some words and thoughts on DU from a scared human being

[frank frankly]

Anybody who compares any candidates supporters to dittoheads or cultists or whinners or sore losers is not helping their candidate.

Maybe they don't care. Maybe they like to drive people away from the person they are supporting. Maybe it makes them laugh. Maybe they are so scared out of their minds with BushCo that they think only their candidate can save us. Maybe they really believe they are helping their cause.

I don't care. They are wrong.

But, hey, everyone, the campaign is winding down & its going to get worse and then it will get better.

I recommend Late Breaking News as a substitute. I used to get News in GD, but it's just been bringing me down and, hell, I'm trying to fight off fascism here. I need energy, not more pressure.

Right now there are too many wildly biased supporters for Clark, Dean, Edwards, Kerry that keep posting very negative junk day after day after day about each other. I'll read these posters posts again after the primaries, because many of these people are awesome writers and minds. But right now it is too repetitive, unintelligent, and frankly getting insanely un-progressive. These days, I ignore their threads at first sight.

I came here to DU because it is full of people who understand that we are now living Big History and we are in Big Trouble. I came here for allies and information and my gawd most of all because I was losing my mind about things that nobody I knew thought even mattered.

But I knew I was right and that I was reacting appropriately. And after reading and then posting here, I felt more sane. I became more focused and faster on my feet and I have spoken with some of the most brilliant people I've ever met and read some of the most beautiful words I have ever read.

We have lost our country to fascism and we are trying to take over the world. Please remember that, even as you fight for the person you believe in and question those you do not. There is no reason all these things can't exist at the same time. There is a world of difference between disagreeing and becoming the same as the murdering thief-in-chief who says You Are For Us Or Against Us.

Thanks, everyone,
eric

[Mattforclark]

1. Good post

and may the people listen unto you.

[robsul82]

2. FreeRepublic is better than DU...

...in terms of unity and pulling together for a common cause. I forget if anyone other than Dole ran for the presidential nomination in 1996, but I'd bet my arm that they NEVER tore each other's candidates to pieces and ALWAYS kept their eye on their goal - defeating Clinton. These last couple days fucking EXEMPLIFY why people laugh at the Democratic Party.

Later.

RJS

[frank frankly]

3. I'm not looking for unity, actually, the primaries haven't happened yet

I am looking for fierce intelligent analysis that is fueled by the fact we may be starting WWIII here.

I love debate. I need to learn about the candidates and yes they all have flaws and strengths unique to them.

I'm saying don't think that being a jerk is helpful. You can say Dean is this, and Kerry is that, and Clark is this, and Edwards is this, but all would beat Bush.

In a fair election, all will beat Bush. That's the only unifying thread I want to see.

[creativelcro]

13. Well, but they have only one candidate...

[cryofan]

33. Umm....the campaign is NOT "winding down". It is just starting!

Not a single vote has been cast yet!

Yes, we already know who the elite corporate media likes, and who they have driven to the top of the polls through name recognition and sheer repetition. That much is obvious from my earlier post showing how many times the NY Times has mentioned each candidates.

However, at least in theory, there is a little matter of democracy here in America. The people get to vote now. Let's just wait to see how they vote before we call the campaign over, shall we?

[Cha]

4. Thanks for posting your feelings on all

this! I can't wait until we are all united behind one candidate and fightin' the bushwas!

[frank frankly]

5. we'll get there, don't worry

Part of the reason this campaign is so rough and tumble is they all must know Bush is Toast.

I like our candidates. It's a damn good field.

[arendt]

6. I like "we are now living Big History "...

It gives us a chance to test a major theory; namely:

Does history make great men or do great men make history?

Example:

Did WW2 cause Churchill and Roosevelt to take risks that made
them rise to greatness?

Or were Churchill and Roosevelt great people who would have
done great things whether or not the war happened?

