Why don't politicians post here, often?

I am still new here so this question may have a simple answer I have yet to fathom. Seems to me that with over 70,000 folks who oppose our current administration, a Democrat would do well posting here on a regular basis.

My question stems from this: I have had a few correspondences with two different politicians over the last few months. I would love to be able to share this material, better yet I would love it if THEY came here and shared this material. I have not asked them for their thoughts on this. I worry that there may be a really good reason for them to not want their material here. I figured asking here first was prudent. (Also: I would never dream of sharing without permission).

Most of them just lurk. Often, I hear our phrases and ideas echoed by some politician on the talk shows.

Many of them don't post because they would get eaten alive. Haven't you noticed how critical some of the posts are of our party, and of individual Democrats? Not that that is bad. Some of them deserve the criticism. And not all Democrats have identical beliefs.

Stick around for awhile. You might see Chris Heinz or Elizabeth Edwards, or someone else you recognize.

It was a thank you for our help with the DSMs. I am new here and I likely only see less than 2% of the postings on any given day. It seems to me that their is a large sympathetic and extremely savvy audience here. How nice would it be to have a little honest to god partisan leadership here. What if Clark or Dean or Kucinich or (fill in the blank), spent an hour or two each week posting a thread here.... how could that be anything but beneficial to all?

The Skin

...silly. (Well maybe not that Zell Miller guy, not sure what HE is interested in).

But wouldn't it be nice if at least one Senator or Congressman could spend a little scheduled time here, perhaps a weekly fireside chat or some-such. Can you imagine how good this would be for that politicians image if news got out....or am I just being silly here?

The more you are involved in politics the less time you have for things like the internet. Not to mention as the idiocy increases here the appeal for truly busy people decreases.

Julie

No not kidding, just ignorant and asking. I know for instance of a Senator from Washington who bemoans his lack of public air time....IF he has the time for that then why not spend it here? 70,000 plus seems like a lot of interested listeners.

Another thing to consider is how bogus the number 70,000 is. I have mentioned this often but my guess is the benefits of being able to claim that number out-weigh whatever rewards one feels for being honest.

I personally know many posters who have been banned. You shoulda seen primary season, they were dropping like flies. Figure in the countless hand puppets abandoned since that season, the Freeper's who've been tombstoned, those who voluntarily left in disgust and people who may have registered long ago and never came back and voila! You've got a much lower, realistic and honest number.

Sad to see that fake number is inspiring posts such as yours, as well as lots of others I've seen, though rarely the topic of an OP in a thread.

Julie

I never knew.... You would think that the DU admin. would be a little more honest here... I have actually repeated this number often.
Oh well, it lets a little air outta my balloon. I still feel that the DU is a serious public service to the Democratic process. I also hope that we are honestly growing. Thanks for the insight(s).

besides the numbers not being what they seem, another poster listed some very good reasons.

I think one thing to remember is this, politics in the real world are far more exciting than what goes on here. It can also gobble up buckets of time, leaving little for surfing the net.

I have little time for it myself, I can imagine if I were an office holder in the federal government! If I stopped by here and saw the profanity and some of the nonsense posts (OMG!!! Insert idiotic statement here! NT!!!) It wouldn't take me long to realize I had way better things to do with my time. As it is I spend less time here than I used to (time constraints and more nonsense being posted), and I am but a tiny cog in the machine compared to the folks who were probably on your desirable guest list.

I do believe your intention was noble and commendable though.

Cheers,
Julie

DU is a great place, but some aspects could be greatly improved, and until they are, if at all, office holders and candidates are not likely to post for the following reasons and more:

* DU is often not very civil. Some people think that a potty mouth makes their position more convincing. I think that if they need to vent that way they should go into the bathroom, close the door, and scream there.

* DU has a lot of screaming ninnies. They run around claiming that martial law is going to invoked because Bush looked sideways at Cheney or some other flimsy evidence. Other ninnies hold stock in tinfoil mines.

* DU has a number of circular firing squads. Factions shoot off against each other instead of uniting against the Republicans.

* DU has a number of purists who denounce moderate Democrats for any deviation from their conception of the pure party line.

Another question.


Have any been invited to post here?

...now I need to rethink this.
ps: I thought "Shop Talk" was cool, I am listening to it right now...
ps:ps: went back for seconds: "Gotta Do It" was cool too, you definitely have a country voice though.

These were the reasons I was looking for.
Back in my college days, I recall one 500 level seminar class where a fellow student stopped the prof. and offered up goodies to all. She was a damn fool, I was actually embarrassed for her. Now I feel like a damn fool here because I realize I am asking this out of ignorance. I have had the great good fortune to have gotten E-mails responses from people who are in the public eye. I simply did not understand why they should be reluctant to be here.... your answers have given me insights, albeit obvious ones but ones I had been missing nonetheless.
As to my intentions... Do you suppose we could set something up, perhaps a weekly set of questions which get sent to the moderators to be paired down. These they could relay over to our politician, his responses would then be posted on our front page. This could circumvent much of the silliness which we subject to ourselves and to our fellow DUers while giving our politician a nice safe "stump" to speak from.

He should know better than most. :-)