I posed a question to 10 trusted DUers ...

[Generic Other]

447. Actually I am no more sensitive than the next person

so I don't think I should get a pass if criticizing our president in strong words is going to be viewed as racism toward him. I am concerned that I don't come off that way. I do not want to dog whistle or code talk or any of that disingenuous crap because on a personal level I respect and admire him greatly, even feel some satisfaction that he has been able to win victories in spite of the hard wall of rightwing opposition. Everyone on DU fought for him and cheered when he won (well maybe not the so-called disappointed Hilary cougars) but everyone else will always see him as the one who saved us from McCain, Palin and Romney. But some of us are really very far to the left, and we have felt this inextricable pull to the right that nothing we try to do seems to stop. So we screech a bit too stridently perhaps because we don't know how to better deal with our frustrations about the things he has not been able to accomplish or even sometimes seems uninterested in accomplishing. I have walked a very thin tightrope on this. Mad some days. Rooting for him to win others. Is it possible that a lot of DUers who seem angry at Obama go through these same emotions? We pinned way too many hopes on him. Superhuman expectations. And some of us have been boorish about it. I can see that now, so I thank you for continuing to drive that point home.

I continually tell myself that the right is so obviously filled with racists dicks that it should be evident to even the blind. But not everyone else agrees. And sometimes I think people (myself included) get mad at the president when we should yell at the right more and call them on their crap toward him. I have thought that for the past 6 years, Obama's presidency has let us all be people of color in some small measure because we have had to endure the shameful treatment he has been accorded by the more extreme factions of the teabag party. Meanwhile we at DU do tend to kind of pick at each other rather than address this issue because it makes people uncomfortable to talk about. The real people we should be mad at don't post at DU. Clearly, sometimes our anger is misdirected.

I agree with those who warn us not to chart a new centrist path. I agree with those who want to scream in frustration at the influence corporations and the very wealthy exert in politics. Both sides yell -- perhaps a bit too loud and often. And I believe both sides are sincere in their opinions. I have fought side-by-side with many DUers. And in bare knuckle fights against some of them. I have come to accept that many of us are exactly as you see us. A cross section of the Democratic party. Only united by a few thin threads. DU is like a crazy family re-union. Someone spikes the punchbowl and all hell breaks loose. Someone's drunken uncle pees in the flowerbed. Someone covers the children's eyes. Someone else is laughing. Another person is cussing. Suddenly there's potato salad and jello flying in the air. And the police show up. Afterwards, no one quite knows what to say, but we all tsk tsk over it forever. Clearly if you do or say something stupid on the internet it will come back to haunt you forever!

Anyway, thanks for starting this thread. I believe you had valid reasons. And you left me with something to think about -- whether it was about me or not.