Mom Says Time for a Reality Check.

I’ve been here since practically the beginning. Well since May 2003 anyway. And I just want to say to all the diarists warning that we must stop “the circular firing squad” and “stop eating our own”, calm down. It isn’t that bad. In fact it’s fine. It's all part of being politically active.

Things are so much nicer around here than "back the good old days." Trusted Users give donuts to trolls and they vanish. Back in my day we didn’t have donuts. We had to give the trolls recipes instead. Back in my day everybody hated John Kerry and someone was always sticking a fork in him. And in Lieberman, too. Every Dean gaffe or Wesley staffing change brought out the  worst in everyone. And few people had anything nice to say about John Edwards, the son of a mill worker.

But you know what, it didn’t make any difference at all in the end. We all came here for news and information and ideas. By the time the convention rolled around everyone was a big John Kerry fan. Huge Fan. Loved the man. And we found out how powerful we really are.

How does this happen? Mom explains on the jump.

Mom says #1.  Whoever the eventual nominee is, we will all support him or her with everything we’ve all got. Even those of you who swear that you could never ever vote for Hillary, you will get very excited about her come the convention and you'll put Hillary stickers on your car and Hillary signs in your yard. Or Edwards or Obama or Gore or Dodd or Richardson or even Biden. That’s the magic of the magic of the convention. Don’t believe me? Well check back with me after the convention. That’s the reason we HAVE the convention, to bring us all together after a tough primary campaign. It’s based on an established principle of structural anthropology and has been studied cross culturally. Still don’t believe me. Go read Marcel Mauss’ “Rites of Passage” or Victor Turner’s classic “The Ritual Process" or something by Clifford Geertz. Or just trust me that it will all be fine. After all, I've been doin' this since before you were born (well that is if you were born after 1968, which is when I started.)

Mom says #2.  If you don’t want hornets to sting you, then don’t poke around their nest with a stick. In other words, don’t go into an Al Gore news diary and tell them he’s not running and they should support your candidate. Don’t go into an Edwards diary and talk about how he’s doomed himself and they should support your candidate. Don’t go to a Hillary diary and say she’s evil and you’ll never vote for her and thy're all corporate sell-outs. Unless you want to get stung. Then go for it.

But remember, we are most of us activists and use this site to communicate news and ideas to others of a similar mind set. Those of us that have committed to a candidate believe we know what we are doing. Intelligent well-meaning people can disagree.

So probably the most productive thing to do is to reread point number one, and then let the supporters of the other candidates do their thing in peace, knowing in your heart that eventually we will all be happily working together to elect the best and most inevitable candidate, which is, of course, your candidate. Unless it isn’t and that’s fine, too.

Mom says #3. You are not going to convince anyone to support your candidate by attacking their candidate. And you are not going to win over any undecided by attacking other candidates. Post diaries about why your candidate is awesome. Use short paragraphs and include lots of specifics and details.

Mom says #4. Stop fighting the last election. This isn’t 2004 when we were Red America v. Blue America. Most people just want the hell out of Iraq and don’t really give a damn anymore what happens after we leave. And most people just want an end to the icky sex scandal of the month. And most people are sick of corruption and incompetence. And most people think that the Democrats running things will be fine.

All of the self-described hard-core conservatives I’ve talked to around here (rural central Pennsylvania) feel that way. One guy said he’d never vote for Hillary but the rest are fine with him. Another one told my mom that he’d even vote for Hillary but he’s not sure about Obama being a Muslim. My point is that whoever we eventually nominate, we’re not going to get every vote. But none of these rural hard-core values voters have any interest at all in voting for any of the Republicans, so they either vote for the Democrat or stay home.

We will still have to all work hard, especially on Senate and House races, and local races, too.

Mom say #5 Stop nagging people to make a choice now if they haven't yet. Believe it or not, there is plenty of time left. A lot can happen. The polls mean nothing this far out. The voters don't actually start really making up their minds in Iowa and New Hampshire until after the holidays. Just ask any former Deaniac.

So don’t fret about people attacking candidates. No matter how awful it seems (and it is no where near as awful as it was "back in my day"), we will all be on the same page eventually.

And Finally Mom says #6. It is Kos' site. And you should all give a big Thank You to him for letting you play in his yard. He's a wonderful neighbor to set this all up for us, so play hard, play fair and don't do anything to embarass him.

“Welcome to the fight. And this time I know our side will win.”
“Louis, I have the feeling this is the beginning a beautiful friendship.”