Adios, Mundo Cruel, Otra Vez

The last time I said adios, mundo cruel I managed to stay away only for about five weeks. I thought I could come back and stay out of the candidate diaries. But that's getting harder and harder to do, because at this point nearly all of the diaries are either candidate diaries, or slash and burn attacks on another candidate. I've been a trusted user for more than three years and people are treating me like I'm a visitor from Redstate.

But much worse than that is the general atmosphere around here, which has become more and more poisonous. If the winter and spring of 2004 were anything like this, I am surprised the site survived long enough for me to join it in the fall of 2004.

Was it like this when the Deaniacs were insisting that their candidate was the true change candidate?  When the Kerry people responded that theirs was the candidate with the best chance to beat Bush? I don't know, I wasn't here.  All I  know is this: there are too many people threatening not to vote for Clinton if she's the nominee.  Too many Edwards supporters being called spoilers.  Too many Obama supporters being being accused of playing the race card. This place has become some sort of internet version of "The McLaughlin Group" -- whoever yells the loudest thinks they're winning the argument.  Moderation in discourse has become equated with Lieberman-like "centrism" in politics.

I will vote for and support whichever candidate wins the nomination. Whomever you support now, I strongly urge you to do the same. Maybe you can't bring yourself to say that now because you don't want to admit the possibility that your candidate won't win the nomination.  Fine.  But tuck that thought into the back of your head, and take it back out if your candidate loses. Because the one thing we CAN'T have next year is a Republican president.  Hypothetical debates about who is or isn't more electable mean nothing next to the NECESSITY of making sure, with our votes, our wallets, and our butts (as in working them off), that the Democratic nominee becomes the next president.  

The war in Iraq, the ever-looming possibility of war with Iran, the Supreme Court and other judicial appointments, the sanctity of the Constitution and checks and balances, freedom of speech, privacy rights, reproductive freedom, the separation of church and state, Social Security, universal health care, closing the growing gulf between the haves and the have nots -- all of those issues hang in the balance, and the positions of Clinton, Obama and Edwards differ only in miniscule degree, compared to tax-cutting, religious pandering and Neanderthal foreign policy positions of the Republicans.  Think Obama isn't experienced enough? Look at Huckabee.  Think Clinton is warmonger?  Look at John McCain or Rudy Giuliani.  Think Edwards is too much of a populist?  Would you really like Mitt "Business Solutions" Romney instead? Do we really want to bite our collective noses to spite our faces? The Democratic nominee will need, and will deserve, the unified support of the Democratic party, and the liberal blogosphere. It's not a question of your preferred candidate being the ONLY person who can beat the Republicans, because they all can -- unless we divide ourselves and let the Republicans conquer.

I'm not taking my marbles home because I think that anyone will miss my marbles. A diary like this is a protest, a hope, a prayer, and others have tried to make this point in the last few weeks more gracefully and eloquently than I have. But sometimes, protests and hopes and prayers are all we have to offer.

Hopefully, civility and some non-candidate diaries will return in a couple of months; if so, I will too.

Until then, and with best wishes,

litigatormom