Barack Obama. Whether you think he's a disgraceful, disappointing corporate sell-out or the best darn President since FDR battling against nearly impossible odds --and let's face it, there seems to be little nuance or middle ground between these pole positions here at Daily Kos--there is no question that debate about the man has stifled meaningful discussion and positive advocacy work here for nearly a year and a half.
For too long, those coming here hoping to inform themselves about the issues of the day or to discuss what they can do as citizens to move our country in a more liberal direction find only the same people having the same arguments using pretty much the same words and phrases day after endless goddamn day. Diaries ostensibly about some other subject entirely devolve into pie-throwing free-for-alls between "Obama-can-do-no-wrongers" and "Obama-is-a-black-hole-of-suck-ers." One one-sided diary begets a rebuttal diary, then a rebuttal to the rebuttal and on and on until we've wasted thousands of comments and hours, even days, of time on vitriol towards fellow liberals we likely share most of our beliefs with.
All over one man. OK, admittedly the most important man in the country...but, hear me out.
It's boring now. It's counter-productive. We're simply yelling at each other and changing no minds. Worst of all, if we keep it up, the right is going to eat our lunch, breakfast AND dinner in 2012. The two years of hell we're experiencing now will seem like a mildly unpleasant dream compared to the nightmare we'll all live once the GOP gets its hands on all three branches of government.
I wrote this diary to ask us to just stop. To agree to disagree about the President's motives and competency, to tone down the vicious blog battle, and to try to work together to elect as many good Democrats as we can...even if that means you can't support the President.
The only alternative is electoral disaster...and I think we can all agree that's unacceptable.