We are coming apart at the seams

I'm getting the sinking feeling that we (the democratic party - no matter who we run as our nominee) are going to lose. I was naive enough to think this wasn't even possible, with the damage that GWB has done to the republican party.

The race is turning too ugly, and we're going to tear ourselves apart. Someone else posted a thread entitled something like, "Hillary isn't a racist and Obama isn't sexist," which is completely true.

I may have to cut the cord on DU for a while. I could never stay away forever, since I've been posting as well as lurking here for many years. Notice I said, "may."

I hope we dems can pull it together once we get past the primaries, but it's starting to get ugly. There will be no winners in this race if we continue going down the rabbit hole.

I'm tempted to join threads defending Hillary's record on racial issues, but it will only add fuel to fire that is already out of control. People have closed their minds - and that includes supporters of all of the three major candidates.

And really, after it is all said and done, we will go on with living our lives. Most of the folks in DU are in the U.S., but people visit this site from all over the world. Even if evolution-denying Huckabee wins because of our infighting, we still will go on. If the republicans win, our country will continue its descent, and will take more and more people down with it in its wake. But we will still be here, imagining what could have been. And who knows, we may even have had a chance to stop the hemorrhaging of everything that makes America great.

My hope is that we can get our collective act together and win the chance to try and make the impossible possible once again.

Relax.

We go through this here every 4 years.

Take a break if you feel it's best and c'mon back when the dust clears :)

I hate feeling this way. It takes the wind out of my sails, you know?

Skinner spends 2 years of every 4 making sure nutball theories and smacktalk get pushed into the dungeon.

The other 2 years, that's the entirety of DU.


I think it's good to roll over every once in a while and let our extremist, close-minded, bitter, ignorant underbelly see the light of day for a thorough airing.

We even went before this before the advent of the internet. The only difference was, back in the olden days, we did it face to face, so it didn't get quite as nasty.

But it still went on.

For example, a homemade sign I remember seeing at a Dukakis campaign office in 1988:

"DICK GEPHARDT -- BEFORE HE DICKS YOU"

Rhodes was a crook, but he took care of the state....and he didn't implement 90% tax hikes.

and the more comments that are coming out true or false, some of this will not be erased from voters minds...

Democrats have always fought like cats and dogs. We have always come together united at the end of the process. A primary fight has never in our life times hurt our chances in November. I can see Michelle Obama introducing Clinton as an agent of change in any of a number of rallies in October. I can envision the Big Dog explaining in TV interviews how Obama is the most inspiring and talented political figure since JFK in October.

This shit won't matter.

These fights here pale in comparison to the Carter-Kennedy brawls we had in 1980, my first political year.

No one is unraveling. We'll be fine by the end of February when these arguments come into focus.

Your words are an inspiration to me, and I needed that!

I would love to see any of what you describe in your note.

50....and I certainly don't feel it.
This is just working out the kinks....there is alot of time to come together and get after the real problems in this country.

I think you will see a unified endeavor no matter who the candidate is. I've never seen anything in my life as polarizing as the last 7 years have been. When our new leader is picked we will get about the business...

It helps a lot.

:)

Comparing DU to the "real" world can often be a good exercise. One can begin to realize that not everything is overanalyzed and beat to death, and that every minor campaign event is not the end of the world or the most exciting thing ever.

Take a break, even if it's just a couple days. This place was pretty crazy in '04, but it'll settle down significantly once we have a nominee, as it generally did then. The infighting on DU makes the situation look much more dire than it really is.

That campaign got really, really rough even without a blogosphere echo chamber. Anybody remember some of the Clinton/Tsongas smears? The not-so-subtle pointing out that Tsongas might not live 4 more years (he didn't, as it happened)? The warnings from the Tsongas camp about the perils of the Clenis? I think we'll be fine, just like we were after that in '92.

ON EDIT: my bad, Tsongas lived 5 more years.

political races have tended to be pretty vituperative, at times (the one example that comes immediately to mind, associated with Harding, I think: "Ma, Ma, where's my pa? In the WhiteHouse, ha, ha, ha...") Granted, this is a mild example, and associated with battles between parties...

I think, as others have said, that there will be unity after the final decision is made on a candidate, though the Independants may go elsewhere...this is just politics playing out.

If you want some examples of the nastiness of campaigns, historically, check out the presidential election of 1800...or the attacks on Lincoln...or any of a host of others.

I saw an amazing slideshow somewhere, I think on time.com but couldn't find it again. It had a bunch of old signs and buttons going back to Washington's campaign. Some were beautiful, unique, touching. Some were disgraceful! So it's either same old same old, or we've actually improved a bit.

:)

I think I need a break too, and I just joined!

candidates. Get us to focus on sexism, racism and the stereotypical white man from the south.

a) frequent political blogs
b) work for the media