What Being a democrat and having DU means to me
I’ve wanted to write this for a while now, and it seems like a good time.
Just to make a few points clear and then I’ll start.
I’m a union member and proud of it, I’m also a Navy Vet and long time supporter of Bernie Sanders. I met him about 20 years ago for the first and only time; he hasn’t changed a bit since then.
I will vote for HRC if she gets the nod because I don’t want any for the GOP clowns to win…..
So to start, what is being a democrat? Lets face it, if you are to the left of Attila the Hun it’s the only place you can go. Yeah there is the DSA and the Green party but if you want to really make a difference you have to be voting in the Democratic primaries. I wish it wasn’t so but this is the way it is set up and maybe we can change it but for now this is what we have to deal with.
So the democrats have to deal with a lot of different points of view and conflicting options, from consevadems to progressive and further lefties, we see it here everyday, there are a lot of strong feelings on various sides, with alert wars, trolling, trashing of protected forums pieces, etc ad nausea.
I don’t post much because I’ve found someone else has said it better or smarter then I could and I go to sea without the Internet for months at a time. But DU have been a boon to me, the people and comments have open my horizons greatly, I’m angry when someone I respect just feels so trapped by the asshole ducks nibbling them to death that they have to leave or take a break (1SBM), even more for those who have left us because of death or illness. I get something even from the snark.
So I would like to say to all my fellow DUers, lets be a little calmer out there, yes I know it hard not to get pissed off at someone who seems to be deliberately obtuse about your point of view or what you feel are hard facts, or deliberately miss-understands and alerts on you. I’ve had people tell me I’m too nice about some of the hard core bashers out there, but I’m not trying to convince them, I’m trying to convince the people that can still see reason of the fact that compassion for your fellow human beings is better then trying to stuff everybody into neat little cubbies. To the moderators, I know you have a hard job of it and I thank you for it. Bash the trolls all you want. But honestly we are all looking to make the world a better place, we might disagree on the path to take, but we want to be in that good place in the end.
Fair winds and following seas,
Merrick
= new reply since forum marked as read
Dude, he was totally misunderstood! Whats a few thousand dead people among friends. 
