(cross-posted at Deny My Freedom)
If I see any type of “concern troll” comments talking about how the Democratic Party has lost it way or that certain candidates are either too liberal or too conservative to garner their support, I will not investigate whether such sentiments are genuine or not. I will assume they are Republican or Green concern trolls who wish us ill. And I will troll rate them. If I see a diary entitled “I hate the Democratic Party,” I will troll rate the comments supportive of it therein. Whether the “concern” comes from the right or left, such comments have no place on Daily Kos this close to an election. Such comments aid the Republicans and do not help the Democrats.
And my comments are not just aimed to new users or fraudulent users here on Daily Kos, but also are aimed to certain disappointing Senators and other professional pundits. Senator Obama and his comments about the Democratic Party recently come to mind. Yes, I am calling Senator Obama a concern troll who is no better than Kean campaign spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker and her many sockpuppets.
Yesterday over at Daily Kos, Kossack Delaware Dem took concern trolls of all stripes within the Democratic Party to task in the aforementioned post. His anger is well-placed and has a foundation. Recently, there have been a spate of troll diaries or ‘concern trolls’ wondering about the Democratic Party and November’s elections. I’ll readily admit that I like Delaware Dem, unlike this poster. I’ve met him in person, and he’s a great guy to chat and have a good laugh with. However, while I believe his intentions are good, it paints far too broad a picture of what the blogosphere needs to do.
It’s frustrating to have trolls of any kind, whether they be right-wing nutjobs in disguise or people who appear ‘concerned’ about the chances of the Democratic Party in the 2006 elections. However, the fact of the matter is that boots on the ground are what we need this election. It is imperative that the mad reign of the GOP be brought to a halt with a Democratic takeover of Congress. So Democrats haven’t been perfect liberals, like many in the blogosphere wish they would be. So they’re still pretty crappy campaigners, for the most part. So they have trouble getting their message out due to an astounding inability to frame messages properly.
You have every right to be mad at the Democratic Party. They’ve been unable to defeat the worst administration in our country’s history in the last 2 election cycles. Some of our candidates were selected in a wholly undemocratic fashion and are too conservative for our tastes.
Tough fucking luck.
I don’t care how long you’ve been holding your nose and voting for Democrats. Unless you’re volunteering your time for a campaign, unless you are talking to your neighbors and your acquaintances and making sure they talk to their friends, unless you’re being a citizen blogger like the amazing folks of Connecticut such as CT Blogger, Spazeboy, and CT Bob, you are not doing enough. Sitting on your ass and whining about the Democratic Party on the Internet is going to achieve absolutely nothing, because frankly, most of us are too insignificant to make that kind of change online. Whether your candidate is Ned Lamont or Bob Casey, make sure they get elected. And if you simply can’t stomach volunteering your time for a particular Democratic candidate, find one that fits your ideals more. For me, that means volunteering for Patrick Murphy instead of helping an uninspiring candidate kick out Rick Santorum.
There are plenty of ways to help out. If you don’t put in the effort, and the Democrats lose again, you can only blame yourself.
That being said, Delaware Dem ignores the fact that criticism of the Democratic Party is a central reason why the blogosphere has gained any sort of major clout in the political world. MyDD’s Adwatch is such a program – it lets us criticize (or praise) the Democratic Party’s advertisements, arguably one of its weakest areas in the campaign arena. Our pressure is the reason why Democratic Party leaders were whipped into line before the CT-Sen primary, pledging to support the primary winner. Simply put, we are a vocal representation of the grassroots that the Democratic Party has for so long been deeply out of touch with. We are the conscience of the Democratic Party, and although we can mercilessly rip into some of our leaders (Rahm Emmanuel comes to mind), it is because we have the best interests of our party – and our country – at heart. It is not because we are mean-spirited and are looking to grab power. It is because we want to win, we want our party to not be afraid of the other side, and we want to take our country back from those who have destroyed so much good and cast so much evil upon the world in the past 6 years.
There’s a difference between hollow criticism and criticism strengthened by ideas. I believe that Delaware Dem means to speak out against the kind of criticism of our party – from supposed ‘supporters’ of it in the blogosphere, as well as some of our apparent leaders – that puts forth nothing new and simply reinforces the negative image of the Democratic Party. I am all for scrutinizing how our party acts, as long as it puts forth genuine ideas about how we need to move forward.
But unless you are doing something to help get Democrats elected this November, then I agree with Delaware Dem’s sentiments: you can shut your fucking piehole…and keep it closed for good.
