Just my opinion...

[Highway61]

I have been here since 2007. Do I post much? No. I usually come here for the news. I happen to be on medical leave and have had ample time to read some of the posts. Wow. There is some nasty discussions going on. I mean, I can understand the passion one feels about their candidate... however the negativity and animosity I've seen is exasperating and exhausting.
Yep, we have freepers here. Always have. In the end aren't we all suppose to be on the same side? I have a favorite candidate. At the end of the day whoever is the Democratic candidate running is the one I will vote for. In my opinion it appears like one would cross the isle and take their ball and go home if their person didn't get nominated.
I been around long enough to see this country run by bonehead repugs many times over. I'd rather have a bullet removed from my ass with a Carvel spoon than to see another elected….especially the likes of Trump or Cruz!
Piece of advice. This is Democratic Underground. No matter what candidate wins the nomination and/or how the ship sways from time to time, we are all on the same boat.

[Maeve]

1. Agree. eom

[bigbrother05]

2. Ditto

[B Calm]

3. They need to start banning posters who spout they will sit out the election if their

candidate doesn't win the nomination. Anyone who spouts that kind of garbage comes off as a disrupting freeper to me.

[SoapBox]

12. Gee...that's so American of you.

Ya, it's the "Democratic" Underground and we use it for free (well, there are lots of Star Members, which means they give money!) but banning and shutting off speech from this site isn't very democratic nor American.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

25. Republican speech is shut off from this site...

So is hate speech. Is that unAmerican?

[LannyDeVaney]

26. Enjoy your moment now ...

typically in the past once the nominee is locked up, the posting rules tighten up.

[marble falls]

38. People have been kicked from here for advocating it here. I agree with you.

[FSogol]

4. Agree. All three of our candidates are light years better than the best of the GOP.

People should be able to support their candidate without tearing down other Democratic folks.

[Hortensis]

9. The simple truth.

[retrowire]

19. "People should be able to support their candidate without tearing down other Democratic folks."

But since our party is in Primary season and we need to select our one nominee.... We kind of have to?

It's the entire purpose of primary season. To debate and scrutinize until we are certain of our best choice for the general.

And yes, that involved pointing out all candidates flaws.

[FSogol]

23. If you can't see the difference between pointing out differences in policy and gleefully pushing

baseless RW attack pieces on a candidate, then nothing I can type is going to help you.

* ∞

[retrowire]

27. Oh I certainly know the difference between those.

But I thought we handled blatant RW attack pieces with alerts and moderation? At least, we SHOULD but... This Jury system isn't the greatest.

[FSogol]

29. Then, I fail to understand your comment to me.

I encouraged people to spend more time promoting their perffered candidate and less time attacking other Democratic candidates. You seem to have some objection to that?

[retrowire]

30. Oh yes, I do.

If both sides just projected the benefits of their candidate then neither side would ever hear of their preferred candidates flaws.

Say, I love Bernie. Another user loves Hillary. We both state that. Good for us. But in that conversation, a Hillary supporter would never hear the criticisms of their candidate and I would never hear the criticisms of mine.

So in a primary where we actually do point out that Bernie can be intimidating to some and Hillary is regarded as untrustworthy, we can have a much more complex understanding of how our candidates are fairing OR what we need to say FOR our candidates to help them.

[FSogol]

32. Translation: You like inter-party squabbles.

[retrowire]

33. because they're necessary.

It's as necessary as both hemispheres of the brain communicating in order to reach a conclusive thought.

That's what we're doing. I consider it critical thinking within a group. Do you call a debate a squabble? Or is it an impassioned clashing of two ideals from which we are to glean a greater conclusion?

[FSogol]

35. Yeah, I was 15 once too.

[retrowire]

36. how respectful.

seems you still might be with communication skills like that. :/

[DFW]

5. You're right, of course

But the way things are going on this site these days, be prepared to be boiled in oil for using far more common sense than is usually appreciated in an OP.

[TexasProgresive]

6. I stay on the Latest page

I have trashed the 2 major candidate groups and GD-P. The result is quite nice. Sometimes the 1st page is 1/3 blank, guess what I don't mind.

I am still aware of the ugliness in the candidate groups because I serve on juries for them more than any other. The alerts are nearly always frivolous, and I treat them as such.

Edited to add: As soon as I submitted this post I got picked for a jury on a post about one of the candidates.
One more edit: The result was 7-0 to leave it.

[old guy]

7. Yup.

[Rebkeh]

8. I suspect a lot of the vitriol is from

Trolls that switch sides whenever the momentum changes between candidates. I also suspect there are people that switch their support whichever candidate has the momentum at that moment. I don't mean undecideds, I mean people that don't want to choose a 'loser'.

Neither of these are reliable voices for the candidates and I pay them no mind.

There are also some (mostly young) people that don't handle their anger well, even when that anger is legitimate. Some believe that tearing down opponents - no matter what - is how you win. It isn't but it's how some people see it.

Then there are freepers and ordinary internet jerks. So, of course it gets ugly, that's a lot going on.

All that said, framing this primary election in general election terms only derails the important discussions we need to have among ourselves. We are not running against the republicans right now, save it for later. Aside from considering who can beat them in November, the primary process need not focus on the general.

