Little Red Riding Hood pulled the bobbin, and the door opened.
The wolf, seeing her come in, said to her, hiding himself under the bedclothes, "Put the cake and the little pot of butter upon the stool, and come get into bed with me."
Little Red Riding Hood took off her clothes and got into bed. She was greatly amazed to see how her grandmother looked in her nightclothes, and said to her, "Grandmother, what big arms you have!"
"All the better to hug you with, my dear."
"Grandmother, what big legs you have!"
"All the better to run with, my child."
"Grandmother, what big ears you have!"
"All the better to hear with, my child."
"Grandmother, what big eyes you have!"
"All the better to see with, my child."
"Grandmother, what big teeth you have got!"
"All the better to eat you up with."
And, saying these words, this wicked wolf fell upon Little Red Riding Hood, and ate her all up.
In the coming weeks, it will be prudent of us to not be fooled by the posters who, either on this site or in places elsewhere on the internet, claim to be revoking their status as members of the Democratic Party because of the nomination of Barack Obama. The fact of the matter is that the Democratic Party is incredibly united (recent polls suggest 80% support compared to the Republicans' 84%) and will only grow more and more cohesive as we head in to the fall. Democrats who are dissatisfied with Obama may threaten - and ultimately may deliver on those threats - to vote for a progressive third party candidate or to stay at home in the fall.
But a Democrat who threatens to vote for John McCain is, rather simply, not a Democrat, per the definition. They are Republicans who may have, in the past, voted for Democrats. More likely, however, these posters are trolls who have time on their hands and mischief in their minds and have adopted the guise of a disaffected Hillary supporter so that we may all wring our hands and wonder just what in the hell they are thinking.
Remember that on the internet intentions and motives are never known. Remember that identities, poses, and positions can forever be shifting and always withheld. Remember, ultimately, that those who benefit from a post which seeks to sow division and doubt amongst Democrats are Republicans. Occam's Razor suggests that the most logical understanding of posts which express an outright rejection of the Democratic Party because of the nomination of Barack Obama is that the poster is a supporter of John McCain and, in fact, always has been.
This is not to deny the real imperfections of Obama, or the real anger and distrust of Obama that some Hillary supporters may feel and express. It is just that there are, frankly, no reasons for a "lifelong" (as they will inevitably say) Democrat who supported Hillary to post a diary explaining why they are going to leave the Democratic Party and campaign for John McCain. A person who makes such threats is not and never was a Democrat. Because being a Democratic, like being a Republican, means that you ascribe to a certain set of beliefs about how the world and how government should operate. It's not "I'm a Democrat because I think Al Franken is funny." It's not "I'm a Republican because Frank Thompson is sexy and smells like Brut and gasoline." That's not how it works. It's "I'm a Democrat because I think everyone deserves health care." Or, "I'm a Republican because I think taxes should be lower and there should be fewer government programs." That is just the basic definition of belonging to a political party - you believe in the things that that party believes in. And that identification does not change because one person is elected over another person who holds almost identical policy positions.
I realize that there may be a few actual Hillary supporters who threaten to leave the party and join McCain's movement. But again, these people are, simply, Hillary Clinton fans - as in, fanatics - and are not to be confused with Democrats. Democrats do not believe in forsaking justice and equality at the hands of corporate greed and back-alley abortions simply because they are dissatisfied with the messenger and communicator of the Democratic Party.
Ultimately, a great majority of these trolls will prove to have written few if any other diaries. They will not have posted many comments, if any at all. They will have been members of this site, or other sites where they post, for a couple of weeks at most. They will write their diary slamming Obama, praising Hillary, and boasting proudly their intent to vote for the Republican nominee. Then they will leave and never be heard from again.
And they will have been, since the very beginning of this process, supporters of John McCain.