I'm pretty sure he's actually a vampire in disguise. Or possibly five small killer robots put together.

Also, I once saw him punt a baby.

First, turn off the computer.

Then find the nearest Obama campaign office, or seek out where the Obama campaign volunteers are working in your area. Go meet them, talk with them, and get to know them a little.

I'm absolutely positive you'll discover that, on the ground in the real world, those actively supporting the candidate are regular people who display a variety of characteristics. Some will be passionate, some will be low-key, some may be a bit over-the-top. But nearly all of them will be sincere, hard-working Democrats who care about the country and this candidate. Yes, they'll defend him against criticism, fair and unfair, because basically that's all his opponents have to run with. So you'll have to expect that. After all, it's what they're supposed to do: support, promote, and defend the candidate.

If you pursue a little further, you'll find the non-activist Obama voters to be pretty much like anyone else. Interested in the campaign, excited about the candidate for different reasons, they look like any other Democrat in a good year. They also don't like mud smearing the nominee, but they're usually less interested in the argument, and just look forward to voting for him in November.

The blogs are a distorting lens that magnifies extreme aspects of character. Step away, get some perspective, and I think you'll be a little sorry you ever wrote something like this.

...we can trust the Obama folks not to make a politically dumb VP choice.

...Hillary would be a politically dumb VP choice.

...Obama needs to pay attentions to the reasons why she would be a good choice, and cover those bases.

...some people support Obama over-zealously.

...this is to be expected after the hatred our politics have become.

...the Democratic party is much more unified than the blogosphere is.

...I'm no Democrat, so take my words with a grain of salt.

Turned this site into a month long bash Obama pumathon.  Lets not pretend, it was a month of making this site a complete joke, tearing down Obama at all costs, every recommended diary was of this flavor, I know I remember it.  You could not say anything about Clinton without being hide rated.
There was a time when I was much more polite in regards to Clinton, but the goon squads that were running MYdd pissed me off to a point where I no longer cared, and now, half my comments are hide rated, when probably 30% should be, which leaves 20% that get to stay, for a few minutes anyway, which is still a higher % then with the goon squads were on high alert.
I dont even know if its Hillary I dislike, but her most ardent defenders, the ones that to the point of just making crap up, I absolutely loathe.

I saw the movie Juno tonight, good film.

supporters at DKos who pushed me (a lurker and quite reader of the blogs and one who didn't had a candidate to defend) towards defending HRC. It probably also has to do with the contrarian streak running in my brain. I know there were several like me (e.g. Scotch) who landed up at MyDD after the "Strike", who were in the same boat as me but turned HRC supporter due to the same reason after watching DKos turning into a giant Echo chamber. But when the Obama/Hillary fervor was at zenith in early March, I wrote a small note lamenting about how unity of the party will be affected and I was met with sheer hostility. I was told to cut the moral equivalence, that HRC should just drop out of the race (face of the Earth if some had their say) and the train of unity had left the station longtime ago. The marching orders were stark clear. Either fall in line or get the hell out of the way. Well too bad, not all of us are raised that way. I've visited countries where there's was unitary party rule and I've seen how party members enforce discipline amongst its members and the citizenry at large. Even in scientific conferences the vacuous facial expression of the scientists rarely could suppress the unknown fear. The strange feeling that there is sheer nontolerance of the contrarian viewpoint was validated that kind of stirred those bad memories of the past..Now to be honest I've seen the same streak of hostility amongst some of the HRC supporters, especially ones that later migrated off to other blogs..

Unfortunately even today I see that streak bubbling up once in a while. Jerome had pointed this out, however sarcastically, in his FP comments.  

I just don't see the point in concerning myself with the attitudes of a candidate's supporters on the internet. First the internet is never going to be a representative cross section of demographics and viewpoints. In fact, the internet tends to attract a more passionate, partisan, far-wing (left or right) personality. Second, the anonymity the internet offers lends itself to a lower level of discourse (trolling, flaming, etc) that adults wouldn't engage in if it were a face-to-face situation. All that aside, its politics. It gets heated. People act like jackasses.

As for party unity...the only thing that should unite Democrats is the issues. What are the issues you care about and which candidate best reflects your viewpoint. Anyone for whom that is not enough should either stay home or vote for McCain.

And here's to warped lenses!