Note I don't include raving sociopaths like Hitler and Stalin as "great men"
because its so easy to be a great sociopath if you have the good fortune
to grab power.

So, we get to see if history makes a great man out of a Dem or
if some name Dem (like the Big Dog or Hil) shows their greatness
in this situation.

Hey - I'm going to pluck that strawberry even while hanging from a
cliff with a tiger pawing at me. (Buddhist metaphor for calmness.)

arendt

[maggrwaggr]

20. well history made a shithead out of GWB

Georgie boy had his big chance after 9/11. Hell, even I wanted him to rise to the occasion and turn into the man he had never been. But no. The man has sunk to lows not seen since Mussolini. He showed his true colors all right, turning into an exploiter of the dead, a killer, and a fear-mongering opportunist.

I now despise him more than I've probably despised a public figure ever in my life. I feel the man deserves no pity, no compassion, and should be treated 110% like the criminal piece of shit that he is.

He is scum. He is a chicken-hearted cowardly bully and needs to have his ass kicked hard.

[Cleita]

7. Thanks frank.

This is making me so weary too. I have my candidate, but I don't attack the other candidates because I like them too and one may be the candidate I will have to vote for. I don't appreciate being called a Deanie. I don't run around calling the other candidate supporters insulting names. I'm sorry if other supporters of Dean do so, because I and many other Dean supporters are not part of their club.

Thanks for saying this and I hope the juvenile mind mud that drives this will finally turn into mature and intelligent discussion of the issues.

[frank frankly]

9. you're welcome, Cleita

you represent your ideals and the truth quite well.

that's why we are here.

:hi:

[cliss]

8. You and me both, Frankfrankly.

About 1 year ago, I knew there was something SERIOUSLY wrong with out government. I stood dumbfounded staring at the TV, as I watched Bush carping away, maniacally, night after night about Iraq. There was something wrong with the news agenecies who were supposedly reporting all this stuff.

"Is it me?" I thought. I started a relentless search on the Internet for ANSWERS. I knew the TV was no good, nor was the Oregonian newspaper and the radio. I had to get real news, and I had to get it fast.

My good fortune led me here. I knew I had found a place where there are many, many just like me. This is the only place I go to now to get my news. I've told many people about this web site.

The Internet is our last vestige of freedom. Thank God it got up and running before they managed to get their claws in it and take complete control of it.

[frank frankly]

10. damn, cliss, i hear you 100%

you are exactly right about the Internet.

right on!

[BeFree]

15. Yeah, me too, cliss, me too

DU has been like an isalnd in the middle of a stormy sea.
Unfortunately some kids have landed on the island.
Looks like were gonna have to teach them some manners, eh?

[goobergunch]

11. kick

:kick:

[frank frankly]

12. kick

:kick:

[Zomby Woof]

14. ehhhh

It's just a forum! I doubt seriously my lobbing bombs at the Deanies will affect anyone's vote. I don't intend it to. I do like to tell unpleasant truths on a serious level, and make provocative assertions on a somewhat satirical level. It's like a miniature sociology lab. I am rarely disappointed in the results.

Some of us just like to carry on the spirit of gonzo journalism, HST-style. ;-) There's no room for sensitivity and hand-wringing; it's politics.

Sometimes I post happy horseshit, and other times, just shit. Either way, it's a great release.

[frank frankly]

17. cool, brother

I have no complaint with you or your style.

plus, my hands are raw from wringing...but don't look, i am sensitive about it and it makes me wring my hands.

[Zomby Woof]

18. all is well

I actually DO love positive posts, and you contribute a lot of them. :-)

Every now and then, I will post positive things too - but I can't let my detractors get complacent. ;-)

[frank frankly]

19. I am a serious serious humorless person these days

and much worse in person.

but i like to laugh. you're funny as hell. funny goes a looooong way

[Eloriel]

25. I'm glad to have an explanation for your behavior

Makes it at least seem more rational than it otherwise does.

