2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: It kills me to come to a gathering place for democrats [View all]NanceGreggs
(27,835 posts)... but I'll do so again, because I think it relevant to what we're seeing happening here.
IMHO, where it all went wrong on DU was the change in the TOS after Obama's election, where the "constructive criticism" of Democrats rule was changed to allow for "any and all criticism".
After that rule change, DU became inundated with people posing as "concerned Dems" - who trashed Obama and the Party on every issue on a daily basis, and oh-so-surprisingly never had anything positive to say about either.
Many old-time DUers left as a result - I was one of them. I eventually came back - many, many never did.
What's the difference between "constructive criticism" and "any and all" criticism?
It's the difference between saying, "We lost in the Rust Belt - and I think this is why ...," and saying, "Hillary lost the Rust Belt because she is the worst candidate ever, the DNC sucks, the whole Party sucks, and I think we should talk about how much everyone and everything sucks."
One invites constructive criticism, and constructive discussion. The other invites a bash-fest of Democrats, with the attendant whinging, complaining - and often more than a few RW talking points thrown into the mix.
Is DU still a "gathering place for Democrats"? To some extent, it is - as there are still many Democrats here. But there is no dismissing the fact that a lot of people here aren't Dems, or like-minded people. And I believe this election and its aftermath has given us all a much clearer picture of who's who.