Is DU a free-for-all think tank?

[kentuck]

There is very little consensus on anyone or anything but the folks here generally speak their mind and give the truth as they see it. For those that might wish to benefit from the discussions, they will have to separate the wheat from the chaff.

However, the honesty of the people on DU is unsurpassed, in my opinion. Sometimes it is so pointed that feelings and emotions may be stoked.

But, for the Democratic Party and Democrats in general, it is a good place to take th pulse of the Party. I hope they are reading....

[MarianJack]

1. You're Right, kentuck!

I hope they're reading, too!

I get my news here and from the BBC on NPR now.

[papau]

2. Amen to that idea! - and may they grow a spine as they read!

:toast:

:-)

[Stinky The Clown]

3. Kentuck, you're right and I HOPE they read us .......

As you say, there's a lot chaff to get to the wheat, but the wheat is here .... in abundance.

Not only great ideas, but a real good sense of what the grass roots wants in the way of action .... the calls for anger, for patience, for action, for moves to the right or left. For new leadership and for the type of leadership we want.

While I'd like to think we're a microcosm of the party, actually I think we're not. We're the base. We're the "involved" and the "engaged". We're the anger and the disappointment. I think we're anything *but* reflective of the average American and only partly reflective of the average Democratic voter.

[kentuck]

4. Excellent points...

We're probably more accurately a "microcosm" of the base. However, it is not our numbers that are important as much as it is our ideas. It is the ideas that will change the way the "average" Democratic voter will vote in the next election.

[immoderate]

5. Remember Asimov's "Foundation" series?

The "Foundation" was the repository of intellectual thought while the rest of the universe was going through a dark age. I like that analogy.

--IMM

[chaska]

6. Yes, we are ... of sorts. My problem though...

is that for all the great ideas here, there's no way to "keep" these ideas. No way to develop and spread these ideas. Things move so fast here that ideas disappear as soon as they appear. It takes forever for an idea to take hold, and that only happens with constant hammering away with post after post after post.

I wish someone would come up with a way to fix that problem.

I just wish to point out that we should all be reading the posts of 'm berst'. He is pushing hard, and making some brilliant points, on the importance of getting back to traditional Democratic party values.

[kentuck]

7. You make a good point but....

i see that the ideas of m berst impacted you personally. The ideas move fast, it is true....but once they have entered your consciousness, they have not disappeared. They are evolving, I think.