[demmiblue]

10. Disruptive Meta/Wrong Forum n/t

[annabanana]

11. That's why they have a separate forum

dedicated to the primaries.

I NEVER go in there, as the troll ratio is pretty steep.

[lark]

13. I'm with you on that.

I will even state my favorite candidate is Bernie and I'm definitely feeling the Bern!! However, if Hillary is the general election nominee for the Democrats, I will vote for her. Hoping she's not, especially with this nasty email thing, but I will not under any circumstances sit out the election or vote for anyone other than a D. I can't take living under a Repug president, it's just too awful.

[frylock]

14. I learned that I wasn't on the same side in January of 2009..

that was when i discovered the only thing I had in common with many posters here was a shared hatred of Bush. Evidently, conservative policy is perfectly acceptable as long as it comes from a Democratic administration.

[Maedhros]

15. +1 [n/t]

[OnyxCollie]

17. +1. nt

[TIME TO PANIC]

31. +1 n/t

[hfojvt]

37. How much agreement though

does it take to be on the same side?

Some people were getting upset at Obama for things that I did not care about. Some of the same people would have been upset at Bush for the same things, but I would not be one of them.

So, yes, to me, and perhaps to others, SOME conservative policy is acceptable.

And to me, and perhaps to others, SOME liberal policy is NOT acceptable.

Yeah, I know that is heresy. Here are a few examples.

1. It seems that many liberals are perfectly fine with a Big Brother government. Big Brother, of course, is concerned about the safety of his subjects. Big brother is gonna make sure his little brother is buying and wearing a bicycle helmet, a motorcycle helmet, and a seat belt. One of Obama's early "accomplishments" was to extort the state of Kansas (and others) to pass a law allowing the police to pull over a driver for not wearing a seat belt. Before that, the police had to have some other reason to stop a driver. Now they have increased power to harass citizens. That's simply NOT part of the change I was hoping for.

2. On the other side, many liberals are perfectly fine with allowing people to buy soda pop with food stamps. I am on the other side of that.

And so on. So I am not a perfect ally. Even though I have pretty much voted straight ticket Democrat since 1988.

And the shoe seems to be on the other foot too. Some liberals, apparently, are perfectly fine with tax cuts that favor the rich, and also with increasing income inequality. It was celebrated as a great victory when Obama (and the Democratic Party) made most of the Bush tax cuts permanent.

One thing that strikes me about this primary battle is not so much that people are divided, but that many seem to have so much hatred and contempt for those on the other side. Not only do they no see each other as allies, they apparently do not even WANT to be allies.

[frylock]

39. There's a very distinctive timeline..

Hillary Supporter came out as early as last April running their shit, and it snowballed from there. They, like other conservatives, believe they can say anything they want without being called out for it. When they are called out, it is characterized as a vicious attack. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to roll over while these people sling shit all over the board.

[hfojvt]

40. "like other conservatives"

Are you trying to say that THAT is NOT an attack?

Perhaps they really are calling out some "vicious attacks". I've been reading attacks on Clinton on DU that could have come straight from Drudge or Limbaugh.

I say that as a person who hates Hillary (yes, I admit, I hate her) and I hated Bill before her. When I said I have voted mostly straight ticket Democrat since 1988 two exceptions were Bill Clinton in 1992 and Clinton in 1996. I saw him as just another moderate Republican, barely any better than Bush senior. So I voted for the Socialist worker candidate.

And not because I liked Bush. I had voted for Dukakis in 1988 and even Mondale in 1984.

Anyway, I am pretty sure it is not just Clinton supporters who are slinging the excrement.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

16. Want to hear something funny?

Before the Primary there were members vowing that they wouldn't have a repeat of the Great Primary War of '08.

We were going to be sweet to each other this time.

[retrowire]

21. Really? oh man. that backfired IMMENSELY it seems lol. nt

[Marrah_G]

18. I agree

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

20. Opinions differ.

Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost. John Quincy Adams

[retrowire]

22. Yes, let's all vote for whoever is nominated.

But, since it's still primary season, we kind of HAVE to scrutinize and debate amongst each other. It's how we choose our candidate.

Of course we can do it in a civil nature, and I've been surprised to actually HAVE mature conversations with people in the Hillary camp when discussing Bernie, but most of the time, the kitchen is hot. So be it! This is politics!

It's our democratic duty to select whom our nominee will be. And we can't do that by "being on the same side." There's multiple candidates, with different positions. Sure we can all be super happy that our candidates are MILES ahead of the republicans, but that doesn't discount the fact that we need to choose the BEST of the BEST in regards to our own.

These "can't we all just get along" posts are nice and well meaning, but they are forever futile. This is the nature of the primary season.

[Highway61]

41. Futile isn't acceptable to me

Change is. Try, try and try some more. Being complacent will never accomplish anything.

[Mister Ed]

24. Thank you. Nt

[TIME TO PANIC]

34. Can't blame progressives for not wanting to vote for a center-right candidate.

Some feel that electing a center-right democrat will just impede progress for another four to eight years. I'm not sure that sitting out the general election is a gamble worth taking, but I know where they're coming from.