This is partially in response to Dr Harrison's GBCW diary, but also my own mized feelings on the subject.
With regard to Dr. Harrison's diaries, when he covered health topics and especially abortion and choice, his were perfectly nice "topic diaries." But, in addition, he chose to often put into them a specific pro-Clinton line or two. That is his choice. If he is participating in explictiely supporting a candidate, then he is participating. Clinton has specific things in her favor, and legit real things to be said against her. Others argue for and against their candidates. Some are more reasoned then others.
When you write a pure issue diary then that is what it is.
When you write a diary that, even in a small part, is promoting one or another candidate, then you should expect to engaged by those who support other candidates. To expect to not be engaged by them is hubris and ridiculous. Once you are engaging in intra-party parisanship, then you are NOT above it. You are in it and part of it. Primaries are inevitably a time of disagreement.
Nobody candidate is owed a victory, no candidate is inevitable, no candidate is preselected king or queen, no candidate should not be examined. And no diarist engaging in support of one candidate should expect to everybody else to just assume that they are exclusively right. If you engage, then you will be engaged. What is dishonest is to support a candidate in what you write, then say you are not being a partisan, and having some expectation of not being engaged.
Are many of the diaries that are on the rec list boring to me? yes. Do many of them strike me as false? yes. So I don't rec or read them. I rec or read others. Am I disappointed that the discourse here is sometimes rough and less intellectually rigourous then I would like? yes. But it is probably more representative of real politics then it would be if it was a community blog of people who all agreed and treated each other nicely, politely or truthfully. The roughness is part of the reality. So is the dishonesty. Welcome to our slice of the real world (alas).
And Daily Kos is a democracy of its registered users. It is what it is. Some diaries get rec'd up quickly. Others do not. Great diaries disappear into the ether and much hard work and interesting thought is not seen or read again. Why? Because it happened to not grab the attention of the viewers who happened to be on at that time. So be it. It is what it is. There is no secret. There is no right or wrong. It simply is a democracy (and Democracy) of us, as we are.
For a time I posted more regularly, with the Democraphic Tuesday's series and Health Care Thursdays series.
For a variety of reasons I post diaries less often now. So what. Nobody owes me anything. I owe nobody anything. Participation is voluntary. Read what you want. Rec what you want. Write what you want.
Here is a story: I used to do theater. I loved the theater. I loved acting. I loved doing theater. But more often then not I was disappointed at auditions, and did not get the role I wanted or any role at all. A wise person told me: "You may love the theater, but the theater is under no obligation to love you back."
Do I wish that all of my diaries were rec'd and stayed at the top all day. sure. But democracy in action says that lots of diaries I don't like are more popular. More people engage in Lindsay Lohan's life and Heath Ledger's death. I wish more people read The Nation and The New York Review of Books. They don't. Welcome to America.
One thing about Daily Kos that I think we learned from my Demographic Tuesday's series, was where we are diverse and where we are not.
We are, or were at least as of mid-2007, about 90% white and two-thirds male. Obviously we are mostly big D Democrats, but with a smattering of libertarians, independents, disabused Republicans, and of course various trolls.
But wonderfully, and to my surprise, we have remarkable geographic diversity, not only pretty representative from all regions of the country, but also to the degree that we are urban/suburban/small town/rural.
We run a bit more to the left then the Democratic party as a whole, and much more so then country. But as true leftists will tell you, the site as a whole is not that progressive or leftist, not uniformly so, nor is management or ownership.
We are more for Edwards and less for Clinton then national polling would suggest Democrats are over all. So what? We are what we are.
So read the diaries you want, rec the ones you want, write the ones you want. Sure be disappointed at the sometimes tedium, repetition, even dishonesty of the rec list.
Anyway... we are what we are.
It's called democracy.
And if some you want to read something other then Daily Kos, please do so. I do. If you want to write for another community blog, or start your own... please do so.
If you want to come back here in a few month... please do so.
It's called democracy.