I'm saving all my outrage for the Bush Administration.

[Turn CO Blue]

I just can't hang ten and hang tough with all you folks on this emotional rollercoaster called GD-P.

I just can't be all outraged every few days about this "that's it!" thread or that "last straw!" thread any longer. I finally realize that I don't have the stomach for this forum. I know it's entertaining, and I have read many, many, many of these threads as sort of a people-watching exercise.

And I thought I'd stay above it - and I sort of do because I rarely, rarely, post an OP or respond. On anything, but especially on the primaries. But I hardly know where else to go, because as I've posted a few times, DU is MY CHURCH! I came here in 2004 when I was so depressed that I could barely hold my head up. And I found solace here at a time when I was afraid my car window would get bashed in for having a Kerry/Edwards sticker on it.

I thought I'd stay above the more base and negative threads, but it's human nature to get pulled in. We all think we'll stay above the fray. We all know what's good and right. But it's human nature to click on threads that affirm your own views. It's human nature to collect facts that support your own biased pre-conclusions (see selection bias).

And I notice the more threads that I read in GD-P, the more tension I feel. And the more biased my own views become. But let's step back. She's not evil. NOT E-V-I-L. I mean it. And I'm not reading any more threads that say so. Cheney may be approaching evil, but even HE is not evil. Heck, even Dr. Evil didn't really seem truly evil to me. Serial killers are evil. And guess what? He's not the Second Coming, and I'm not reading any more threads that say so. He's great, he's brilliant, but guess what? He's just a human. And flawed. And this hero-worship and cult of personality stuff is just as idiotic and childish (and disturbing) for political leaders and it is when people focus it on Britney Spears or Michael Jackson. This is supposed to be a government of the people - we don't prop people up as more divine or in a higher class. We should only recognize ability and merit and hard work. And Obama has all that - but he's no better than me and he's no better than you. Just smarter. And a better campaigner. And maybe better looking. Definitely better looking than some of you (tee hee hee).

I realize that this place is very good for many of you, for relieving stress and/or resolving issues, or learning.

It's very good for some of you in particular just because frankly, some of you are "spoons" - people who just love, love, love to stir up shit! And frankly, some of you are obviously paid astroturfers who need this place so you can collect your paycheck for posting the campaign's talking points and posting your supposed "own" research.

And I'm glad for you. If this is your deal, if this rocking, rocky terraine gets your rocks off, I sincerely encourage it. I'll fight to the end for you to be able to spew your asinine, ass-in-mind views.

But I'm just not going to allow myself to get all worked up.

I really want to save my outrage for truely heinous, odius and abominable failings, like Darfur, like Katrina, like Gitmo, and for people like Richard Cheney, Karl Rove, like Condi Rice, like John D. Bates (the Bush-appointed federal judge who is single-handedly responsible for covering the Bush Administrations' asses with regard to what is going on in the justice department, the judge who backs up DOJ in not prosecuting these jerk-offs who refuse to obey Congressional subpoenas).

I really want to save my outrage, and I suspect that many of you do too.
I really want to save my energy and fire, for the upcoming campaign. I want to save my fire for speaking positive things out into the universe about Obama, about our party, about the future.

I just don't like you
When you've been flinging poo,
And I just don't like me
When I've been reading GD-P


Everybody here is better than this, and that includes me.

[Turn CO Blue]

1. Like a stone...

[Autumn]

2. It's a really great post

I'm sorry I could only recommend it once.

[Turn CO Blue]

6. Thanks.

Hang in there. This community will start pulling together in a couple of weeks. Or we hope.

[LiberalAndProud]

3. You really think Cheney is not evil?

I was with you until

What?

CHENEY IS EVIL!

(I knew there was something controversial about this post somewhere.)

[Turn CO Blue]

5. I'll tell you this. I have posted that he is Darth Cheney

myself and that he is the madman puppeteer to Bush's puppet, and that Bush is the distraction and that Cheney is the one who belongs on trial or impeached...

But I will tell you a little ditty. I was watching the "get your photo taken with the VP" coverage on C-SPAN after the 2004 debacle, and I stopped surfing channels because I wanted to see what ol' Darth was up to, and it was really boring, boring wedding-picture-type set ups. Where each new Congressional Rep was getting to have his/her photo taken with the VP...only it wasn't just the Rep. It was the Rep and the Rep's wife, and the Rep's parents, and the Rep's children, and it was just so mundane...how people have been trained to pose for the camera, and how all of us just unnaturally assume the positions of modern-day posed, non-spontaneous photos. And Cheney was...well, very gracious to all these people. He was patient. He was humorous. He was just so...human. He took time a couple of times that I saw to shake little kid's hands and ask them about themselves. He teased the Rep's spouses about putting up with them. He was very good with the parents, "you must be so proud".

It was a watershed moment for me. Dick Cheney may belong in prison, but he is just a human. He's not a monster. We demonize and monsterize these people because that is what we do in the echo-chamber. It's certainly what they do over in Freeperville - they reduce everyone to the most cartoonish character that they can. They try to uncomplicate the motivations and drives and emotions of the people who have views they don't relate to. And we do it. We do it all the time. The President of the United States of America is reduced to * and Richard Cheney is described as the barely fleshed out character of Darth.

I'm not defending their policy; that for certain. I want them to be tried. But I want them to be tried for their actions and policy-decisions - not for having wrong-headed views. This is what I admire about Obama - is that he doesn't seem as intellectually lazy as many of us. He seems willing to really listen and to recognize that these Republicans (or "Repukes" in the reduction parlance) are not monsters, and they we've got to eliminate this need to hate.

[LiberalAndProud]

13. You are right about the caricatures.

I note your mention of "reduction parlance". Even as I am offended that our party is now described as the "Democrat" party, I find the use of "Repuke" unhelpful.

I realize that Cheney doesn't eat children, but still, when one believes that war is a viable economic tool, as I think Cheney does, describing him as evil is not out of line. The contempt for the consititution, for the balance of powers, for the American people ... there is no better word to describe him or this administration.

[Turn CO Blue]

14. You're correct of course.

If we're going to find someone we can actually rate as evil, it's probably going to be the people who have systematically wholly undermined (with intent, and sometimes malicious intent) the interests of the people and the Constitution.

[emilyg]

4. You're a smart person.

Thank you.

[Turn CO Blue]

7. Wow, thanks a lot!

[woo me with science]

8. Hey, you can't post this here!

[Turn CO Blue]

9. Wouldn't it be funny if somebody alerted?

That really would drive me out of GD-P forever.

That silly hat film is the root of the root of GD-P.

[Turn CO Blue]

10. Well, one more kick before heading to Bedfordshire...

[Mutley]

11. You, my new friend, deserve a drink.

:toast:

If only I could buy you one in person.

[Turn CO Blue]

15. Early yet, but I'll be ready in a few hrs. Maybe a mimosa though

[AuntPatsy]

12. How in the world did I miss this thread......so right on....