A Post-Franken World

[rainin]

We are moving into a critical time in our history when it is more important than ever for democrats to be united. There are members who believe Franken was at best a distraction, at worst a sexual abuser and needed to go. There are members (I am one) who think our leaders should have let him have his investigation.

I propose we pick a day in the very near future after which we forbid any further argument about Franken on DU. Perhaps the Admins can move all Franken discussions to their own separate forum.

This is why: Trolls can see division and exploit it. Every thread is vulnerable. I realized this after I did it myself in the recent thread about Liu and Schiff. I was reminded about my anger and I jumped in about my bitterness about Franken. Then I realized how dangerous this is. Any troll can see the opportunity here: disrupt a discussion by reminding us about something that divides us. Drive a wedge between democrats using something that brings out emotion.

I'm not a troll so I am stopping today on my own. I will not discuss my feelings about Franken again because it will not bring him back and it won't build party unity -- we need to be unified now.

Franken is gone. We can't change that. We can only make ourselves weaker by not being mindful about the potential for outside forces to exploit our emotions and divisions.

What do you think? Can we learn from the past, but work together now to save our democracy?

[hlthe2b]

1. hint... if you leave a scab alone it heals... keep picking and...

not so much.

Just sayin....

[sfwriter]

2. Won't work. Franken will be be back.

I'll bet he has a book in mind already.

[rainin]

11. I hope he does.

I'm almost finished with my copy of Fire and Fury. I'll look forward to anything he writes. He is a great man and one of our strongest senators. He made an historical contribution to the Senate in a very short time.

[democratisphere]

3. The people that perpetrated the Al Franken atrocity are still installed.

No time like the present to clean house and get back on the right track. Democrats and the Democratic Party will be stronger by doing it!

[DemocracyMouse]

9. Yes!

If we can "cleanse" the Dems of Franken, perhaps we should also "cleanse" the Dems of the cynical politicians who can't distinguish between Vaudeville and real villainy, and who abandoned our Constitutional right to fair trails (or fair ethics investigations). We go on and on about the Trumpians trampling over democratic institutions, why not question our own stampedes?

The principles of the Democrats are strong. But we shouldn't cease to be critical of Democrats who abandon peace, equal economic opportunity, justice and due process.

– NOT a troll! (but I did grow up with troll dolls!)

[leftstreet]

4. Trolls see division created by the party leadership

You need to send your OP to the party leaders and tell them to stop getting rid of Senators.

The trolls see the division and exploit it.

[rainin]

7. I am angry about what happened.

I don't know what you mean by telling them to stop getting rid of Senators. To my knowledge, they aren't going after any Democratic Senators right now.

They got rid of Franken (past tense).

I'm proposing how we might protect ourselves from Russian/Republican interference in our next election.

If I can see a sore spot among democrats, so can you, and so can they.

Unfortunately, we can't tell the angry troll from the angry democrat. That's the problem. I am a democrat, who is angry about what happened, so I'm proposing a strategy for strengthening our party for the future.

[MoonRiver]

5. Nice try!

[CentralMass]

6. Trying to use Al Franken and the screw job he got from the party as a rallying cry is a bad idea.

[rainin]

8. I don't believe I am using Franken for anything.

I explained that I realized how my anger was easily provoked and after inserting my upset into an otherwise unrelated thread, I realized that this is how the Russians/Republicans divided democrats before. They found issues that were emotional and exploited it.

If I thought I could bring him back, I would only post rallying cries to bring him back.

Instead, I'm starting to realize we are vulnerable to being played by our own emotions.

So, this isn't about how he got screwed. It isn't about how we got screwed. This is about the Russians, the Republicans, and the mid-terms.

[CentralMass]

13. This was the party getting played by those outside forces. Not us.

Not us.
I really picked up a sense this was a launching pad for the junior Senator from New York's presidential ambitions. The party seems to think that this was all a brilliant strategy.

Well they have the fear of the GOP as a safe guard.

[Tipperary]

10. I remember the names of those here who spoke against him,

I will never forget.

[rainin]

12. My memory is not that good.

But, if you have followed the Franken threads, you have seen my anger about what happened. I have not been shy about it. While I remain angry and bitter, I realized today that my anger can be used if I let it. I also realized that we need to be smart if we're going to vaccinate ourselves against the tactics that were employed in the last election.

Identify issues that can be turned into wedge issues and figure out a smart approach to mitigate the potential for division.

I only proposed a solution. There are many great minds here who might have a better solution.

[MrsMatt]

14. I've got all their names in my phone

for easy reference.

I'm still pissed as hell that the Dem leadership deprived MY STATE of one of it's strongest liberal voices. Now our god damned safe senate seat is up for assholes like Pawlenty or Bachmann to salivate over. Fuck.

It will take a shit ton of public mea culpas on the part of the Dems to begin to make amends.

[GeorgeGist]

15. Wellstone wasn't appreciated by his fellow Democrats either.

[IluvPitties]

16. It's all good except

that I would not support Sen. Gillibrand in a Dem presidential primary.

[RealityChik]

17. Thank you for your elegant, thoughtful post encouraging closure...

For me, it's a wound that will never heal completely. But as you said, to dwell on the Franken Affair is destructive and counter-productive for our future. If Senator Franken has had the courage and grace to accept what happened, then I should too.

I also have faith he'll be back...stronger and bigger than before. He inspires me to keep my mind on the prize, that is, a democratic Congress in 2018, starting with restoring voting integrity to our elections. If we keep letting Repubs steal our elections with voter disenfranchisement, gerrymandering and bogus voter IDs, our Democracy will die.

So, my DU brethren, let's roll up our sleeves and get to work. Let's make Senator Franken proud!