I can't stand it anymore. Over the past three months, I've gone from sometime Kos visitor to official account bearer to occasional commenter. I've read at least a hundred diaries (most likely more) on the Democratic primaries. Not one of those (or the threads thereafter) moved me to create my own diary - until today. thereisnospoon's diary and resulting tempest that followed has led me to the creation of this, my first posted diary. I am calling for a moratorium on any "conciliatory gestures" to Hillary Clinton supporters that exist in the blogosphere. Moreover, if you feel the need to state for the 1,000th time why, in your humble and tremendously informed opinion, Florida and Michigan's delegates could never be seated as is, please, stick a sock in it. If you're itchy to explain how you are a woman and you support Obama (and, in transparency, I am both of those,) please walk away from the keyboard. In sum: shut up. Why?
Such gestures are only making it worse. Celtic Merlin alluded to this in his diary, but I think it's going to take more than holding out an olive branch of any sort. We. Need. To. Stop. Every (and I mean EVERY) discussion on this topic has eventually disintegrated into one of the following circular arguments: Florida/Michigan, sexism/racism, or she/he started it, and it's taking us no where but backwards. A few considerations:
1.) There are some Democrats that are not going to vote for Obama no matter what. Slice that any way you like, cry out foul or fair, but it's the truth, and some of us need to swallow that.
2.) We can't 100% be sure who is honestly expressing their opinion, and who is just trying to get a rise out of a diarist/commenter. ("Stir the pot with a (s***) stick," my gram always used to say.)
3.) Even the best-intentioned diaries can come off as mean-spirited. This can happen because either those who are feeling hurt or piled-on are either looking for something to pick at (actual language vs. intention seems to be a biggie,) or simply because the diarist can not share the life experiences of every reader, and therefore comes off as condescending when they write in generalities (which is necessary.)
4.) Blogs are a terrible format with which to have a debate. Look at presidential debate post-mortems. Scads of bandwidth are burned analyzing how candidates looked, what they were doing while the other person spoke, their body language, etc. Trying to convince someone of something through black and white (and orange) just can't compete with personal interaction.
Therefore, I say, PLEASE continue speaking to anyone you can in person about why you believe that Barack Obama is the best candidate for President of the United States. Confront them with facts. Make good arguments. Have a beer (or other tasty beverage) afterwards. If you're in the realm of the blogosphere, though, give it a rest.
Okay, I'm done here. I honestly don't care if this gets one rec, because all I've done is restate the obvious, and I had to get this off my chest. I'm a pragmatic, though, and it's staggeringly obvious to me that it's way past time to let the air clear. Besides, I come here to read on topics that the MSM ignores. Can we have more of those, please?
(By the way, if anyone DOES read this, feel free to give pointers, as blunt as you'd like.)