(cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama)

I'm going to get flamed for resurrecting the primary wars. Maybe I shouldn't, but with the recent influx of PUMA members, I figure it can't hurt - we're already back to attacking and arguing with each other, which is a real shame because we were doing so well for awhile there. Some of us - including myself - are being pretty rude to the people with whom we disagree, and I doubt it's helpful. Still, I'm disinclined to stop because I have little patience remaining for people who refuse to support (or even tolerate) Obama as Hillary so openly has.

The two warring factions - the PUMAs and the people who are supporting the nominee - tend to blame one another (and the other candidate) for the divisions within the party, but I've begun to think that everyone involved shares some of the responsibility for the rift. Hillary and Barack certainly contributed to it, and their supporters magnified each point of contention and kept it alive. Outrage fueled outrage, and somewhere along the line, everything spiraled out of control.

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There is no doubt in my humble opinion that there is bias everywhere you look. We like some people more than others for many different reasons. The word and the issue of sexism is thrown around a lot now and it should be. But I don't believe we should use it to explain why Senator Clinton lost. I believe Senator Clinton lost for other reasons just like her male conterparts of the past. I'm sure Senator Obama would have improved his numbers if more racists had voted for him. Racism and Sexism is a way to divide us. If we want to raise the bar on these issues then lets get behind our candiate. The only way I can imagine conquering sexism and racism is by leveling the playing field and evolution. It's easy to rant and complain but what do we expect our nominee to do about these issues. How do you change a sexist or a racist these are much more difficult questions to answer. Michelle Obama seems like an amazing person to me and I imagine she knows something about both issues. Senator Clinton didn't enter this race worried about sexism she
was very confident and did very well and really should have won if only she had a better game plan. Senator Obama entered this race not worried about racism. We should fight both issues with everything we have as one people.

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ChrisBlask included this line in a comment he posted to another thread
"It will be interesting to see who we all are without the extreme tensions." He was making the point that our loyalty to candidates is polarizing, while perhaps the facts of who we are and what we do might begin to unite us.
I think he's dead on point.  All of the true progressives and Democrats here have been brought to this fight for a reason that supercedes and preceeds any primary race.  And each of us manifests our core beliefs through different progressive passions, I assume.  

I think the anonymity of the blogs brings us to forget that -- that among our ranks we have dedicated and empassioned environmentalists, unionists and advocates for a range of progressive causes.  It is these causes that unite us, even as we each perhaps give our energy to one over all others, we still share support for most if not all the line items in the progressive agenda.

I would challenge the folks here to tell us a little about yourself in the comment thread -- what brought you to the Democratic Party, what causes you fight for and how, what classes or experiences have sparked your fire --  WITHOUT MENTIONING CANDIDATES!~

Please resist the urge to add -- "and that's why I support/hate Clinton/Obama.  Please.  I think we'll find, if enough people give it a shot, that we are indeed all in the same boat and just need to respect each other's paddling.

I'll start in the first comment.  HOPEFULLY others will follow.
So...what's your story?  Who are you, without the "extreme tension"?

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Hi folks!

Had an interesting exchange with one of Senator Clinton's more staunch supporters on a thread last night and thought I would share it.  This is a topic that resonates with me on many levels and something we not only need to work through to win the General Election as Democrats, but need to work through to win the Big Game as Americans.

Trickster said:

Without attributing this to any individual, a facet of the Obama phenomenon is that there certainly appears to be some groupthink running rampant.  And another facet seems to be that there are a large number of people who hold the junior Senator from Illinois in a fair bit higher regard than seems to be realistically deserved - one could even say an exaltedlevel of regard.  Even the most heinous of political errors, such as the bitter small-towners clinging to their religion statement, which is without a doubt the worst gaffe committed by a major Presidential candidate since Gerald Ford denied that Eastern Europe was dominated by the Soviet Union, was not just widely excused, but widely praised as some kind of deep truth marking its speaker as a "new" kind of politician.

I think the phenomenon we are all experiencing is the "news" factor I am so often lecturing folks about (oh yeah, I'm great fun at parties... ;~).

What we notice is the exception - what the "news" mechanisms show us what is new, not what is common.  Our ability to survive at all is intrinsically linked with being able to tell what is different in the environment around us.

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Recently I was talking to a friend about the Dem primaries.  I expressed my concern about the apparent animosity between Obama and Clinton supporters in the blogosphere and my suspicion that some of the worst offenders might actually be Republicans in disguise.  He got sort of quiet as I mentioned this, seemed like he wanted to say something and then steered the conversation in another direction.  My friend used to be a Republican, but the Bush years shoved him to independent status.  I assumed he found my suspicion a little bit insulting, and I thought no more about it until a couple of days later when I got an interesting email.  Details over the flip.

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