Why I am depressed over this incessant candidate bickering!

[bleedingheart]

Its going to take a lot of money, effort and work to get the message out that Bush is bad for the country even though for most coherent aware adults it is as plain as the nose on their face.

Personally I think that most Democrats who voted for Gore in 2000 have an axe to grind with the Bush Cabal and I don't think we really have to fight to get the hard core Democrats to vote for the Democrat. Basically all Democrats I know are not going to vote for this monkey. In fact I know Independents and Rockefeller republicans who aren't going to vote for him and his neocon policies.

However I sincerely hope that this petty bickering within our own party ends because it is what is going to hurt our candidate. Karl Rove doesn't need to work to slam any candidate because the Dems are doing it to themselves. Personally I can't wait until the primaries are over so we can possibly get our act in gear.

Al Sharpton was right people! Any of the Democratic Candidates is better that Bush even on their worst day! We are better than them! In my opinion our biggest mistake was shrinking away from the policies and the planks of our platform that made us the stalwart defenders of the American People not corporations.

Our Economy Sucks! Our jobs are going overseas and I don't know what is replacing them...what industry is emerging to soften that blow? How long are the American people willing to wait until the researchers come up with another idea and if they do is there any guarantee they will build or assemble that idea here? I haven't heard any guarantees.

Our Environment is being Raped for the sake of Corporate Dollars and we should be Outraged!

Our fathers, mothers, grandparents are getting the big screw over in the new Medicare Bill and the RNC managed to take the largest elderly lobby and create such a disturbance that they have hobbled it..and don't tell me they didn't intend to do that.

Our Nation is being shamed by having a bunch of misguided, selfish neocon toddlers ruin our foreign policy. Why did the USA become an agressive colonial power?..the answer is 2000 when Bush stole the election and his evil henchmen took over...

There is so much more to be angry about but instead we are clawing at one another...how pathetic and sad.

[Guaranteed]

1. I don't think this will last much longer.

Something's going to have to give one way or another. A lot of energy is being expelled right now, and one side or another is going to get tired.

This is just part of the process, though. We're going to clear out the field a bit, see what kind of moves Rove makes, feel the sting of a few of his attacks, probably, and we'll come back together for our common cause.

This thing is bigger than all of us, and it will work itself out.

[bleedingheart]

2. I hope but I think some of the nastiness may

result in people not helping out the candidate that does emerge as the frontrunner and annointed one because the person isn't their personal choice.

We need everyone to get on board to oust Bush.

[mmonk]

6. annointed one is poor choice of words

but I agree with your post in general. Frustrations will occur but not last forever.

[loudnclear]

24. It's called "democracy" Don't we want it?

Candidates should be challenging each other. That's what it's all about. We allow the media to define this as something against the moral grain. We allow the media to define dissent as "whining" When we allow this to happen, and all the other things that the controlled media does, we deserve what we get. That's why i loved what Kucinich and Sharpton did to Koppel. If we want to win this battle, we have to not only challenge the Repugs and each other, we need to be challening the media big time. Every chance one of candidates get, he or she should be challenging every question that does not deal with our issues and refuse to answer or at least re-frame the question to suit our objectives. If all the candidates did this time after time we would soon be heros to a lot people on both sides who are sick and tired of the buying of the media in this country and we may be able to boost the value of honest journalists in this society!

[T Roosevelt]

3. Along with the bickering

what bothers me is we are providing the other side with ammunition. Not just from the bashing, but from the fact that it shows we are fractured unnecessarily.

[Guaranteed]

4. It's just another lesson we're going to have to learn.

Lesson #1- Don't let people steamroll over you.

Lesson #2- Don't sweat the small stuff when it comes to party unity.

People will figure out #2 soon enough.

[La_Serpiente]

5. I would like to subscribe to that view

but I don't like it when people say that Kucinich, Sharpton, CMB, Kerry (yes, kind of odd, but I have seen his name too), or even Lieberman should drop out of the primaries. That just demeans their campaigns and their supporters I think.

And when there are prominent writers like Ted Rall saying publicly that the other candidates should drop out of the race, that makes me very angry.

[bleedingheart]

8. There are pros and cons to having so many candidates but the

biggest Pro is the fact that it has given the Democrats a fair amount of air time on TV. I sincerely believe that if there was only one democratic candidate we would not have any airtime now...

[theboss]

7. Your right; ; democracy is too messy

All that arguing and nonsense. Passion is a bad thing.

Let's just choose candidates like they do on American Idol. Dean can sing some old Ice Cube songs. Edwards can do "Allentown" by Billy Joel. Kerry will do a clog dance. Kucinich will play a polka. And we vote on the Internet.

