Why the Democrats are not more successful- Lack of unity

[NJmaverick]

I am not talking Hillary vs Obama. I look at the threads yesterday after McSame announced his candidate. It seemed like half of DU went after the totally unqualified right wing nut choice, while the other half went after the DUers that went after her. It seems there are many here that would rather attack fellow DUers than go after the Republicans. If we can't get our own house in order and present a united front against a common enemy, how on earth can we expect to beat them? As the saying goes, united we stand, divided we fall.

[TwilightZone]

1. DU is not, lucky for us, representative of the public at large.

In reality, the Democratic Party is probably more unified than it has been in decades. Our division about the VP pick is largely irrelevant in the big picture.

[NJmaverick]

3. You are probably right. at least I hope so

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

2. I Simply Just Like To Attack Assholes.

Most of the time they turn out to be republicans. Sometimes; however, they turn out to be dumbasses that post here.

[sandnsea]

4. I saw everybody attacking her

I just saw people attacking her for different reasons, and some who thought attacking her mothering choices was not the best route to go.

[NJmaverick]

5. No the ones attacking the DUers pretty much stuck with attacking DUers

complete with holier than thou attitudes and false outrage. It's this sort of misguided and misdirected behavior that keeps us from being more successful

[glowing]

8. As a mother, its not the choice I would make for myself. If she is up to the

task of caring for a 4mo with special needs and attending to campaigning and possibly serving as V.P., then more to her.. But it is not the choice I would make for my family. Later on perhaps, once the child was older, but not now. Good luck to her.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

6. bullshit. the du'ers were arttacked because of their classless, sexist attacks

not because they went after a republican

maybe we lose because people perceive as as republican-lite. and why vote for a lite when you can have full strength?

we have no convictions and are willing to lose our principals at the smallest things

yesterday we could have attacked palins policies but instead we chose to make sexist attacks about her ability as a mother, her daughter being a slut, whether the child was hers or not etc.

SHAMEFUL

[NJmaverick]

7. You couldn't be more wrong

dead wrong, if you put half the effort into attacking Republicans that you do attacking DUers the party and the Country would be much better off. Although I imagine there is a certain ego boosting allure of playing the "shame on DUers" game.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

9. you were called on your sexism and your thread was locked.

this is your way to reflect the blame on someone else.

i get that.

you should too.

[NJmaverick]

11. You mean the only one of over half a dozen?

with have of those threads making the best of. The moderators said mine was locked because someone had alerted on it. What cyber stalker do you think did that?

[La Lioness Priyanka]

12. really? they told you lionesspriyanka reported, so we had to lock it?

[NJmaverick]

13. Are you denying it??????

[La Lioness Priyanka]

15. the mods told you this?

[Danger Mouse]

18. yeah, the mods do that sort of thing all the time...

'we don't know what was so bad about it, but we had to lock it because lionesspriyanka alerted' :eyes:

[La Lioness Priyanka]

19. yes because i am an arranger. i arrange these things.

:rofl:

[Danger Mouse]

20. i am in awe of your power.

[Danger Mouse]

14. So it's okay to use sexism as an attack because they're the enemy?

I've put plenty of effort into attacking Palin. You can read my posts.
But I will ALSO attack DUer's who think it's okay to act like a pig about her just because she's a Rethug.

[NJmaverick]

21. Please sexism term was tossed around like confetti yesterday

90% of the accusations were false or exaggerated. All it accomplished was hurting our party and our cause.

[Danger Mouse]

22. Bullshit. 'She can take ten inches'? Disgusting sexism.

Cracks about her stripping at the debate with joe biden, stupid and sexist. Making snide remarks about her daughters pregnancy? What the hell is wrong with people?

[NJmaverick]

28. Quoting the 10% does not make you right, or me wrong

As for what's wrong with the DUers that are directing their attacks at the Republicans....

NOTHING IS WRONG WITH THEM, THEY ARE FIGHTING THE NEEDED FIGHT

[Danger Mouse]

30. There's NOTHING WRONG with attacking Palin on her merits.

Attack her church. Attack her wingnut beliefs. Attack her lack of experience.
But saying stuff about her being a bimbo or being able to take ten inches is NOT okay. Can't you see that?
This is DU, we're fucking progressives, this should NOT be an issue. 10% is too much.

[Balderdash]

31. At some point

Democrats like you are going to understand that women are getting fed up with the sexism no matter what party they are affiliated with. There is plenty to attack Republicans on without resorting to sexism and misogyny.

[TexasObserver]

10. Yes, there will always be "arrangers" among us, who constantly fret.

The arrangers compulsively try to arrange the words and thoughts of others. Their posts often begin with "you should be ashamed!"

No matter what the topic, they're most concerned with lecturing others here about having proper thoughts and ideas.

It's part of being a Democrat, having them around, but in a venue like this one, they have more ability to communicate than in real life, where almost everyone completely ignores everything they say.

[NJmaverick]

17. Never thought about it like that, but I think you are on to something

You're right there are arrangers.

[TexasObserver]

29. Yes, a message board community is a natural haven for them.

In real life, the Debbie Downers simply get ignored and left out of most conversations. They're always worried about the purity of OUR actions, not the election we are going to lose if we don't focus more on the tasks at hand.

Go to any campaign office, and you'll find a bunch of people working, and there might be one worrier on the fringe, fretting about God only knows what.

[NJmaverick]

33. Again you make some great points, I hadn't thought of

I guess those people that are ignored in those real life conversations would be attracted to cyber forums, where people will listen.

[Chan790]

16. Only in some ways...

As one of the people attacking people for attacking Palin for the wrong things, I'm trying raise the discourse. Her positions, her policy views, lack of experience and her history are what are going to sandbag her...we're going to lose this small skirmish if we can't get past the fact that she's pretty, that she might be the grandmommy of her youngest "child", or name-calling.

It's about who governor Palin is. Let's get past the misogyny and start hammering for being a fundamentally-unqualified asshole. She's, at the heart of it, Ted Nugent...except female. Most people don't want The Nooge for VP. Let's get going in the same direction and start towards destroying her as a candidate...and as a horribly-misguided and evil human being who has shitty ethics, supports decimating the wildlife population of endangered species for sport, bankrupted her small town, believes in creationism, is a crazy pro-lifer and a homophobe.

Sarah Palin is the punchline of the joke that is the McCain campaign.

[NJmaverick]

23. You think the republicans worry about attacking dems "the right way"?

That's how they manage to defeat us, more than they should.

[Chan790]

26. No...

but I know if we retaliate the same way, we'll lose.

Thus, we require a different tack. QED.

[NJmaverick]

27. Why would we lose? What do you base that assumption on?

the success the republicans have had with it?

[Chan790]

32. the way it's been portrayed when we've done it in the past.

We cannot attack people on their gender or character. The media destroys us for it and gives the GOP a free pass. That is the beartrap the Palin pick has lain in wait.

Ad hominem attacks mobilize their base and turn ours off. By and large, they don't really effect the middle because the middle thinks that all people who run for office are assholes and the attacks are par for the course.

[NJmaverick]

34. The media destroys us, because of that lack of unity I am talking about

When the Dems do what needs to be done, the media will always find some easy quotes from fellow democrats that are distancing themselves from the fighter. When the Republicans make the attack, the media can only get negative quotes from the Democrats (which is far less effective than quotes from their own party).

[ginnyinWI]

24. The convention was remarkably unified.

Bloggers, as a species love argument and dissent. Love to throw poo from the safety of their keyboards. It signifies nothing on the grander scale. Collectively we are just a tiny blip.

[NJmaverick]

25. I really hope you are right