Democracy is the Reason for the Season.
I get it. It's DU. It's the beginning of the primary campaign season, and there's no stopping the all out, scorched earth war of words that various factions will engage in to defend the candidate they support, and undermine the candidates they oppose. This ain't one of those playgrounds with plastic slides and that squishy fake mulch made out of old tires. Scrapes and splinters and bruises come with the territory, and that's a part of DU's charm.
Even so, I am troubled by the speed and consistency with which I have seen opposition to Hillary Clinton's candidacy portrayed as traitorous and detrimental to the party. Sure she is a very strong candidate, and I'll even go so far as to say that a stronger or more unbeatable candidate seems unlikely to emerge. But that is not a sufficient reason to effectively shut down the primary process through a dialog that casts her detractors as disloyal to the Democratic Party. In fact, I think such an attitude does a disservice to Clinton, Democrats, and most importantly, the voters.
Clinton is tough enough to answer criticisms from the left herself, and she deserves the chance to make her case to earn their support (and they deserve the chance to have their concerns addressed...but more on that later). The Democratic Party is strengthened by a primary season that engages diverse perspectives, embodied by the candidates who represent those perspectives, and which results in the emergence of a victorious candidate who has united these groups enough to get a majority of their votes. In addition, up and coming Democratic stars sometimes have a chance to get their feet wet.
Most importantly, I view primaries as perhaps even more critical to the maintenance of legitimate democracy than general elections. If our only realistic options in Presidential elections are the two most ostensibly powerful members of either party, we really don't have much of a voice at all. It is the crazy, dynamic, even vicious arena of the primary where unexpected things occur and every single vote must truly be fought for. Why on Earth would we ever want to give that up?
Now certainly, criticisms of Clinton or any candidate which rest on right wing talking points or deliberate falsehood should be called out. And vigorous, reasoned defense of one's preferred candidate is to be expected. But blanket statements or inferences that opponents of Clinton, or any other candidate, are causing harm to Democrats by their stance, have no place in a democratic system that hasn't even held its first straw poll yet.
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