Recced.

-chris

A little OT: I see I'm not the only one having trouble sleeping tonight.

As for the points you raise in your diary, I think Maori touched on a key point in his/her comment. Many people in each group of supporters have a number of blind spots when it comes to politics.

Obama people think the Clinton campaign was a lot more negative and underhanded during the primaries. Many Clinton supporters think just the opposite. They can't both be right. From my vantage point, as someone who stayed out of the flame wars during the primaries, neither group is all right or all wrong.

There was sexism on display during the primaries. Most of it came from people unconnected to either camp. There was also plenty of racism on display. Again, most of it came from outside. Unfortunately, most of the blame went against each campaign.

Another thing I observed was that a lot of the things that set people off were either extremely minor or imaginary. Finger-gate and the assassination foofarahs are two that come to mind. Each time something like that happened, the gap between the camps became wider.

When the primaries started, Democrats were excited about what was considered one of the strongest fields of candidates ever assembled. Before it was over, the various groups were at each others throats.

It finally reached a point where no one that posted online was blameless. It was impossible to stay out of the fray unless you avoided posting altogether. Even if you waited until the primaries were over, like I did, you got sucked into the vortex. (Man, oh man, am I ever mixing my metaphors).

There are signs that give me hope this split can be healed. At least, to a degree. Some have already moved on, except when pushed by a troll or someone actively opposing the Democratic Party or its presumptive nominee. It will be even better after the convention. Being able to write 'the nominee' instead of 'the presumptive nominee' will remove some of the defensiveness from the tone of Obama supporters and it will remove some of the ardor of Clinton supporters.

It will never go away completely. Some people are having too much fun fanning the flames. Others are the type who hold grudges and will take their anger to the grave. Still others are Republican trolls whose sole intent is to weaken the Democratic Party and candidate.

There is one last group that keeps things going here and that's the one to which I belong. This group would really like to see the fire die down, but we can't help but poke a stick in to stir the embers once in awhile.

Sometimes it's because we can't resist responding to perceived stupidity. At other times it's because a snappy comeback is just too good to pass up. Many times, it's because we are tired of pointing out the same thing over and over to someone who refuses to acknowledge that their premise is flawed and that it has been successfully refuted.

Now to wrap this up so I can try to get back to sleep.

There are wounds that haven't healed yet. Some of them probably never will. There are still factions in the party that have yet to come together. This is troublesome, and also dangerous to the goals we all share, which is to get the Republicans out of power. I think time will make much of this go away. The convention is less than a month away. It can't come too soon, as far as I'm concerned.

This sort of adulation and enthusiasm for an individual candidate, particularly when it turns into a sort of violent, "us against them" mentality

"Hillary hated on you, so that b** is irrelevant"

"McCain don't belong in ANY chair unless he's paralyzed"

I'm a Clintonista but have accepted Obama as the candidate and he's a fine one. But this diarists comments are not far off the mark about the almost total lack of objectivity by most Obama supporters many of whom are extreme Clinton haters, god knows why. The most telling example of this is the VP controversy. It's without question the number on topic on this site, and yet the those totally in the tank for Obama say there's no schism in the Democratic party over this when there clearly is. Otherwise why would everyone be so fixated on it here. I don't know how wide and deep it is but it's there alright and is almost certainly large enough to harm Obama's campaign. In fact I think it's one of the reasons for his narrow lead in the polls. Choose Clinton and his poll numbers will jump by 5%.    

Hmm...I don't really have that "us v. them" mentality.  To some extent, I think it runs contrary to what Democrats try to do, which is to help everyone, and make all lives a little better.

But if some do have that attitude, perhaps it's because we urgently need to elect a Democrat, and a McCain presidency will be a disaster for our military, our poor, and our middle class.

Another possibility is that it's just the internet people who are this way.  I've met with many Obama supporters at events, had them come to my door canvassing, had what seems like hundreds of calls about events and new offices...and none were even remotely aggressive, even when they didn't know who I was supporting.

This group would really like to see the fire die down, but we can't help but poke a stick in to stir the embers once in awhile.

I believe that I, too, am a card-holding member of that particular group. ;)

I pretty much stay away from the flames, but every once in a great while, something will 'light a fire under my ass' and I just can't seem to help but try to swat it out.

Well said.