Reply #69: I know how you feel arnheim.. thanks for having the courage to post this [View All]

[tommcintyre]

I often felt very frustrated in December when I was putting in 16-18 hours a day on the blasters, fraud resources, master activist threads, etc. and it took a "kick" team just to keep the blaster from sinking into the "abyss" way to quickly. I was very frustrated to see IMO threads regularly garnering 100 or more responses, when a "call to action" thread often would receive just 16 or 20 responses at best. That's why I started the master action threads. I would often dig back through five pages of posts, to recover legitimate calls-to-action that even had NO RESPONSES. Expressing one's opinions is great, but for us to be successful, there must be a balance of action also.

I ignored both the original threads discussing splitting/renaming the group, hoping it would just "go away". I just didn't want to deal with one more relatively unimportant distraction right now, when we are "feeling out" our post-Jan 20 approach. (I DO realize the name must change eventually. Do you see a 2000 or 2002 Election... forum here anymore? Those elections were stolen too.)

When it happened, I tried to make the best of it: I posted: "Most importantly, is what we DO in here." "...hopefully more people here will get the idea that this forum is about ACTION (not just writing IMOs)."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=302654#302859

While I'm at it (ranting), I would like to mention one more distracting (and potentially destructive) issue. I just hope people can focus on the important issue ELECTION FRAUD/REFORM, and set their relatively minor "pro/anti" differences aside. What we are doing is so important here, we can't afford to lose/alienate anyone who shares this common cause. I think, to be successful, we will have to expand our horizons even further. We will have to include/"tolerate" ALL who share our common goal of meaningful election reform (including moderate republicans, rightish Independents, etc.). WE NEED ALL THE HELP WE CAN GET.

<I've made some posts recently on this issue that some may find useful/informative:>

"Recently, I was put in a position where I "broke bread" with over 100 mostly conservative people for three meals a day, for seven days (about 40 meals). <I was on a river cruise in Europe.> I purposely sat with as many different groups as I could, since I wanted to find out more "what made them tick" (politically - esp regarding election issues). I mostly listened, until someone would ask me the inevitable question: "what do you do?" I would tell them: "I run a web site that mainly deals with the many unresolved election "questions" from the 2004 Presidential election."

Their response was overwhelmingly positive. They listened attentively and asked many questions. Many seemed to be genuinely concerned that something "wasn't right" in the election results. And they seemed to be concerned about the "voting future"."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=303656&mesg_id=304967

"I suggest expanding "for real Democrats" to expand even past "progressives"... ... to include ANYONE sincerely interested in potential election "irregularities". Ideally, this will include moderate Republicans, Independents, etc. We need all the help we can get."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=303656&mesg_id=304169

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Overall, I think we have a very committed group here. What we probably need is to figure out is how to harness all this positive energy to do the necessary actions.