For Better or Worse, People Here Care

I am totally sympathetic to the diarist who wrote this diary this morning.  I have been feeling the same way about this place lately, as I am sure have many of you.  It is rather frustrating and often times annoying to see every discussion about the upcoming election turn into a food fight between, often times, many of the same people.  It is enough to make me want to sign off for a while as well.  But, then I stop and remember how I felt in 2003.  And I get it.  I get their passion.  I get their frustrations.  Let me tell you something... in March of 2004, I was not going to vote for that stupid swiss-cheese-ordering-on-a-Philly-cheesesteak-John Kerry!!  But in November, guess who I voted for....

Well, duh!  John Kerry, of course.  And I was really, really looking forward to his Presidency.

I was a Deaniac last time around – still am, really.  If Edwards and Obama and Hilary folks are angry at each other now, imagine what it was like to work your butt off for a year for Dean and actually think that fantastic dream was going to come true, only to watch it quickly fall apart in the last few weeks leading up to the primaries.  Now that’s frustration.  Now that’s absolute loathing of an opponent(s).  But it was also raw emotion and not reason.  After some time had passed and I had accepted the reality, it was clear that John Kerry could do a pretty good job and that it was 100% ESSENTIAL that Bush was defeated – boy is that ever clear now.  Today, we face the same thing again – perhaps even more important now then in 2004.  A Democrat MUST win in 2008.  And the most rabid Edwards, Obama, Clinton (even Gore) supporters must cool off in the spring and summer of ’08 and re-group to support whoever wins the nomination....even if it’s (ducks) Hilary.

Back to what is happening now at Daily Kos... I too get frustrated by reading the in-fighting here about the candidates.  And, honestly, I’ll tell you, I get a little tired of seeing two diaries about what John Edwards had for breakfast that day in the Recommended Diary list every time I open the site.  Part of it is that I haven’t settled on a candidate yet.  I guess I’m still a Gore holdout at this point.  Thus, I can go from diary to diary with a pretty dispassionate attitude.  It allows me to see the points people are trying to make, or figure out when some are making more of an emotional point then a well-reasoned argument.  And I realize its ok.  People are excited about their candidates and are deeply invested in the campaigns.  And that is a GREAT thing!  The down-side to all this personal investment is the in-fighting, the arguing, the strong feelings that sometimes boil over into anger.  When I get frustrated scrolling through some of the arguments, I remember that this is a good thing.  It means the people here CARE!  And in this country of < 50% voter turnout, American Idol and trans-fats (I got that last one from The Boss the other day.... heh) that’s a good thing.  A damn good thing!

So, to those who are doing the arguing – try to keep in mind that keeping emotions under check will help your argument with those of us who are truly still trying to figure it all out.  Sometimes a comment questioning the sincerity of Edwards’ alignment with the netroots or the depth of Obama’s campaign beyond just rhetoric or the real concern that Hilary may not truly represent progressives in this country are real questions by decent, progressive Kossacks who are trying to figure it out and not concern trolls or right-wing talking point repeaters.  But at the same time, to the rest of us who get annoyed with the in-fighting, try to remember that the passion that many here display for their candidate is a really good thing and, if we have to put up with a little foolishness along the way because of that passion, it’s a small price to pay.

In the end, I am confident that 99.9999% of the folks here will remember what is truly important and come around to supporting whoever is the nominee in November 2008.  In the meantime – keep caring Kossacks.  Please!