To recap:
~today will decide nothing,
~the denizens of MyDD and TalkLeft will call anything but an Obama sweep proof that he can't "close the deal,"
~the consensus here and among newshounds will be that Clinton can't possibly make up the delegate deficit (which is exactly the situation currently facing her),
~the pie fights/shit-slinging will continue unabated, and
~I'll still be utterly disgusted with how we've behaved on the blogs over the past months.
So I'm having a glass of wine and hanging with my family. Then I'm sleeping until eleven.
Then the mehvolution will probably begin.
Your warning below:
Last Friday, my grandmother had a massive heart attack. Today, she went into surgery for a triple bypass and ended up with a sextuple bypass (apparently, she talked the surgical team into giving her a 2-for-1 deal). I spent the day in the waiting room drinking gallons of coffee and reading Jeffrey Toobin's The Nine. He had a good section on the Harriet Miers nomination that essentially boiled down to this:
The Right Wing Freaked, The Democrats Got The Hell Out Of The Way And Watched The Fun.
As I hear account after account of conservative dissatisfaction with McCain, I just can't help but hope a little that the lesson of the Miers nomination isn't lost on us. Sometimes, it's best to just let the Right screw up by themselves, without our getting involved. (In fact, let's practice saying this all together: "I respect John McCain's service, and look forward to a good campaign.")
I think the lesson of the Miers debacle might also be somewhat applicable to our side. I can't remember how many times I've read someone say that the attacks on Hillary are making them support her, or that the smears of Obama are beyond the pale and Rovian and causing his support to harden. But as much time as I spend on the blogs, I honestly can't think of five bloggers this election who have shifted their support because of the shit-flinging that's gone on, except for those who support whichever candidate they feel is being more maligned.
I've been trying since the day before Iowa to try and calm things down, to no avail. I've been punching as hard as I can against a flowing river, but the water keeps coming.
So since the most rabid of the partisans won't stop, I'm going to.
--
No, this isn't a GBCW. I have to spend a lot of time on this site. I work in online campaigning, and as such have to spend several hours a day surfing in Left Blogistan, much of that time right here on the Great Orange Satan. The embarrassing comments, the snide quips, the candidate trashing: I see it all, day in and day out, and it makes my over-acidic stomach yearn for the Zantac 150 and Tums Ultra that I'm popping like candy these days. I've been here for quite awhile, and this is easily the worst I've ever seen it get (those of you NooBz who continually ask if it was this bad in 2004, the answer is "NOT EVEN FUCKING CLOSE").
I wish I knew how to quit you, DailyKos, but I can't--my hope that the sense of community we once had will return, and my pending gas bill, are keeping me here.
But I've learned that I cannot defeat the rancor and vituperation, and that actively trying is a waste of everyone's time and my effort.
--
So instead, I give you my act of protest: until we have a presumptive nominee (meaning until one of our two candidates leaves the race), all my diaries will be meta.
That's right: it's the Metapocalypse.
I'm going to engage in so much navel-gazing that visions of lint will haunt our dreams. I'm going to be introspective like nobody's business. I'll talk about what kind of diaries we write and how people react to them. I'll write lay sociological posts, poor attempts at developing a Netroots Theory, and meaningless but mildly entertaining statistical analyses. And after I post them, I'm going to watch them fall off the recent diaries list like little meta-lemmings in a Disney documentary. It will be my sweet revenge for the incipient ulcer this primary has created, and my way of nonviolently resisting the candidate wars.
--
Barring a "live boy/dead girl" scenario, the Presidential primary campaign can only end one of two ways, statistically speaking (Clinton can concede, or it can be decided via a floor fight at the convention--if anyone has a realistic statistical model that shows how HRC can pull it off otherwise, I'll cheerily amend this statement). But there are plenty of ways for us to continue ripping each other apart and generally making a mess of things for months to come. Consider this my blogospheric Tiananmen: standing in the face of the onslaught of vitriol and invective, not so much fighting it as obstructing it. Consider me a recruit for the 101st Pacifist Keyboards.
--
So to those who want to talk all Rezko, all the time;
To those who want to go Whitewater rafting;
To those who want to talk Presidential libraries and slum housing;
To those who want to obliterate the line between zealous advocacy and shooting ourselves in the collective foot;
To those who think that McCain is better than Clinton;
To those who think that McCain is better than Obama;
To those who think that it's better to lose in November than to lose in Denver;
To those who think that what we say on the blogs will be determinative in the minds of Ohio, Texas, and Pennsylvania's voters;
To those who think that a night without smearing the other Democratic candidate is a night wasted; and
To those who think that we have to destroy this village in order to save it, I SAY...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
...meh.
Tah.
Update 1:55 EST I just saw this from Al Giordano over at The Field:
The "this-has-to-be-over-I-can’t-take-it-any-more-my-tummy-hurts-and-my-back-is out-from-the-stress-of-this-election-going-on-for-one-more-day" will not get any sympathy from this corner.
Oh, you’ve got acid stomach? Try being an Iraq war vet with shrapnel in your belly.
You’ve got carpal tunnel syndrome from typing your angst on the Internets? Try being a child who lost an arm in that war.
You can’t sleep? Try it without a roof over your head, or being truly sick and unable to afford to see a doctor, or unable to read or write your agita, or the price of a computer being out of your reach, or being so hungry you can’t think of luxuries like... elections.
This is not about you, or any one person. This is about us all. Duty. Sacrifice. Persistence. Hard work. That’s what falls upon those lucky enough to receive it.
If you’ve got the privilege to be able to post your grief on the Internets, you’re already ahead of most of the world in comfort.
Perspective, kids, perspective.
Be a warrior. Not a victim!
That's a fine sentiment from Al (he even gave my acid stomach a shout-out ;) ), but it completely ignores the fact that sniping between the Clinton and Obama camps is making it harder for us to stop the war, end homelessness, provide health care, and fight poverty, because it's making it harder for us to defeat the Republican nominee in November. If mudslingin' and shit-flingin' would strengthen our cause at this point, I'd be tossing brown stuff left and right. But it won't, and pretending that the candidate wars at this stage are anything but a burden on our chances at bringing progress to Washington is pretty perspective-deficient.