Need your help fellow Skeptics...

[TZ]

One of our friends thinks he needs to leave DU and I want to convince Deep13 to stay--and I want you to know what a great person he is:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=7795585&mesg_id=7795585
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=7794623&mesg_id=7794623

[John Gauger]

1. Why is he leaving?

Everybody seems so happy to see him go, but why? I haven't ever seen him do anything disruptive or disrespectful? Why is everybody so quick to jump on him?

[TZ]

2. I haven't been able to figure that one out.

Hold over nastiness from the Primaries, perhaps? I think its the implication that he can't support Obama..a big no-no for most DU'ers who as we know are very reactionary.

[John Gauger]

3. I don't know why they have to be so nasty about it.

Each man must follow his conscience - isn't that a fundamental part of the American experiment? Why is it so hard for them to accept that he might have a different opinion? Jesus, they call us nasty when we deride their clinging to childish superstitions. It's not like he said he believes in fucking unicorns; all he implied was that he won't be voting for Obama. And for the same reason that leads them to vote for him - conscience.

[varkam]

5. I think it's just the primaries.

The primaries have turned normally respectful posters into shit-flinging monkeys. It's not too much of a surprise that, if Deep is a HRC supporter, people would jump all over him.

[semillama]

4. This sort of thing is EXACTLY why I stayed the hell out of GD: P this primary season

I suspect that if Deep13 had done the same, he wouldn't be leaving.

I'd be interested to know why he feels he can't support Obama in the GE, though, but I'm not about to wade through a bunch of shouting, finger-pointing and mudslinging in GD:P to figure it out...

(For the record, I did support Obama after Edwards dropped out. I don't really trust Clinton all that much, but I would have voted for her without reservation in the GE if she were the nominee.)

[trotsky]

6. I'm not a fan of Clinton OR Obama.

But I'd crawl to the voting booth over broken glass to vote for either of them instead of McLame.

[TZ]

7. Just for the record

Deep13 emailed me and assured me there is NO WAY he would vote for McLame, he just doesn't know if he can bring himself to vote for Obama and he said to even pretend to support him would make him feel dishonest.

[trotsky]

8. That may be true, and I can respect his integrity for that, however...

Obama with all his faults is still worlds better than McSame and as long as we have this two-party system if you're not voting for Obama you're making it easier for McBrainDrain to win.

[salvorhardin]

9. Doesn't that depend on where you live?

For instance, back in 2000 I voted for Nader. However, at the time I lived in upstate NY. That meant, for me, that almost all of upstate, excluding the major cities, was going to go red. However, that red would be counterbalanced by the 8,000,000 people living in NYC and environs who would overwhelmingly vote for Gore. In essence, NYS more often than not, because of winner-takes-all, votes Democratic and there's nothing upstaters can do about it. So I felt pretty safe in casting a protest vote.

I live in Northeastern Indiana now. Democrats need all the help they can get here, and by and large, they're almost always better than the Republican alternative (for instance, Souder is my Congressman -- yeck!). Even if I didn't particularly care for the Democratic candidate, I'd never think of casting a protest vote here. The stakes are too high and I feel like my vote absolutely matters. It's a much different situation than NYS.

So if I was consoling Deep on whether to abstain from voting, I'd say to access the demographics in his state and if he still feels that keeping his conscience intact is the way to go, then by all means abstain or cast a protest vote.

[TZ]

10. well heres why he shouldn't do that.

He lives in Ohio (granted the more liberal NE/Cleveland area) but still..a very key state.