I've decided

[Newcastle]

I'm not voting in November.

I would have voted for Kerry, but Kerry supporters on this website have been rude, disrespectful, crude, insulting and simpleminded in their attacks on others who have the temerity to think differently from them. One has to wonder about a candidate who attracts that kind of support.

Is there any discussion of the issues? Is there any effort to reach out to others who think differently? Is there even any thought to their responses? Not unless one considers comments like "Get lost" or "Shut the f**k up" reasonable discourse.

I am right now so turned off by Kerry, his supporters and this website that I don't see any reason at all to show up in November. Bush is so bad? Why are Kerry supporters behaving exactly like the Bushistas in Florida circa 2000? I do not get the impression at all that I am dealing with reasonable people.

Good riddance. Keep your childish insults and your complete lack of depth and substance to yourselves. I have better things to do than to vote for someone who can't take a stand when it matters or to vote with people who can't have a meaningful discussion of issues.

I haven't been to this site for a while. I came back to discuss the primaries, but I have found that DU has degenerated enormously.

I apologize to some of you who are indeed thoughtful contributors. May you do well.

[Barad Simith]

1. unchartered waters

DU has never been around during a primary season before. This is new and untested ground for this forum. And given the typical level of discourse in politics today, I'd say DU is pretty civil.

[Dookus]

2. ok

cool... good for you... ciao.... good bye... buhbye... so long... don't take any wooden nickels... ta-ta... we'll miss you... aloha... shalom.

[silver state d]

3. Gee...

i go into anonymous bulletin boards on the INTERNET and expect the highest level of discourse and discussion and then i make important decisions about the course of my country depending on the responses of total strangers who do not officially represent the people and issues i am deciding. I am a total idiot!!!! Yeah!!!

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[DNA]

5. silverstate, dookas and sandsomethingorother

You do realize you are proving his point, don't you?

[slinkerwink]

6. ha, escapes them, doesn't it?

[silver state d]

7. Oh pulllllleeeeezzzzzzzzzzeeee.......

This person is desperately trying to bait some one with a totally lame argument and we are making fun of them. It doesn't matter what we say either their mind is made up or they just need attention. either way its fun to make fun of them. See the response Newcastle gave to the dookus cat thread in the lounge, talk about a cry for help.

[DNA]

14. Look

I have been known to get hot under the collar too. I'll admit I was once called on my behavior here at DU. The issue I was debating childishly was so important that I completely forgot what it was. We can't start eating our own. It's only fun to make fun of people for a brief idiotic second. Then you feel embarassed that you could have sunk so low. Trust me on this one. The people who come to DU are our allies or want to be. I came here because a lady at my church recommended it to me. She's a real sweet lady. I doubt she'd stick around with some of the posts now. This could be a great political forum. It doesn't have to be a playground for our worst emotions.

[Dookus]

10. proving what point?

that there are petulant, whiny cry-babies everywhere?

Yes, I agree.

[silver state d]

13. I say goddamn hallauh!!!!!

well said.

and just for the record i was an Edwards supporter until tonight.

Ps petulant is such a great word

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[silver state d]

17. Damn I'm preety

[Dookus]

26. heheh

As you well know, I was a Clark guy.

Find me one post where I whined about Clark's loss.

C'mon, Slinker... use the search function. Find me ONE SINGLE post where I complained in the slightest that Clark didn't get the nomination.

go ahead.

[sandnsea]

12. Not really

There isn't anything that can be done about posters like Newcastle. They're stuck in their Green/Nader world and that's where they want to stay. So stay there. But I'll be damned if I'm going to take the blame for their selfish choices.

[slinkerwink]

8. I know what you mean and it's rather sad how the grassroots folks

have been pushed aside.

[Dookus]

11. Slinkerwink

I love you in the lounge...

but in GD04, sometimes your enthusiasm exceeds your knowledge.

"I don't know who Walter Mondale is."

[slinkerwink]

16. I do now.

[Dookus]

18. good for you

now consider why some of us who VOTED for Mondale might take your insights with a grain of salt.

[slinkerwink]

19. oh.....wait! *scandalized gasp* you "love" me in the lounge?

;-) I hate to tell you this, but I'm already spoken for.

[Dookus]

21. so am I

but we can still flirt on the side.

[Doomsayer13]

9. the coin has two sides

perhaps kerry supporters are rude, but I've seen posts on here claiming that not only is Kerry worse than Bush, but that Republicans are better than Democrats becuase we nominated someone like Kerry. I've also seen posts that said that the instant Kerry is elected, we should vote to impeach.

this sort of sad mudslinging goes both ways.

[Gore1FL]

20. This is so funny

You characterize posts that call you to be accountable to your statements as "childish insults" and accuse others for lack of depth and substance? You post anti-Kerry articles from the New HAmpshire Nader/LaDuke coordinator, and consider them the one true Gospel. You have called Kerry a Republican, and then bitterly (and wrongfully) accuse others of calling you a Communist and a Republican.

Now you have a pity post?

Sorry we were so mean to you by asking you to support your opinions. That was sooo evil and uncalled for of us....

[DNA]

22. I've been reading some of these threads.

There's a lot of profanity and namecalling across the board. I don't think this is a good PR strategy for the election.

[DNA]

23. Man!!!!

I've read some more. People are really mean today across the board. Is everyone drunk and obnoxious? I don't mean you in particular. I don't know who is posting what. Some of these posts are truly mean and nasty tho'.

[gonefishing]

24. If your still listening..

You have been posting a lot more than I. You know as well as I that there are always going to be rude people on these boards. I was slammed the other day for saying I didn't like Howard Stern. When I get upset I remind myself that most of the rude ones are just teenagers that don't really have a clue yet.

If you truly believe that Kerry is a better choice than the regime that is in place right now I beg you to vote for ABB. I really feel that current group of thugs in office threaten our way of life and democracy as we know it.

[DNA]

25. That's the ticket

Can we name you our PR consultant before we lose some more?

[gonefishing]

27. I'm a desperate man...

Look what this thug has done in his first term. I can't image the damage he will do, with his arrogance, in a second term. These guys are running with Nixon's play-book and they just might get it right this time.

[DNA]

28. Despair not

Barring election shenanigans Bush will lose. I used to think he might win by finding Osama but they spent so much time demonizing Saddam that he's old hat. The only thing they can do to win now is cheat. They'll try it but now people are more wary.

[union_maid]

29. Not much of a way to decide about voting

And the attacks on Kerry since he became the frontrunner have taken on a surreal quality. I think I'm fairly objective there. I just put on my Kerry avatar yesterday, although I admit, after my first choice dropped I didn't have a problem supporting him. As of today, Kerry has the support of every American who does understand that Bush is "that bad" and worse and lot of us who think he has the potential to be the best president we've seen in a long, long time.