Skinner, I just have to ask -

What is happening at DU? I posted in this forum a few months ago that DU had the most generous and helpful people in the blogosphere, but lately it has changed in a very unfortunate manner.

I the last couple of weeks, it has been insinuated that people such as myself are not "real" Democrats because we are not far enough to the left.

It has been insinuated, just over this weekend that I, personally, am selfish and, again, not a Democrat because I agreed with the president's agreement to extend the Bush tax cuts for 2 years. Yes, one of the reasons I agreed with that decision is because I am, myself one of the longer term unemployed, and did not look forward to losing my benefits after 26 weeks, but, even if I was fully employed, I would have agreed with that decision. I wonder if the people who are making the implied accusations against me would have felt the same way if the president could have included an extension of benefits for the 99ers.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=433&topic_id=720258&mesg_id=720689

Really, Skinner, it has gotten so ugly in GD & GD-P lately, it is hard to read sometimes. But - I'm still among the unemployed, so what else is there?

Sorry if this sounds like a rant...I guess I'm just feeling more and more down, lately, and I used to look forward to DU so much. But the changes are just distressing to me.

We have a Democratic president, and DUers disagree about many of the things he does and says.

We do our best to deal with the incivility, and some of the things you describe in your post are not appropriate under our rules. But the fact of the matter is that disagreement is the norm now -- on DU and elsewhere. Outside DU, you'll find that the splits we see here are the same splits that occur everywhere else.