A Few Words of Clarifcation - Democratic Underground

NanceGreggs

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Thu Dec-03-09 12:20 AM
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A Few Words of Clarifcation

My post last night was apparently taken by many as being aimed at those who oppose Obama’s decision to send more troops into Afghanistan. It was not.

I have been opposed to our presence in Afghanistan from the beginning, and disagree with the president’s decision.

That being said, I take responsibility for being misunderstood. As I have often stated, misinterpretation is most often the fault of the writer, not the reader. I wrote what I did in a blind rage at what I had been reading here yesterday afternoon and again last night. As a result, I was unclear in my intent – that is a reason, but certainly not an excuse. I should have been more precise in my words and my meaning.

I apologize to those who, mistaking my intent, thought I was insulting their anti-war stance, or their right to disagree with Obama’s position.

However, I owe no apology to those my piece was aimed at: those here who consistently use their every disagreement with Obama as an opportunity to demean and belittle a president who doesn’t conform, one hundred percent, to their idea of what should be done by a true Democrat, a true liberal, a true progressive, a true leader, as though they alone possess the political yardstick by which such things are to be measured.

Criticism of Obama’s policies, decisions, appointments, procedures, etc., should not be merely tolerated, but encouraged. I have never wavered from that stance. However, I fail to see name-calling and personal insults as criticism – because it is what it is: name-calling and personal insults. I have seen some defend such statements as merely being “constructive criticism” – but unless they believe they can insult Obama into seeing things their way, there is nothing constructive about it.

On the contrary – it is, IMHO, destructive.

The words and phrases I placed in italics in my OP – warmonger, sell-out, etc. were taken from postings that appeared on DU yesterday. Mindful of the rules against “calling out” specific DUers, I used their words as identifiers – stupidly assuming that everyone who read my post would recognize who I was aiming my vitriol at. I was sadly mistaken in that assumption.

Of late I have chosen to not open numerous DU threads, those I can immediately recognize by their titles and/or authors as yet another attack on our president or our party couched as “constructive criticism”, but that are in reality an invitation – nay, an encouragement – to whine and complain, and to see every Obama decision as being reflective of a man and a party whose every move is to be viewed with suspicion.

What set me off yesterday was reading threads about topics totally unrelated to Afghanistan and/or Obama, where certain parties weighed-in anyway with comments like, “Well, now that we know the president is a warmonger …,” anxious to get their point across whether it was completely off-topic or not.

DemocraticUnderground has been, for myself and many others, a refuge from the right-wing talking points we are bombarded with daily by that liberal media we keep hearing about. It is demoralizing to come here – once a place of sanctuary where people could debate, discuss and ultimately choose to agree or disagree – and see those same talking points trotted out and proffered as facts being deliberately ignored by KoolAid-drinking Obamabots, too imbued with idol-worship to know what’s really going on here, man.

As for statements about our party being the same as their party, or Obama being the same as Bush, I personally find that offensive beyond words on a site devoted to supporting Democratic ideals. And I cannot imagine anyone of good intent seeking to persuade anyone here to join in such thinking. Having survived eight years of BushCo, we have seen the differences between the parties and their respective agendas in no uncertain terms – and the impact on our nation as a consequence.

Our party may be, at any given time and dependent on its current representatives, merely the "lesser of two evils". But given the alternative, I'll stand behind that lesser evil every time.

Again I apologize to those DUers who – through my fault, not theirs – misread my motives or my intent.

I would also like to thank the many DUers who took the time to send PMs expressing their encouragement and support. I appreciate their thoughtfulness beyond measure.