Letters We Wish We'd Written Dept. -- Pull Yourself Together Edition

In today's Washington Post:

I agree with Colbert I. King’s July 27 op-ed, “Despairing over the Democrats,” and his concern that the trajectory Democrats are on might end up with history repeating itself next year. The sorry state of Democratic politics is that there are clearly too many Democratic candidates for president, all pulling money from one another and criticizing each other and their platforms — instead of focusing on a president who has consistently undermined our democratic principles.

All Americans concerned about the state of our democracy should take heed of Mr. King’s warning that the Democratic Party needs to quit “pulling itself apart over political agendas having less to do with defeating Trump and more with scoring ideological victories among themselves.” We need to send a very clear and strong signal to our Democratic candidates to set their egos aside and focus on changing the president in 2020. I hope I echo the concern of many who want to see the Democrats start pulling together, weeding out the field of candidates to a few and stop drawing money from one another. Let’s concentrate on winning our country back to the democratic principles that we have had for more than 200 years by defeating President Trump in 2020.

Nancy Kegan Smith, Alexandria

She speaks for a lot of Democrats who don't particularly like what they're seeing on the debate stages and media appearances.  Winnowing the field down in the coming months will help reduce the noise level and concentrate voters minds more.  But Democrats savaging each other -- or, worse, the most recent, popular Democratic president and his achievements made under the most difficult circumstances -- is a recipe for disaster.

BONUS:   More blowback on cannibalism.

Let's Remember Who We Are, Progressives (UPDATED)

Dem Debate: Two smart adults going at it hard. (low comedy)
Repub Debate: Slaw-brained, soul-damaged psychos yelling. (goldmine) #DemDebate

— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) February 5, 2016

Maybe we should just stop reading some of the articles bashing Hillary or Bernie and the vitriolic comments on some of our favorite (progressive) blogs, because the bullshit is starting to get out of hand.   Even accounting for some click- baiting and ratf*cking trolls, there are some seriously disturbing things being written out there.  While we're a long way from witnessing our side's version of the toxic ooze emanating from the Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid/ Shooter's Party candidates mouths (and those of their shills), the devolution from tough policy arguments to shameful personal attacks and name calling on our side has happened rather quickly, and it's, obviously, not something Democrats/ progressives should be party to because it's not worthy of us -- plus it just benefits the right and their corporate media cheerleaders.  We need to keep an eye on the ultimate goal:  defeating the gawdawful Republicans. 

Here's what Bernie said of himself and Hillary at last night's Democratic debate:

"... I agree with what the secretary said. We shouldn’t be getting ahead of ourselves. And as I have said many times, you know, sometimes in these campaigns, things get a little bit out of hand. I happen to respect the secretary very much, I hope it’s mutual. And on our worst days, I think it is fair to say we are 100 times better than any Republican candidate."

 Let's try to keep that in mind, please.

UPDATE:  Here's Sen. Sanders honorably and forthrightly addressing his side of the issue.

Media Thinks Policy-Oriented Democratic Debate Would Be Bor-ing!

Our lowest- common- denominator media:

So far, the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination has focused on exciting issues like the merits of Carly Fiorina’s face, the height of the new wall between the United States and Mexico, and whether the Jews were responsible for the Holocaust.

The Democratic debate scheduled for Tuesday night, meanwhile, is expected focus on issues like climate change, criminal justice reform, and zzzzzzzzzzz…

Major media outlets would like you to know that it will probably be a snooze-fest.

The media don't want no stinkin' issues!  The media wants fireworks!  Attacks!  Burns!  Who's up, who's down!  Drive those ratings!

Is there any doubt we have a largely ignorant political culture because we have a media like this?

(Image:  This fella would like a little poo flinging, please!)