Why Are Democrats Acting Like Republicans?

As the whole world knows by now (blogtopia is the whole world, right?) pro-Clinton diarists at Daily Kos have “gone on strike” against Daily Kos. Which means, as Kos pointed out, that they are boycotting DK.

Hillel said it first, and it still is news: That which is hateful to you, do not do to others. And if you do, don’t expect sympathy.

I have been trying to understand why this internecine war is going on between supporters of the two candidates for the Democratic nomination. Don’t we all want the same thing — to get progressive, liberal values back onto the country’s agenda?

I keep coming back to this intuitive sense that in some way these bitter divisions mirror the divisions between Americans in general, which started when Pres. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq and have been getting wider and deeper ever since. It’s almost like Democrats are acting out the pathology that feels normative now.

Via Joe Gandelman, Tom Watson (a Clinton supporter) sees a big part of the problem in “boorish, Stalinist behavior online – the kind of ‘you’re either with us or against us’ attitude we saw so much of when the Bush crowd was flying high. It’s disturbing, particularly because so many of the targets are women. This is not the Democratic Party many of us have worked for; this is not the progressive blogosphere we’ve supported.” (Emphasis is mine.)

Shorter Tom: It’s because Obama’s supporters are acting like Republicans.

But Obama supporters (of whom I am one) feel just as strongly that the absolutism and rigid thinking has been mostly on the Clinton supporters’ side.

Although I have made the above argument myself, and still think it’s true, I point it out here to highlight a larger point: Maybe the anger and bitterness and hostility originates in a pattern of public discourse that we, as Americans, have been saturated with in the past eight years. We’re used to it by now, even as we object to it when we see it in our opponent.

Joe, in adding to Tom’s thoughts, seems to touch on this (emphasis mine):

On the other hand, bitterness in this race can be seen all around. Where progressive and moderate bloggers and commenters used to get worked up arguing about George Bush, there is now a real angry, scolding tone in many comments left by Clinton and Obama supporters.

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