A Kerry-hating group I used to be in has died. Is it wrong I'm happy? [View All]

[BlueIris]

Some context: as I may have mentioned here before, a grassroots organization I volunteered for regularly during the campaign days of 2004 contained more than a few folks who didn't love John Kerry. I didn't know that when I started volunteering for them. I figured it out as the summer and fall of '04 wore on, and after the election, when the members started turning every meeting into an open-mike bash-fest about Kerry's "mistakes," often basing their complaints on half-truths or lies, I couldn't take it any more and bailed. I was fine with the fact that not all of them supported the Democrats 100% 24-7, or that not all of them loved Kerry specifically, but I didn't feel their hatred for the man was justified, and I stopped feeling like their approach to supporting Progressives would work if they didn't at least generally support ALL Progressives (including those who are still liberal Democrats, let alone our best ones). Also, the lies about Kerry bugged me; I felt the leaders in the groups had an obligation to represent...reality. How can you be effective as a Progressive anything if you don't even have basic facts about key members of the Senate? I had also had stressful disputes with several members of the group, including those who took information I asked not be given to anyone except members of that specific branch of the organization and basically flung it to the four winds. One year after I last attended any meeting, I am STILL getting phone calls at my unlisted number for candidates I have zero interest in supporting (not all of whom are Dems). It is my opinion that many folks in this group had issues with anger management, respecting others, teamwork, women, authority figures and general maturity (this despite the fact that the average member was 45+ years old). However, I acknowledge that there were at least a few people there I really liked and admired, whose hearts were in the right place, and the decision to leave them was hard for me because I feel the group is (or, as I have just discovered, was) one of the only groups in my region getting any substantive work done to oppose Republican hegemony.

After checking my e-mail tonight, (I still maintain contact with one group member and I remain on their mailing list) I found out that the group essentially imploded last week. The reports are still a little sketchy, but it appears that there was some kind of a schism between, I'll guess, the Democrats or at least Democrat-friendly, and the aggressive Kerry/Dem haters. Conflicts erupted, chaos ensued and I doubt the group with recover. I'm trying to feel bad, but I can't. Collectively, there was basically no Kerry support, and I can't reconcile not supporting Kerry with effective Progressivism.

Is it wrong that I'm kind of glad the group dissolved?