Democratic Blunderground

What political website has experienced all of the following in the past month or two?

1) One of its regular users expressed joy at the possibility of Hugo Chavez dying.

2) Another user praised nuclear power and attacked Andrew Cuomo for trying to stop a dangerous nuke plant.

3) Another member supported expanding the disastrous War on Drugs - namely the failed laws that punish law-abiding people by requiring prescriptions for over-the-counter pseudoephedrine. (Ironically, this was in response to an article showing that a law like this in Oregon increased meth-related deaths.)

4) The website adopted a policy of deleting users' posts if they defend Anthony Weiner.

What website am I talking about? Free Republic? Nope! The Cincinnati Enquirer? Wrong again! Usenet? Come on, this isn't 1997!

No sirree! I'm talking about...Democratic Underground.

DU used to be a somewhat partisan but respected website that welcomed progressives of all parties. It was one of America's news giants, as members contributed gobs of news stories that otherwise were receiving only very limited play.

But now DU is CRAP.

When I read Democratic Blunderground these days, I have to keep glancing up at the browser header just to make sure I didn't log on to Michelle Malkin's site by mistake. Any time a user on DU nowadays says anything intelligent or insightful, they're just as likely as not to be contradicted by some smartass who sounds like they've been grabbing talking points straight off of a Gex Williams campaign flyer.

Hell, Ronald Reagan wouldn't be conservative enough for DU these days!

One of the most gnawing examples lately of DU's squalid attempts to imitate Free Republic appeared a few days ago after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez suffered a health scare. After somebody posted a pertinent article, a DU regular replied, "I'm not going to lose any sleep if Chavez croaks!!"

They're cheering the death of a democratically elected leader who has empowered the poor and helped restore economic justice to his country? What is this? Facebook? I can just picture the person who posted that remark putting on headphones and cradling back and forth with their eyes closed, thinking they can use sheer will power to make a TV set magically fall from the sky and land on Hugo Chavez.

I'd hate to dampen the enthusiasm of those who think that garbage belongs on a supposedly progressive website, but the person who posted that comment is a nut. And on DU lately, it's not out of the ordinary.

On today's DU, people like that aren't lone crazies. They're running the show. This became evident when the site adopted a policy of deleting messages that defended Anthony Weiner after the congressman was forced out of office by a media-fueled flap.

While the thought policing and shameless extremism described above might be incompatible with principled progressivism, it unfortunately rules the roost in the modern Democratic Party. Today's Democrats aren't the same party I registered with when I attained voting age 20 years ago. I asked so little from them - and have gotten so much less. And DU is actually an attractive nuisance that only emboldens those on the right who have already disfigured the party.

One thing is for sure: Democratic Underground isn't getting a dime from me. Ever.