Here's something to add to your laboratory notebook: To at least some of your study specimens, it makes you a pretty toxic individual who can behave crassly and badly, offend people, and chalk it up to just good, innocent fun... much like I would imagine George W. Bush might describe his experiments with frogs as a kid.

Oh, and what you imagine are "truths" aren't, necessarily.

[welshTerrier2]

16. i've read lots of posts like this

even written a few myself ...

yours was especially well done ...

thanks ...

[Pobeka]

21. It will get better, much better.

I have small quibbles over the candidates, but I am blown away by
the difference between any dem candidate and Bush. It's like we're trying to determine whether to pick Mother Theresa or Ghandi to run against Hitler. I will have zero problem in fully supporting the winner of the primary.

I predict (and I sure hope it's true), that after the primary quibbling ends, there will be huge support for the dem, and not just from hardcore DU'ers, but from young people who want a peaceful world (and don't want to be drafted and get killed for no good reason), from gay and lesbian people who just want to live their lives without discrimination, from women who don't want a bunch of men telling them they don't have a right to choose, from the believers in the constitution who will vote to get Ashcroft fired, from mothers and fathers and children who think that clean air and water are necessary to live a healthy life... This list goes on and on.

Cheers to the winner of the primary, whoever it is!

On edit, typo

[ConsAreLiars]

24. Amen

And amen again.

We see these myopic infants whining on DU about a few words by one Dem candidate or another in some news report, and then initiating new threads whining about bashing, and in the meantime the Cons are destroying the whole fucking planet. Frank frankly got it right in his original post. And you hit it straight on. Thank you.

[frank frankly]

22. one kick and then it can sink away

I feel better already. That ignore thread option is amazing.

[frank frankly]

23. last one before the work night ends

I do love this website.

[David Zephyr]

26. Bravo!

Yes!

[VOX]

27. Well said, ff. And a late-night kick...

:kick:

[Andy_Stephenson]

28. United we stand

divided we surely will fall.

[Lexingtonian]

29. and yet

At some level these nasty allegations are entirely true. There is ostensibly some kind of psychopathology present among some significant number of Democratic activists. And some of the present Presidential candidates will necessarily exploit the opportunity it represents.

It's a late stage in the disease process. One side will claim the symptoms of the disease are signs of the cure, another will claim to have the cure but not have the disease identified, and so on.

In the present we all have to choose what we consider the position that is sanity. And accept that many people are convinced otherwise.

And we have to hope the fever breaks and the patient recovers in time for the primaries to give us the candidate most compatible with sanity.

I dunno about Big History. This is going to be a pretty forgettable episode in it.

[Myra]

30. Thanks Eric

eom

[annec]

31. Thank you

Thanks for this post. I had been a not-so-frequent lurker for the past month or so. I started posting this week when it was my candidates positive speaking day. Well, I got pulled in... as all messgae boards do to me. And I started posting. But boy, it is nasty out there. People pointing figers. People accusing other camps of doing nasty things. This is not a nice place. I believe in discorse and discussion and disagreeing... but just plain dissing isn't for me. Not worth my time. Thanks for some sanity in any otherwise insane bunch of posts!

[KoKo]

32. Thank You! Well said. The negativity does nothing but drive us apart.

Sapping energy. Peace :-)'s

[mmonk]

34. living Big History and we are in Big Trouble

Like that.

[cryofan]

35. Umm....the campaign is NOT "winding down". It is just starting!

Not a single vote has been cast yet!

Yes, we already know who the elite corporate media likes, and who they have driven to the top of the polls through name recognition and sheer repetition. That much is obvious from my earlier post showing how many times the NY Times has mentioned each candidates.

However, at least in theory, there is a little matter of democracy here in America. The people get to vote now. Let's just wait to see how they vote before we call the campaign over, shall we?

[frank frankly]

36. hey, cryofan, you misread me bigtime

I love DK. read post #3.