I know it has for me. I started on the great Orange Satan back in June or so of 2008. I, at the time, called myself a Conservative Independent. I'd never voted for a Democratic candidate before and I came here with an idea of what a 'typical liberal' was....and boy was I right, and wrong, and wrong, and right, and wrong and wrong.
See, there is no such thing, of course of a typical daily kos user. I learned that within the first few days here.
Please follow me after the jump.
We come in all colors, all sizes, all genders, all orientations. Some of us here are older, some of us younger. Some of us just became politically active and some have been for a long time.
Like me, some used to work for or vote for the GOP. Others never have, nor never would do such a thing. I know when I came here when I admited I voted for the GOP I was treated like I had come from Satan himself. ;)
But I learned and grew, and I hope have come to be accepted by people here thru some of the great pie wars, though I must admit I wish I was here during the great circumcision discussion debates from days past.
I was here during some of the primary wars, and even during other pie fights...some icky, some not as icky.
But I learned something. When push comes to shove, when a true troll comes to the community, when a racist, or an anti-whatever troll comes onboard, or someone comes to threaten a specific user here we all circle around and provide comfort and aid.
We're all a pretty good group of folks. So yes, we've our differences. This is not a diary for us to try to pretend we are all one group without differences, we're not.
Some of us view the President a lot differently then a seperate group of us does. That's fine, we're all different folk. But in the end we should not let those differences drive us from the key samenesses we share, we care about one another. We are here for one another. We believe in one another and I do not know about you, but I think if push came to shove we'd find we've a lot more in common with one another than we would than anyone at Redstate or any other political blog.
So well we do have our differences, we can let them drive us away from one another or we can recognize that we have more in common then we might be willing to admit and instead of taking the easy way out and pissing and moaning, we might try to respect one another while we disagree.
People ask me about my views of the president, if I hate or love him. I neither hate the man or love the man. He is a politican. He has done, in my view some good and some bad choices. Just like any other person elected to office. And just like any other politican we should be free to critque him for having done so. When he does what I think is a good policy position we cheer him on, when he does something wrong, we call him on his actions. Isn't this the way politics is supposed to work?
So... in closing, is, since we all have a common group who would be happy to see us lose, the GOP, why are we doing their job for them? Why not stay united and disagree with one another, but try to do it in a rational and united way?
So, has my view of people changed? YES! we're here, together, united...as one, to come together, as one. And I never thought such a diverse group as we have here could come together, in one voice, as I've seen us do so, when we need to do so. So lets let ourselves do so again. Time is short. Let's come together again.