2016 Postmortem
Showing Original Post only (View all)To my fellow Hillary supporters: this isn't the time to gloat. [View all]
Last edited Sun May 1, 2016, 03:14 PM - Edit history (3)
I have been lucky enough to see few posts actually doing so, but even a few are too many.
Because I was her supporter in 2008, and really did believe in her vision, I remember how disappointed I was when I had worked my heart out for a candidate who came so close, but didn't win. It didn't mean I approved of everything she did or said, but I was proud of her for being gracious in defeat once all votes had been counted. I was proud of her that, even in her letter to the Superdelegates asking them to consider her, she said no matter what that she would work to unite the Party.
The people who worked (and are still rightfully working) for Bernie, for his vision and message, are feeling the same things Hillary supporters felt after the math was just no longer sustainable for Hillary. Feeling disappointment, feeling helpless since despite all their work Bernie doesn't have a great shot at winning anymore, feeling voiceless particularly if they haven't been able to cast a vote yet, and feeling like the Party doesn't care about their issues.
The last thing they need to help overcome such feelings is for Hillary supporters to gloat, suggest their vision wasn't a good one (it was), suggest they were insincere, or suggest that just because they can't, just yet, bring themselves to vote for the likely Nominee that they are actually supporting the GOP's values.
For everyone, no matter what another person says or does to provoke us, it's our responsibility to choose our own reactions. There have been horrific attacks against Hillary that, in my opinion, remind me of what I expect to see on Free Republic or Redstate. But if posters like that drive you batty, we have the ignore feature. There's no need to take the low road.
Essentially, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. That's the best thing Hillary supporters can do right now -- be sympathetic and as a result, take the high road.
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On edit, just to be clear, I admire the people who can engage those posting majorly OTT attacks against Hillary without resorting to personally attacking the user saying them. I try -- sometimes with humor, sometimes with facts. But there are some things that have been said that all I can do is alert, and some posters repeatedly saying them that made it better for my serenity to let them have their DU, and let me have mine.
But at some point probably before August (at the latest, Labor Day) this website generally goes into "GE Footing". Whoever our Nominee is, he or she will not be subjected to those attacks on DU then, unless Skinner changes a long-standing TOS provision. People making those attacks repeatedly will lose posting privileges.
Also, there is a difference between being happy for your candidate's win, and happy for another's loss. The only people I might gloat a little (edit: okay, a lot) at their loss have Rs beside their names.