It's Time To Mend What's Broken

[Lyric]

I realize this is very long, but it's something I put a lot of myself into. I would be very grateful if you read it all the way through.

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When I first came to DU years ago, I was too afraid to post. I remember scanning through General Discussion and feeling like I was completely out of my league; the level of discussion was something far above and beyond any other experience I'd had at a political forum. I was awed by how informed and intelligent the members here seemed to be. It was both humbling and inspiring to see ordinary people conversing in the manner that I'd never expected to see outside of the Beltway. Now I can only wonder, where has that DU gone?

The past few months have been nothing less than heartbreaking. So many of us have changed from a group of informed, concerned, intelligent adults into a pack of hungry predators, ready and willing to eat our own. Advocating our own positions simply aren't good enough anymore--the new goal is to verbally annihilate the opposition, to destroy their political goals, and then, for good measure, to piss on their grave at regular intervals. We do it for the sheer primitive joy of hurting people who dare to disagree with our Chosen Truth. We aren't satisfied with merely winning. We will not be satisfied until those Other people are sobbing, broken, and emotionally bleeding on their virtual knees, begging to be allowed to admit the grievous error of their ways. We want to systematically strip them of their humanity and make them PAY for not agreeing with us sooner. And who is the opposition? Who are these Other people? It certainly doesn't seem to be the Republicans anymore.

When we stop referring to other members as people, and start referring to them as inanimate objects, incapable of intelligent, coherent decision-making, it becomes easier to rationalize cruelty and abuse. Yes, abuse. Calling people "Hillbots" or "Obamatons" implies that they are robotic objects, not human beings. When you label fellow DU'ers and Democrats as racist, sexist, corporatist, ignorant, and/or gullible for the sake of winning an internet argument, you are adopting a classic Republican tactic. They practically wrote the playbook on modern divide-and-conquer politics. Is that who we want to emulate? If "winning" an argument on DU means playing by Karl Rove's sadistic rules, I'd honestly rather lose.

We are all Democrats here, and instead of making it possible to come together, we are dividing each other more and more deeply with every passing day. There are those who claim that this is just "primary politics as usual", but I can't remember a single time when I have *ever* seen this kind of behavior from Democrats. Freeper Republicans, yes. This is their normal mode of operation, and is exactly the kind of dog-eat-dog brutality that makes most visitors to The-Site-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named sick to their stomachs within five minutes. One of the goals of being Democrats rather than Republicans is to fight like hell *against* that kind of vitriolic garbage, both in politics and in social arenas. Is there really that much of a moral difference between calling an Obama supporter a "deluded sexist cult-worshipping child" and calling a poor mother a "lazy uneducated baby-popping welfare queen"? Is there a moral difference between calling a Clinton supporter a "racist Boomer with a dynasty complex" and calling Liberals "tree-hugging, bleeding heart moonbats"? Have we lost our idealism? Our respect for each other as human beings, and as fellow warriors against the NeoCon PNAC agenda? When did it become Liberal to label people in order to marginalize them?

Those who claim that it's stupid to let the actions of a candidate's supporters influence your vote are being willfully blind. Human nature is what it is, and if we constantly associate deeply hurt feelings, spiteful cruelty, and gleefully sadistic verbal stabs with the supporters of one particular candidate, it will affect our view of that candidate. There are precious few of us who are 100% capable of completely separating the candidate from his or her supporters--especially when you consider that, for many of us, DU is the main source of exposure that we have to politics and political candidates. If it were only a scant handful of people making the hurtful comments, perhaps it would be easier to separate the two, but that is not the case. As of right now, respectful civility is the exception rather than the rule around here--at least out loud. It seems as if the compassionate, respectful souls have all become too disgusted to post much anymore. There are a few stalwart exceptions, of course. The point is that this behavior is not only damaging to your particular candidate, it's damaging to the party itself. I'm sure that many of the people who claim that they cannot vote for a candidate because of his/her supporters will eventually change their minds and vote for the Dem in the general. But not all of them. Not all.

And that doesn't even count the new members, people who are new and have been lurking, watching this insanity in silence. How many of *them* are we driving away from the party? Didn't we learn from Florida how crucial every last vote truly is? Yet we continue to choose paths that drive good people away from the polls on election day, for the sake of "winning" and/or "being right" here on DU. Like it or not, DU is one of the very public "faces" of the Democratic Party, and we are not representing our party or our ideals very well these past few months. We all know that in today's world, image is vital. A large part of our role as political activists is to persuade people that our "side" is the "right" side, and I don't see how we can do that effectively when a large part of the discussion going on here is so offensive and off-putting, even to veteran DU'ers. I'm not claiming that we should censor ourselves. I'm saying (and I'm not the only one) that there are more respectful, civil, and productive ways of expressing an opinion than saying "Suck it up, jerk. You Hillbots/Obamatons are going down right along with your scum-sucking pseudo-Republican candidate".

The most important thing is this: We are not the enemy.

Liberal humanity is not divided up between the Worthy and the Unworthy, between My Candidate's Supporters and Those Deluded Assholes Over There. I've seen others here trying to make this point, to little or no avail. They've tried to warn people that the gloating, the sadistic glee that so many of us take in lording it over the "sour grapes losers", the spiteful sarcastic comments--these things are not things that Liberals do. Every time, they get crucified for daring to "preach about what Liberals do and don't do". The more vicious of the attackers make sure to get in the biting one-liner to marginalize the Enemy as quickly as possible, and they usually mention that this is "so predictable, coming from someone whose candidate JUST LOST. Haha!". The level of discourse is now somewhere between the kindergarten playground and Hades, and I just cannot believe that this is what we most of us really want. I know the majority of us would never speak to another person that way in real life, but the anonymity of the internet makes it so easy (and often, "cool") to be cruel.

We need to figure out a way to soothe the hurts of the past few months and come together before the Republicans take advantage of the enormous gaping divide that exists in our party right now. I know that DU is not necessarily representative of mainstream America, but this chasm of resentment between Clinton's supporters and Obama's supporters is something that truly *is* a national problem. We all feel passionately for our candidate of choice, but passion should not trump compassion. Regardless of what happens in the primary elections, there are going to be a lot of hurting, deeply disappointed people who are emotionally raw and especially vulnerable to hurtful comments. If we talk about this together now, and perhaps come to some understanding with each other, we can help each other (and the party, at least as represented here on DU) to heal. If you think I'm being too melodramatic or too "preachy", I'm sorry--that is not my intention. I just feel compelled to say something, because I feel so strongly about what's going on, and most of all, because I very much miss the sense of "We're all in this together" solidarity that used to be a hallmark of DU's community. I'd like to feel again that sense of belonging to something wonderful, something unique in the world of hack-and-slash politics.

It makes sense to start with an apology, and I'm willing to practice what I preach. So here goes.

Obama supporters, I am deeply, truly, sincerely sorry for any disparaging comments I have made out of anger. I'm sorry for any gloating I might have done. I apologize, and I solemnly promise that I will not repeat that kind of behavior in the future. I forgive you for any comments you've made that hurt me, and more importantly, I forgive Barack Obama for Donnie McClurkin. However, I truly believe now that Obama is extremely sorry for what happened. Most likely, he feels that he can't apologize right now because he's afraid an apology would be perceived as a weakness that his potential Republican opponent could use as a hammer against him in the General if he wins the nomination. I don't know this for a fact, but I understand how politics work. I don't consider this an excuse--just the reason behind why I was so angry with him. If he wins, I will support him 100%. If he loses, I will support him 100% if he ever decides to run again.

I am sorry. No reservations, no hesitations, no more excuses.

Please accept my apology.