Our party leaders need to let go of the "they have nowhere else to go" attitude towards the base.

[NanceGreggs]

101. This political message board ...

... no longer exists for the sake of discussion.

It has been taken over by people who don't want to discuss anything. They simply want to talk at other posters, but not to them.

They want to state their position - on HRC, Obama, the Democratic party, TPP, et al - over and over and over again, while pretending that the opinions they express are something more than what they are; i.e. - a constant, droning repetition of the same old/same old.

Here's a DU game you can play at home:

Pull up any OP with multiple responses. Cover the left-hand side of the screen, and look only at the names of those who have posted a reply. I guarantee you that you can predict exactly what each poster said on the topic with 95% accuracy before you read their replies.

Everyone knows who will say what, who will take what position, who will post the predictable well-worn links from the equally predictable sources. Everyone knows which posters will high-five each other, which posters will trigger the inevitable sub-threads, which posters will launch personal attacks, which posts will be alerted on, and which posters are the most likely to have alerted.

There is no point in attempting discussion or honest debate. There are very few posters left here who are willing (or able) to engage in either.

It is that predictability factor that has DU's traffic stats in yet another nosedive. What is the point in attempting to engage other posters in honest debate when you already know what their response will be?

What is the point in trying to converse with others when they have made up their minds and don't want to even acknowledge any facts that don't coincide with what they have already chosen to believe? What is the purpose behind answering questions posed by someone who is not interested in the answer, but is only waiting for yet another opportunity to state what everyone already knows will be their reply?

Yes, I refuse to answer the question posed - which is actually not a simple question. But perhaps that's part of the problem, too - thinking that complex questions can be answered simply, when they actually require thought that goes beyond the black-and-white thinking that has become all too pervasive here.