Okay gang, let's think this through.
How much time and energy do we spend dealing with the aggrieved among us? Never before have so few caused so many so much drama. How many diaries here deal with those who feel as though the party has "changed" or ignored them? There sure as hell ain't 18 million of them. I know exactly one person of this type in my real life. Just one. Oh, sure, I know a handful of Clinton supporters who are uneasy about Barack Obama (and that's fair, of course), but that's a million miles from the people of whom I speak.
Where could we better spend this time? How could we better spend it? Let's focus on growing the party. Talk to people, especially the young, the ones you know who aren't plugged in, the ones who are switched off. We can bring far more new voters in with this time we're wasting chasing after (or mocking) the handful who have made it agonizingly plain that they're too cool for the rest of us.
Every election cycle a small but noticeable minority of each party crosses over. These folks are, apparently, this cycle's Dem crossovers. Will they come back? I have no idea. There is an element of risk to anything we ever do. However, Barack Obama has gotten this far by generating enthusiasm among new voters. If there's ever a cycle in which to blow off the people holding you hostage, this is the time.
I'd rather have a beer with an honest opponent like one of my Republican friends (who are a minority among my friends, but they're there just the same) than any fellow "Democrat" who would spend the evening telling me how I'm a sexist, my candidate is a sexist, and my party is sexist because none of us see the world as he/she does. I won't have a beer with someone who is threatening constantly to torpedo everything I hold dear (in politics and public life) because they're mad. This is politics! Sometimes you or your side will lose!
Give me an honest opponent over an irrational and drama-drowned "ally."
Gang, please, once the Veepitudinal joy we're experiencing is over, please, let's spend our time getting Democrats electing by ignoring those who mean us harm and instead focusing those precious seconds doing constructive activities.
The handful of which I speak are electorally insignificant. I will stake whatever reputation I have on this. We can persuade most of those who are unhappy, but the ones who've congregated on the internet are simply not looking to be reasonable. They want, they want, they want, they want. Let them want. If they want to behave like children then we should simply ignore them.
They can't even get into the hundreds when they gather. I ain't scared. Let's move thousands, if not millions. If the cost is a few hundred solipcistic maniacs, so be it. I pay it gladly.
These people do not matter electorally. They only matter in any sense at all if we give them a microphone, if we respond, if we act like there's enough of them to make a dime's bit of difference. They get to vote. They're citizens. They can vote based on whatever deranged rationale they like. I cherish our rights, and that covers people I consider batshit. I honor the fact that they can spend their time trying to destroy their friends. That's their right and that price comes with my freedom. I can deal with that, too.
But I don't have to like them or associate with them.
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