A Very Tearful Farewell

[DFW]

19. Not to say your post was premature, but please consider the following:

I also was chagrined (to put it mildly) to read all the “Joe must go” posts, but I also noticed that a great many of them were by posters I did not recognize.

So, while having a few hours every week awake due to jet lag, I took the time to check a few profiles. The most ardent advocates of Biden dropping out—not all, but a majority—were either very new members with very few posts, or else long time members with very few posts, i.e. lurkers. Now I know that some long-time lurkers are very much solid DU members who don’t post much, for their own reasons. But others seem to wake up out of their deep cover only when disruption seems most effective. Frankly, I suspect the DNC has similar plants on right wing boards. “Know what the opposition is thinking.” None less than right wing guru and activist (we should still fear him at age 90!) Richard Viguerie told me he firmly believed in doing that.

These plants, both newbies and sleepers, cannot be allowed to control our narrative.

It happens, I have noticed, periodically, and it gets intense every primary season. I even left for several months during the 2016 primary season, when Sanders advocates flooded and dominated DU to the point that they were getting other members’ posts—if they dissented from supporting Sanders—alerted on or even deleted. Some remain (the two or three sincere ones, I suspect), but the most ardent of the one-trick ponies left for greener pastures once the nomination was official. The timing was certainly NOT coincidental.

A friend of mine, a name you might remember (Howard Dean), told me this on the subject at hand: “I think it’s overblown by self important pundits. We will know more by the end of next week given the short attention span of the public and the press.” Howard is the last person to underestimate the power of self-important pundits, especially if they are great in number and united in purpose. But he also had a pretty good record as DNC chairman when he correctly assessed the benefits of waiting out that short attention span.

It is for that reason, along with the curious pattern emerging in most—granted, not all—of the most fervent advocates of Biden’s withdrawal, that I would plead with you to stick with your long-term friends here, and disregard the drive-by shooters. As with the ones who use cars and real guns, they don’t tend to stick around long after doing their damage.

From your own long term friend,

DFW