I am quoting Alton Brown from one of his cookbooks, but this statement applies to all of my life. If I don’t understand the reason to do something, I will often get it wrong, or I will fail to follow through.
I have never posted a diary, I comment occasionally, but I read DailyKos every day. I followed all the recent drama and have the following thoughts. While it is the extremely worthy goal of the site to elect more and better Democrats, we are not doing that just because we belong to that tribe, we actually want those more and better Democrats to do things after the get elected. Those things include all the issues that are near and dear to the huge variety of DailyKos participants and readers. Some of those issues probably include civil rights, the environment, education, healthcare, Supreme Court nominations and foreign policy. I thought about it and on a more personal level, my issues also include disabilities (I have myesthenia gravis), cancer (malignant thymic carcinoma), public education (I have 2 teenaged kids), critters (I am a sucker for pooties and furbutts), child sexual abuse (two of my cousins were abused, one committed suicide, the other is way damaged), and my general news and political junkiness that only DailyKos can satisfy. I also enjoy the diaries about cooking, gardening and many other topics. The odds of my list of personal challenges sounds even less likely than that of The Nephew. I only wish, and he might also, that I was making this up.
My point is that it is through all these affinities that we become aware of each others’ perspectives and can take political action because we care about it. People are much more likely to donate or to volunteer when they feel the outcome is important to them, or to someone dear to them. If you know why political participation it is necessary, the how to participate becomes much easier.
I have seen many diaries recommended where I am not a big fan of the author, I pass them by, there is always other interesting content on the site. I have seen wars over our President, believers v. non-believers, the healthcare bill and the recent drama over whether some Kos members should even be here. This is absurd. All the affinities here help our cause. Understanding another group’s challenges is helpful, not harmful.