Battered Minority Party Syndrome

[SidneyCarton]

"If you think you can, you're right, if you think you can't you're also right." Your daily meme, courtesy of Henry Ford

A lot of negativity on the boards the past couple of days, and it makes me wonder. After 8 years of ruin we nominate a charismatic, smart and able candidate, with a strong appeal and a good message, and yet... we can't seem to believe we have a chance of winning. Every time we hit a bump we get the chorus of melodramatics, absolutely certain that all is lost, the sky is falling and ruin is just around the corner.

Frankly this becomes tiresome. Whether its the folks who get frankly excited at the thought of President Bush declaring martial law and canceling the elections, (thereby justifying their belief in the worst case scenario) those who are absolutely certain we will lose due to election fraud, (begging the question as to whether this is paranoia or apathy speaking) or the people who hammer endlessly on the meme that Obama is a lightweight for not calling McCain a filthy, treasonous, war-mongering, senile old bigot in response to attack ads, (giving no consideration as to the cost inherent in such attacks) it seems everyone is suddenly certain that once again we're going to blow it.

Have a little faith. No, I'm not advocating a blind Pollyanna-like belief that everything is going to be alright, but to sit down and not follow every little outrage that the so-called "news" puts out. The media loves to see us scatter like chickens in a panic, and are no doubt quite pleased with the effects they've had this past weekend, but today is another day, and we're not beaten yet.

Back at it folks, we aren't beaten until November 6th, lets stop acting like it before we give McCain a bloodless victory.

[sui generis]

1. aren't you participating in negativity right now?

you're generalizing, and being a bit dismissive. the folks you are addressing are the minority. Squeaky wheels make noise, but that doesn't mean every wheel on the road squeaks.

Bringing it to the forefront of everyone's attention though with a post to cast aspirins :P - that makes the problem seem bigger and more widespread than it actually is.

[SidneyCarton]

3. True enough, this is a rant.

As for asprins, feel free to cast a few at me, I'll probably need them.

[geek tragedy]

2. We have a chance at winning.

But, last week the Obama campaign acted like the losers from our past.

[SidneyCarton]

4. Are you sure?

One major problem we seem to have is the assumption that history repeats itself always in the exact same pattern. This is not 2000, or 2004. The nation is not the same, the economics, demographics, and general attitude of the American people are quite different. If we lose this time, it will be for different reasons than the last times.

[4themind]

5. My only thing is

there's nothing wrong with criticism, but since we're all democrats/progressives that are presumably supporting the democratic nominee, maybe people can add more to their "support" in addition to criticism, like presumably a constructive way to solve it. Going along with that, maybe it could be more substantive than "attack more" or "pick so and so as V.P." at least without citing multiple sources of data to support their rationale to increase. Similarly, I think we should avoid absolutist statements that haven't (and cannot) be confirmed until after the election, such as "Obama's finished", or "Obama can't win", or "Obama WILL be swiftboated again and it will finish him". We need to be careful about using appeals to tradition . Morale itself is powerful in keeping turn out high this november and these statements are relatively less helpful (relative again to constructive criticism, coupled with a call to action for individual members of the board). I'm not saying everyone is defeatist, but I just wanted to give some suggestions to things that may help move us closer towards getting a dem back into the white house

[SidneyCarton]

6. I appriciate your argument.

As to the veep-stakes I won't touch that one with a ten-foot pole, that situation is still too hot in this forum to handle.