Although I'm a lurker here more or less, I've been around the blogosphere for a long time. I've also seen this site and this community come up and grow and develop itself. However, over the last few weeks or so, the community has been in quite a bit of turmoil. The rage meter really has been going off the charts. Some long-time (and not so long-time) community members no longer feel welcome here.
The reason I'm writing this, is that I think that nobody is talking about the 50-ton elephant in the room, and for that reason, there's been no real chance of communication. The elephant in the room is the direction that this primary campaign is going, and the proxy war it truly represents, one that challenges to roll back all the gains we've (as in the netroots) have made over the last 4 years or so. Why be surprised when people get downright angry about this?
The rising of Howard Dean to the role of head of the DNC, and the 50-state strategy were heavily supported by most community members, and still to this day. That's our baby. Most community members believe that less resources should go to political consultants, and more resources towards grassroots organizing. That's our baby. This is nothing new, and this is something that's largely accepted.
It's our orthodoxy. It's our conventional wisdom. And you know something? It's a GOOD one.
But ever since SC, what's been going on is that statements from the Clinton campaign have been tearing open those old wounds. Those old battle scars from when people fought like hell to have Dean put into that position and fought like hell to have resources redirected to a larger number of races. The statements about how certain states "don't matter".
That's when all the ugliness started. That's when the excrement hit the fan. Since then, Obama vs. Clinton has become a proxy war to refight the whole netroots vs. DLC war. Or at least it's another round in that struggle. Only this time, the opposition is now within the community.
Which is why I think both sides have largely been talking past one another. Neither side really, I feel recognizes what is truly going on here.
So how to resolve this? Unfortunately, I don't think there's a resolution. The advocacy for nationwide grassroots organizing is too important to dismiss in the hopes of party unity. And if that means that you're attacked because the candidate you support wants to tear that down, then I really do think that that you have to realize that you really are flying in the face of what we've accomplished over the last few years.
That's just my feeling over the whole mess. I thought I'd share as most of the lurking I've done over the last few weeks, this really hasn't been brought up.
Thanks for your time.