daily Kos and found a political community here where there was sharp analysis and breaking news and comedy and all kinds of balm to get me through the Bush years. I looked forward to coming here every day for the sense of community. We were in this together--"this" being trying to take back the White House and elect more and better Democrats to Congress and other offices as well.
In spite of how horrible the primary wars were, I still believed that when Obama was elected that this place would be a left-wing haven for me as the right-wingers had their havens for the last eight years.
OK, OK, I know now that I was being ridiculously naive.
It didn't take long for me to realize that there would be no victory lap here, but I have been stunned by the vitriol that gets poured out on BWD and anyone else who wants to be happy about having a Democrat back in the White House. I have been amazed at the intensity of insults thrown at anyone who wants to focus for a while on the good that Obama has done instead of focusing on all the problems he has not been able to solve.
It's like a parody of everything that is fractious and self-defeating on the left. Say anything positive about the President, anything, and a predictable chorus of "but he hasn't done enough about THIS" and "he's been a total failure at THAT" and "you're an O-BOT" and "he has completely neglected the issue that is most important to ME" and "he's as bad as BUSH" cascades down all around. Instead of pouring victory champagne all over each other, we are raining on our own parade.
This isn't much of a diary or much of a rant--I guess I don't have rant in me today. And this is definitely not a GBCW. I just feel a deep sense of disappointment with the tone of the attacks on the President from people who voted for him, people who call themselves Democrats, and people I have admired on this blog for a long time. People who apparently are so unhappy with Obama that they think he deserves to lose in 2012.
I had to sit through eight fcuking years of Republicans praising their fool pResident who had no qualifications, no accomplishments, started two wars and almost destroyed the entire world economy! And those folks STILL have places they can go to celebrate their do-nothing know-nothing president, or to celebrate Saint Ronnie, or to call Obama the antiChrist.
Meanwhile those who want to celebrate the president have even been denied our own sub-community in the BWD diaries. No one goes into the GUS diaries to deliberately talk about how wonderful smoking is or make fun of people who can't quit smoking. No one goes into the gardening diaries and says it is a waste of time to talk about gardening when people are starving in Haiti. Sometimes I read familiar names writing the same things I hear on hate radio. Sometimes I feel like I am reading Hillary is 44 (yes, they still exist).
No, it's not as bad as the primary wars, but it is just as disheartening, because I thought this place was, well, better than that. I thought the primaries would end and we would unite around our candidate. I thought that when the Democrat won that there would be jubilation here and backslapping and gleeful preparations to build on that victory with more victories.
In short, I thought this would be a place to share strategy for staying in power, rather than a gathering place for "this isn't good enough so I'd rather kick him out and start over." Once again the perfect is the enemy of the good. No one who is liberal enough to suit me on every issue could get elected in this country! If there is a perfect progressive candidate out there with the right positions on all the issues who can get elected, please share his/her name with the rest of the class!
I know that if anybody reads this diary it will draw the haters like a magnet. I'm not even going to bother to put on the proverbial asbestos jumpsuit for the flames. Flame away. Call me an Obamabot. I've heard worse.
I'm just so fcuking happy every single day that I wake up and realize that John McCain is not the President of the United States and Sarah Palin is not the Vice President and the Democrats have majorities in the House and the Senate! I wish there were a blog somewhere where I could be happy about that with other people! I wish there were even a diary series here where other Obama supporters could talk about how grateful we are that someone with intelligence and compassion and an analytical mind is in the White House handling all these domestic and foreign policy catastrophes--someone who is actually paying attention to something other than what talking points should be distributed to Fakes News! I wish there could be a single diary posted with positive presidential news that did not suddenly find itself crawling with detractors flinging insults at the diarist, the President, and anyone who supports him.
Does anyone understand why things got to be like this? Can anyone explain it to me? Is this happening on other sites too? Does SOTILOTM bring out the poo flingers on ALL the Democratic websites?
I'm too addicted to GBCW. I love Big Orange. I've been coming here every day for so many years that I would go into withdrawal if I tried to kick the habit. At the same time, if there were a place where I could go and celebrate my president, I know I would love to spend time there. For the first in my political life I am proud to speak of "My President", and the place I thought I would get to enjoy sharing that sentiment is awash with people who would rather poke holes in any positive story and relentlessly, relentlessly, focus on the negative regardless of what the President does. I thought that was Fakes News' job. I thought that was hateradio's job. I never, never expected to face it here.
Yeah, yeah, I already admitted above the jump that I realize how naive that was.
It's just not fair that my Republican friends got to be so gleeful for eight fcuking years with no justification at all, and I have ended up with no place to celebrate my President, whom I worked hard for and still identify with and believe in.
And I feel like a total idiot to think I ever could have celebrated My President here.