Hey Dkos, can I have a word with you? Over here in my little diary where we hopefully won't distract from the rest of the site.
Look, I know tensions are high, things don't look so good politically and we're dealing with a Republican party that is so bat shit crazy that it's tempting to just blow up and take it out on your fellow Kossaks. I get it. But before things get too out of hand I really feel like we should talk this out, and hopefully make some positive changes in the way we engage with each other before we get so caught up in this Dem vs. Dem stuff that we're too busy to notice President Bachmann was just sworn in.
First off, I want you to know that I sympathize and more importantly understand where you're coming from. Doom and gloom on the site is bad for morale, we all know that. If Dkos turns into a big pity party about how screwed we are, how we're not being listened too and how it seems like everyone in Washington is taking crazy pills; then as a movement we'll find ourselves falling into the dreaded enthusiasm gap come 2012.
Nobody wants that. So we all put on our bravest faces. We look on the bright side. We try our best to see the silver lining in the bad news, and imagine how we might bounce back politically. Every problem is an opportunity in disguise, right?
But some fairly large segments of the community have been doing that for a long long time, and it is understandable that people break down. They can only take so much before it starts to feel like they're just rationalizing bad policy and bad politics. And an argument can be made that not criticizing bad policy is the same as approving of bad policy. So they feel hopeless, overwhelmed, and they begin to lose the will to fight.
During the Bush years this place was a sanctuary where Democrats and progressives could come to recharge when they felt that way. Today I am not so sure.
It used to be that when a user posted a diary about how hopeless they felt (other than GBCW), the users of this website would come together and reaffirm that users faith in the movement. We listened, we shared our growing concerns and our frustrations. We came up with ideas and slogans, spread information and shared our personal experiences with each other. Through these exchanges this site became a community and the community became a movement.
With every victory we celebrated. And with every defeat we pulled together, we supported each other, put our ducks in a row and moved forward, fighting.
Now things have changed. Now we have diaries like this not only calling out diaries like this, but characterizing anyone who disagrees with the President as "the other" a rogue group of trolls who have infiltrated the site.
And why? Because their spirits are broken. Because they criticize the President the same way this community has always criticized Democrats who let us down. Harry Reid is still and always has been a joke. His strongly worded letters during the Bush years were the literally the most effort he ever put into standing up to that corrupt administration and we were right to call him out on every individual capitulation he made.
Party loyalty is a good thing. But criticizing Democrats when they deserve it is equally important. That truth was never questioned until we won back the White House.
Now to borrow a phrase from President Obama; let me be clear: This is not a defense of the diary that was being attacked. Simply a request that we all do some research and some soul searching before making such attacks.
Diaries like the one entitled "Stop the Bull$hit, You Have Already Caved-In On The POTUS & Duped By The Worst Professional Lefties." are counter productive, especially when the cornerstone of their argument is based on a false assumption.
I quote:
I am talking about people who foam at the mouth with such a condescending disrespectful tone saying things like To the Caver-in-Chief: Cave on the big 3, then expect many to CAVE ON YOU, as if they have not caved in on the President long fucking time ago when he got inaugurated. You know who I am talking about. I am talking about not all but those who are still bitter and clinging to their disappointment that a fresh man Senator beat the crap out of their candidates.
It took me 20 seconds to visit the author of the attacked diaries profile and pull up past diaries from the days of the 2008 Democratic Primary. The authors name is Icebergslim. Have a look at Icebergs diaries from that time period.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Reading just the HEADLINES of the diaries from that page forward tells a very heartbreaking story of a dedicated OBAMA SUPPORTER slowly coming to terms with the realization that President Obama is not the same man we voted for back then.
I don't know Iceberg from any other user here, I joined in 2004 and have never really gotten into the social networking aspect of the site. I don't think I'd recognize a front pager if they commented on my diary. But according to their profile Icebergslim has been here for awhile (since 2007), and has been an Obama supporter for YEARS. On top of that Iceberg has several hundred followers on this site (including me as of right now), is a regular contributor and even has a blog called "This week with Barack Obama."
This is not some internet troll posting diaries to enrage the devotees. Figuring that out took less than a minute. Seriously, do some research before you attack, or how about you just don't attack! After all this is a person whose support we're slowly LOSING! Attacking them does not help, nor does putting them in a box and treating them like the enemy because they disagree.
Diaries like Icebergs are not intended to help the opposition they are a wake up call to Democratic politicians. And response diaries like the one I quoted above should serve as a wake up call to this community before it tears itself apart.
Now obviously this is the internet and trolls are never in short supply, however the knee-jerk and quite frankly paranoid reactions toward people who are on our side, is disheartening to say the least. Feel free to disagree with the sentiment being expressed, but you should understand that millions of Americans, myself included have gone from passionate about the movement to pessimistic about our party in 3 short years. That is no mistake, and it is not small feat considering the fact that I have been an active Democrat since before I was old enough to vote, and an Obama supporter since I saw him speak at the 2004 Democratic Convention.
People get burned out. It doesn't seem like the President is doing himself or our party any favors lately. And sometimes it gets to the point where you just want to talk about it with people who you would think could sympathize. People criticizing the Obama, especially in Iceberg's case, are not the result of some long held personal grudge against the President. But the result of long held admiration and loyalty, coupled with the realization that it may have been misplaced.
That's why it irks me to see the community turn on someone for expressing themselves. You're missing an opportunity to defend our guy in a positive way that may reaffirm these users beliefs in our party and our President. Instead you throw them under the bus.
Think about it that way you will begin to see the trouble with having a GTFO attitude toward people who feel disappointed. There are millions more are out there. Our job as a movement, and your job as an Obama supporter is to win these people back but instead I see a rift opening in which the community is being pitted against itself. The two sides characterized as Obama Fan Boys vs. The Professional Left.
That is not what this community is or is about. Especially not when it comes to legitimate criticisms of elected leaders.
Now many of us have been jaded and pessimistic about politics as a whole for decades, so it is easy to get annoyed when someone is "whining" about how crappy Washington DC is and how success costs most politicians their very soul. But we would be wise to remember that for many people President Obama represents their first political victory, and for millions of young people he represents their first experience of the candidate to politician transformation.
That is not a pleasant transformation to witness. It helps to vent, and have a community that not only understands but can help make sense of it in a pleasant way.
I don't know Icebergslim's life story. I don't know how old they are, or how many elections they have taken part in. But I do know that Iceberg is not alone. There are democrats all over the country who feel like they have been fooled. Some of the things the President has done do not align with the values we voted for. Does it mean they should just jump ship? No.
But to act as if they are coming to this decision lightly, and that they are somehow the enemy, is absurd! This is an important turning point for these people. How this community treats and reacts to those who are heartbroken and feel disenfranchised when reality destroys what is left of hope and change, will determine their level of involvement from here on out. Not just on this website but in future campaigns and indeed the movement as a whole.
We're all on the same team, but some of you insist on kicking them off.
I hope people take this to heart and we can get back to the way things were when this community took care of each other, explained things to each other, supported each other and ultimately learned from each others shared concerns, frustrations and experience. When criticism was taken as criticism, not personal attacks with a secret/evil ulterior motive.
This is perhaps the most touchy feely diary I have ever written but believe me the fastest way to weaken the party is to ostracize new and vulnerable Democrats.
tldr; Stop being a prick.
P.S.
I am aware of the irony in using an inflammatory title for a diary about changing the tone. It was intentional and a riff on the diary in which this post originated as a mere comment.