Some pro Kerry comments and a long Rant.

[TayTay]

The latest round of idiotic postings on DKos and cross-posted here to DU have got me to thinking. We should have a thread that emphasizes how to talk about Kerry in some of the other groups. Maybe that would be a good thing. GinnyinWI has complied a list of Kerry's actions and accomplishments to date in this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=273&topic_id=17708&mesg_id=18035&page=

GinnyinWI wrote this, not TayTay, show her some love. I have access to that huge DB of stories that go back, so far, to 1981 of NYTimes, Boston Globe and 12,000 other global sources. I can access stories about Kerry that go back to his Lt. Gov of MA days. I am willing to share. Let me know what you need and I will do what I can. If there are, for example, questions about what Kerry actually said in 1993 about NAFTA, shoot me an e-mail and I will pull up the actual quotes from the time in question. And I have all transcripts to every committee hearing since 1983. Really. Ask me. I can send out Fair Use quotes.

Now, a rant based on today's MyDD and Dkos Kerry bashing. Skip it if you are fed up with this.

Rant 1: I am a reform Democrat
I frequently hear this on DKos as a justification for stabbing other Dems in the back. This sentence is usually meant to excuse bad behavior on the part of posters who simply don't like certain Dems. It does nothing of the sort. It serves to set the poster apart as someone who is willing to destroy party unity for a petty vendetta. They are no more a 'reform Democrat' than anyone else. They are just morally repulsive enough to think that their self-serving ends justify sliming others with half-truths and gossip. I shudder to think what such 'reformers' think they are bringing to the rank and file Dems who have supported the Party over the years with their money, time and energy. A lot of these folks would rather walk away than join with such self-righteous and fatuous self-deceivers. They don't own the term reform, we all do.

Rant 2 We need to build up the Grassroots or Netroots
This is a laudable goal. Unfortunately, the self-righteous, 'I know what is wrong and I have the only solution' approach to fixing what ails the Dems is not going to help with grassroots organizing. I had an occasion in Nashua, NH last fall to spend some time with some of the 'netroots' folks and they can be nearly impossible to deal with. We had this guy who refused to grab a button that had the name of the Dem candidate for NH Gov on it because he was too pure to put on a button for someone he hadn't checked out on-line. (Heavens, what it the guy wasn't liberally pure enough? It might have killed the poor bastard.) This guy harassed the poor Kerry organizer and took up her valuable time with arguments over exactly what he would and wouldn't do in the campaign. (Some things are beneath the liberally pure you know.) I prayed real hard that I wouldn't have to canvass in a blue collar area with this jerk, as I was fairly certain he would end up costing us votes. Thank goodness someone else got the belligerent assh*le. Rule number one of getting people to vote for you and with you is to not piss them off. It's not that hard, don't piss off people that you might need later on. I don't think some of our more famous bloggers have learned that simple lesson yet.

OK, I feel better now. How about you? Anyone else feel the need to rant?

[LittleClarkie]

1. No rant, but thanks to you and Ginny

I printed out both posts. It's never too early to "frame the issues."

Go Kerry!!

I do have one concern that I can't mention out here, though. I'll pm you.

[TayTay]

2. I posted this on another thread

Now, I'll retire. I'm starting to get nasty.

This guy wrote about he and Alexander Cogburn both thought Kerry was the same as *.

Must be lonely always being correct, but alone at the ballot box. Tell me, when you go door-to-door canvassing and tell the people who answer that there is not a 'dimes worth of difference' between your candidate and the one you oppose what do the voters say? (This is a Dem posting board after all. It is logical to assume that most folks here worked for or at least voted for Kerry last fall.) How does that work out for you? Do you get many converts? How many people have you convinced to actually vote for your candidate?

Is this 'damn everybody' approach to politicking gotten many candidates elected to public office who share your views? (There must be a candidate somewhere who has actually run for public office who has at least one morally pure view that you share.) It's nice to be able to sit on the sidelines and throw brickbats at people who run for public office and decry them as sell-outs. That's easy. It's another thing entirely to take the time to find a candidate, work to elect them and then work to make sure they remember their roots and who elected them and why. Not everybody is a sell-out. Believing that exempts one from having to participate in a system that is considered corrupt from the start. I prefer to live in the real world with real people who have to make real decisions. I find the 'everybody is corrupt' argument an easy way to avoid responsbility.

[ginnyinWI]

3. there, there, TayTay

it's gonna be okay. Put on your fuzzy slippers and make a cup of tea. :pals:

This guy could be anyone--a republican, for instance. It's easy to lie on the internet. I don't care how many posts he has. Whatever he is, people that negative get left in the dust on the road of life.

You can't survive and thrive without hope. That's how the Big Guy does it--it has to be how he keeps getting up every morning and going back into the fray. :)

As for Alexander Cockburn--yeah. I read him in "The Nation"--he's one cynical dude.

[TayTay]

4. I do have one heartwarming story....

It's about revenge. (Okay, well it warms my friggin heart anyway.) When my husband was on School Committee years ago we had this legacy principal at one of the schools. A real sweetheart of a guy (sarcasm on.) This guy had been in his job for 25 years and was basically phoning it in at work. He would return money at the end of the year that was meant to be spent on books in the library because he thought it made him look good to return money to the School Committee. He was a bastard when it came time to renegotiate Teacher contracts, didn't give a crap about his students, resisted all change and was an all-around reason local people hate tax increases. (Because the money goes to give guys like this a raise.) So, the School Committee negotiated an early retirement with this jerk. He would get 80% pension and a letter of recommendation if he would 'go quietly.'

Well, he signed the letter then dropped a dime on us with the Boston Globe. A pulitzer prize winning columnist wrote a sob column about how this poor old devoted Principal was being heartlessly shown the door by a cruel School Committee. Sob Sob. (Now comes the heartwarming part, I promise.) The School Committee re-opened his retirement package and re-arranged his benefits. Hey, 80% not good enough for you assh*le, how about 65% and no letter. (Sometimes you have to get tough with people. It's the only way you get any respect. I am not opposed to this, as long as I get to watch. Hehehehehe.)

Stories like this warm the cockles of my heart. Honestly.