Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
The PUMAs (Part Unity My Ass)...who, in 2008, refused to "rally around" Barack Obama.
There’s a question on the minds of many Democratic Party leaders right now, which might be phrased: Will there be PUMAs? Or, to update it a bit: Will there be BOBs? Or maybe even PUMA BOBs? Perhaps you’ll hear, at the convention: “I’m Bob Puma, glad to meet you”?
Cheap acronymic humor aside, the question is an important one. PUMAs, for those who have forgotten the 2008 Democratic primary race, were the supposedly-numerous Hillary Clinton supporters who refused to back Barack Obama (due to slights perceived during the hard-fought primary, as well as ideological differences), and were instead going to defect en masse and vote for John McCain. The name stood for “Party Unity My Ass!” which was also their rallying cry. This year, they may be replaced by the “Bernie Or Bust!” crowd, or (to coin a neologism) the BOBs.
But before we got to the BOBs, a quick historical review of the PUMAs is necessary. The entire “Party Unity My Ass!” movement (if it can even be called that, in retrospect) was the result of two things which turned out to not actually be representational of how the party’s base was feeling. The first was the viciousness of the online flamewar between supporters of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Exactly eight years ago, reading the comments section on any article or blog post about the state of the Democratic race was like watching a to-the-death gladiator battle. No holds were barred, no scathing insult deemed too extreme. From both sides, I hasten to mention (lest I be called biased). The personalities of Barack and Hillary were being savaged online, on a daily basis. This might sound familiar to anyone watching the Bernie-versus-Hillary flamewars online today. But while it’s hard to accurately measure such things, it certainly seemed a lot more personal and vicious back then (at least, to me — I certainly don’t read every article’s comments section, though).
So you had loud voices screaming at each other online. Due to the loudness and nastiness, some in the media started a narrative that the Democratic Party was split beyond repair. The convention, they all confidently predicted, would be contentious and possibly even violent. The spectre of 1968 was trotted out. For weeks before the convention, the media fanned these flames vigorously. I reached a different conclusion, however:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-weigant/puma-bobs_b_10111592.html
Cheap acronymic humor aside, the question is an important one. PUMAs, for those who have forgotten the 2008 Democratic primary race, were the supposedly-numerous Hillary Clinton supporters who refused to back Barack Obama (due to slights perceived during the hard-fought primary, as well as ideological differences), and were instead going to defect en masse and vote for John McCain. The name stood for “Party Unity My Ass!” which was also their rallying cry. This year, they may be replaced by the “Bernie Or Bust!” crowd, or (to coin a neologism) the BOBs.
But before we got to the BOBs, a quick historical review of the PUMAs is necessary. The entire “Party Unity My Ass!” movement (if it can even be called that, in retrospect) was the result of two things which turned out to not actually be representational of how the party’s base was feeling. The first was the viciousness of the online flamewar between supporters of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Exactly eight years ago, reading the comments section on any article or blog post about the state of the Democratic race was like watching a to-the-death gladiator battle. No holds were barred, no scathing insult deemed too extreme. From both sides, I hasten to mention (lest I be called biased). The personalities of Barack and Hillary were being savaged online, on a daily basis. This might sound familiar to anyone watching the Bernie-versus-Hillary flamewars online today. But while it’s hard to accurately measure such things, it certainly seemed a lot more personal and vicious back then (at least, to me — I certainly don’t read every article’s comments section, though).
So you had loud voices screaming at each other online. Due to the loudness and nastiness, some in the media started a narrative that the Democratic Party was split beyond repair. The convention, they all confidently predicted, would be contentious and possibly even violent. The spectre of 1968 was trotted out. For weeks before the convention, the media fanned these flames vigorously. I reached a different conclusion, however:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-weigant/puma-bobs_b_10111592.html
12 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
...and for what it's worth, I am a Bernie supporter. The point of my post was basically that I agree, and also feel the "rally around Hillary" cries in 2016 are because "it's her turn: she's entitled," which I also refer to as "total crap."
And the reason I want him to stay in this, whether he gets the nomination or not, is I'm not buying what she's selling, her "turn" or not.
Response to Miles Archer (Original post)