[TrueAmerican]

9. This is one of the better posts I have seen

Sacrasm at its finest.

[bleedingheart]

11. What is un democratic is having daily threads telling people

not to vote for specific candidates.

Toot the horn of your own candidate ad nauseum...but quit telling other people who to vote for or who not to vote for....that is undemocratic...

Let people decide based on information...over reaction.

[theboss]

12. Tell it Al Gore

He's the one who started it.

[bleedingheart]

13. I guess we should tell it to Andrew Young and all the other

politicians who throw their endorsement behind their candidate of choice.

Give me a break...Gore didn't start this bickering here at DU...

[theboss]

16. Young didn't tell the other candidates to quit

Only Gore did . . well, now Ted Rall too.

The bickering is fine; it's part of democracy. The arrogance of telling others to quit before the votes even begin is a new twist.

[PVnRT]

20. Got a quote?

I don't seem to remember him saying "All the other candidates should quit."

Maybe that's what you really wanted to hear, but he didn't say it. Sorry you have to get off of your cross.

[Cheswick2.0]

23. that's a lie

Gore didn't say that. In fact he said quite the opposite. He said he endorsed Dean and urged people to join him (standard endorsement). Then he said that he was glad people had candidates they cared about but we should remember that eventually we would have to unite behind one candidate and that we should not say anything bad about the other candidates and do the republicans job for them.

Basically Gore has proven again that he has about three times the intellect of most people and twice the character.

[Cheswick2.0]

22. Are you a freeper

I am asking in all sincerity, not accusing you of anything. I just wonder why you have nothing but flamebait bullshit to add to the forum. Usually that behavior is indicative of major freeperhood. Seeing as you are a democrat (or something left of center or you wouldn't be welcome here)I am surprized at your attempts to stir up shit and contribute nothing of sustance.

[demnan]

10. Well said, it depresses me too

With each new attack thread I lose hope that we'll be able to oust
Bush next year. I get so I can't even be interested in politics anymore.

[Ninga]

15. When the "head of the family"

does not educate the children into understanding that it is not their time to learn how to drive, then what happens is that the head of the party become irrelevent, chaois reins, the inmates run the nuthouse.

Meanwhile, the oposition sits back rubbing their hands just drooling at the thought of all the material they can use against us.

I have spent waisted years backing the candidate who best expressed my views.......and lost.

Since I think any of the top tier Democrats are terrific, I want to see our winner APPEAL TO THE INDENPENDENT VOTER, THE SWING VOTER, THE REPUBLICAN WOMEN VOTERS. THAT IS THE CRITERIA THAT MATTERS.

HELLO? IS ANYONE LISTENING?

[agingdem]

I'm not depressed just pissed...

it seems like we Dems are doing Bush and Company's dirty work for them...kind of like the Dems who voted for Nadar in 2000.

[bobthedrummer]

14. You need alternatives in this race

A ranking of candidates. I'm for Dennis Kucinich, his issues clearly define a better path for America to be on, his has been a loud early voice to opposition to the march to war in Iraq, but my second choice is Howard Dean and I'd think a Dean/Clark ticket would be unbeatable and an end to Bush-which is the point of the races.

[TreasonousBastard]

17. Don't take it all that seriously...

because it's only a few people here who are digging up the same old crap to plug or bash candidates.

And I would guess half of them are disrupters just here to stir stuff up. There's a contingent of the clueless, too, who think the world will end if someone does, or doesn't, get the nomination.

It's politics, and it's dirty, messy, and ugly. Always was, always will be a sewer.

In a way, I like it. I remember the Johnson-Goldwater election where people had real passion. Even fistfights on the street. People cared about things back then, and there were huge debates over what a lot considered the soul of the country. Or, at least, its direction.

We are a lot more complacent now, and I, for one, admire the passion of some of the people here, even though I don't always agree with their positions.

This is our country, dammit, and fighting for it doesn't mean beating up some small country halfway around the globe. Fighting for it starts at home.

[Ninga]

18. Finally, a reasoned thought.

Thank you. I feel better already.

[newyorican]

19. I love it!

The more chaotic and passionate the primaries, the better prepared and "warmed-up" we will be for the general. Every four years there's hand-wringing over a rough-n-tumble primary. The Democratic primaries have alway been they're best when it's seems almost out of control.

My biggest concern is not the chaos of the primary, it's the media placing it corporate finger on the scale throughout the process. The focus of the media coverage is not on the issues, and that should be the main concern for all of us.

[goodhue]

21. I agree whole heartedly

The more debate and dissension the better. Its always like this, so I'm continually baffled by the sky-is-falling handwrining. It's called politics people. Geez. Chaos is good!!!

The growing problem is the media stifling substantive debate and working hard to avoid covering the issues.