As someone who is about as impartial as they get around here when it comes to the Obama/Clinton wars and someone who has pretty much stayed on the sidelines, with the exception of a few diaries that actually defended Clinton from some unwarranted and unsubstantiated attacks, I have tried to point out other issues going on, offered up diary after diary about John W. McCain, wrote about and linked to close to a dozen Congressional candidate interviews I did with thereisnospoon and tried to discuss topics that I thought weren’t getting nearly enough attention.
And with a UID that puts me here since right after the 2004 primary wars, I can’t speak for whether things were worse then or now, although such a comparison is like picking between horrible and miserable anyway. But if I wasn’t here then, that also means that at least 2/3 of the registered users weren’t here back then either, and frankly, 3+ years is an eternity.
The republican party, the religious right and other extremists came to power based on a number of things. They have remained in power due to preaching hate, making knee jerk accusations - many times with absolutely no support for their accusations, and gang up on others (think of the family that was hunted down over SCHIP) to gleefully stomp and stomp on their perceived enemy.
If you were an immigrant - legal or not, you were hated. If you were gay, you were the root of all of society’s ills, and according to some, responsible for Hurricane Katrina and the 9/11 attacks. If you didn’t agree with the decision to invade Iraq, cut and run from Afghanistan or dared question the highly questionable "intelligence", you supported the terrorists. If you called for oversight or impeachment, you were a traitor.
No middle ground. One or the other. No disagreement, no heated debate. You hated America.
There is a diary currently on the recommended list titled "It’s Over". And as much as I like Pontificator, I will disagree with the title. While this Democratic primary may be, for most purposes, over - things are just beginning. In fact, they have already begun, and as I said yesterday - we are missing golden opportunities to rebrand McCain for what he has become. For the fact that he is an economic idiot. For the fact that he linked Shiite Iran with Sunni al Qaeda not once, not twice, but three times. If this was Obama or Clinton, there would already have been a nickname picked out and repeated ad nauseum - along with a non stop clip of the three comments.
But, nowadays, you would think that Clinton, A DEMOCRAT, is the enemy, or even more so - her supporters. And while she was my last choice of all of the candidates and I did not vote for her, I have been called a "Hillary shill", been piled on and troll rated for daring to question whether accusations of her stealing actual votes in the primaries in New Jersey were true, or whether other accusations that, if they stuck (regardless of the truth), would hurt the Democrats’ chances in November.
Yet, not only do these accusations get thrown around here, they are recommended up and anyone that questions whether they are true or asks for proof is shouted down and insulted. Some reality based community we have now. When accusations are made with little proof but lots of emotion and smugness, then repeated over and over by prominent posters (even on the front page), that is bad enough. When the accusations are proven false or questionable, they are not retracted.
When someone dares to question why the site and community have devolved to the very thing that we decried and fought so hard to be the opposite of, we get a tip jar full of troll ratings as opposed to actually taking a step back for a moment and thinking about what has been going on here for the past few months.
Reality based? Not anymore.
These tactics are seen from Michelle Malkin and her henchfolks. From Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly. From LGF and RedState.
Not from progressives. Especially ones that already have the facts and the majority of the country on their side.
Sure, people will say that things will blow over in a few months. But in a few months, it will be summer and the election will be right around the corner. Will the Clinton supporters vote for Obama? Will the Obama supporters vote for Clinton? And will we be able to just "turn it back on" and move forward as a progressive coalition to achieve what we have been laying the foundation for over the past few years?
Or will there be too much resentment or arrogance, leading to a loss where there should be a resounding win?
I never thought I would be writing about this, let alone questioning whether facts and reality are considered more important than emotion and knee jerk accusations, gang mentality and frat boy glee over relatively trivial matters.
Progressives are better than that. Progressives realize the bigger picture. Progressives shouldn’t be eating their own. Progressives should know better.
At least I thought that was the case.