who needs repubbblicans when we can fight with ourselves?

by skippy the bush kangaroo

we have said several times before we don't have a dog in the clinton-obama fight.

but we have to say that we are most unsettled by manifestations of that fight that have been creeping more and more into otherwise reasonable people who write here in blogtopia, and yes, we coined that phrase.

we don't mind when bloggers, who have chosen one side or another, point out various insufficiencies and hypocrisies on the part of the opposing candidate; that is, after all, why bloggers blog.

but as of late people whom we admire and respect have begun silly sniping towards each other, simply because of what has been said on blogs about the two dem candidates.

examples after the jump:


folks aren't just pointing out bad logic or inconsistent arguments; there are a lot of personal digs being thrust about. things have gotten so bad that it's almost as if we don't even need the hardly-ever-right wing bloggers as targets for our wrath. it seems that we'll all be happy hating other progressives, simply because of whom they endorse for the dem nominee.

the dem daily takes great exception to booman's taking great exception to talkleft:

booman (booman tribune) has apparently taken on the role of netroots police and has deemed that talk left for the clinton leanings probably shouldn’t be trusted after the primaries are over, to “get back on board” for the general election.

i don’t know why i care what talk left says. i think it is just pride in the artform of blogging. i can’t stand to see analysis so bad that it is indiscernible from straight-up undisclosed shilling. talk left is an insult to the genre of left-wing political blogging. it’s so easy to debunk their crap that it is an beneath most people to even bother.

and it’s impossible that they can just shrug off their performance in the primary and get back on board for the general. they have so little credibility…who would want them as an ally?

what kind of crap is that? booman took offense to jeralyn’s post that included a link to republicans for obama and the quote that i also posted from jeralyn in my post below:

who’s really picking our democratic nominee? if it’s the democratic youth or african american voters, i’m okay with that. that’s fair. if it’s republicans, i’m not. we’ll get trounced in november.without reliable stats to show obama’s support is from those who will for the democrat in november, i’d say the best way to ensure republicans stay out of our race and don’t steal another election from us is for dems to vote for hillary to be the nominee.

i’m curious… will booman start blacklisting all the clinton supporters in the netroots? because there are more than a few of us. the implication that any blog or blogger in the netroots that supports clinton shouldn’t be trusted “get back on board” for the general election is in a word asinine.

t-rex gets even more down and dirty when he starts comparing taylor marsh to michelle malkin:

but, moving right along, marsh really started chewing the scenery today when she freaked out about michelle obama’s offhand comment about being really proud of america for the first time in her adult life, etc. etc.

michelle obama does not speak for me

“for the first time in my adult lifetime i am really proud of my country. and not just because barack has done well, but because i think people are hungry for change.” - michelle obama (video)

the love i have for this country does not depend on a political campaign predicated on the notion of “change.”

the love i have for this country does not depend on one person, certainly not some politician with a slogan that others have used, which he has re-used.

the love i have for this country does not depend on aiding the winning of someone for president, without a clue what he or she is offering in the guise of one word, “change.”

the love i have for this country does not depend on ignorance of what patriotism requires to serve a personal goal.

my uncle dick certainly didn’t serve his country and get battle fatigue in wwii so people could pick and choose pride in this nation based on personal association to some politician, forgetting the greater glory we all serve through our country’s ideals.

taylor, darlin’, i feel fairly confident that mrs. obama doesn’t want to dig up your uncle dick’s bones, piss on them, and re-bury them upside down. call it a guess, a hunch, even, but that seems to be the level of insult that you’re dealing with here.

the thing that really bugs me about this taylor marsh post, though, is how much it stylistically resembles this bit of vintage wingnuttery, michelle malkin’s “john doe manifesto”:

dear muslim terrorist plotter/planner/funder/enabler/apologist,

you do not know me. but i am on the lookout for you. you are my enemy. and i am yours.

i am john doe.

i am traveling on your plane. i am riding on your train. i am at your bus stop. i am on your street. i am in your subway car. i am on your lift.

i am your neighbor. i am your customer. i am your classmate. i am your boss.

i am john doe.

i will never forget the example of the passengers of united airlines flight 93 who refused to sit back on 9/11 and let themselves be murdered in the name of islam without a fight.

blah, blah, blah. this species of hot-faced, clench-jawed jeremiad may feel marvelous to write, but a post that feels like a blazing tower of righteousness at the keyboard can have a distinct tendency to read like an unhinged, holier-than-thou diatribe when it pops up on someone else’s monitor. just fyi.

i said earlier that i like and respect taylor. she was a delight in the few minutes we had to converse face to face at ykos, but i think it would be good for her to scootch the chair away from the computer for a couple days, dust off her hands, and maybe go rent a batting cage or take out a wall in her house with a sledgehammer.

hey, folks, let's just take a breath and settle down here...

we have said this before and we'll say it again...neither one of these candidates are progressive! hell, they are barely democrats, at least not democrats in the roosevelt/kennedy definition.

you can make the case that getting a dem into office will be good for the dem party (assuming the dems retain a majority in congress). we can and have argued that that's not going to make a difference, but we won't go into that again here.

what you shouldn't do, if you are a blogger, is start accusing fellow progressive bloggers of such things as manipulation, losing touch w/reality, meglomania, igorance, hatred, and other deadly sins usually reserved for labeling of gop bloggers.

let's remember, we're on the same side here. it doesn't help to burn any bridges that we might have to cross again after denver, when we need to ban together to defeat mclame.

if someone you admire seems to be going over the edge, the best way to handle it, in our opinion, is with a private email. and make sure it's a polite email, and well-thought out, and prefaced with a plethora of your positive opinion of that blogger.

we need each other. we don't need to fight.

we must hang together, as ben franklin said, or we will surely hang separately.


addendum: well, it could be worse:

according to cops, ortiz, 28, stabbed sean shurelds last thursday night in the kitchen of an upper providence township home. according to a criminal complaint, a copy of which you'll find here, the 41-year-old shurelds, an obama supporter, told ortiz that the illinois senator was "trashing" clinton (apparently in regard to recent primary and caucus results). ortiz, a clinton supporter, replied that "obama was not a realist." while not exactly fighting words, the verbal political tiff led to some mutual choking and punching. and, allegedly, a stabbing in the abdomen. ortiz, pictured in the mug shot below, was charged with a felony aggravated assault count and two misdemeanors and jailed in lieu of $20,000 bail. shurelds was flown to hahnemann university hospital, where he was admitted in critical condition.