Democratic Underground
Democratic Underground, or simply DU to its members, is a an politically extreme leftist online community established on January 20, 2001, the day President George W. Bush took office. They've been bitter ever since, and not a day goes by where they don't knash their teeth over the pure evil that is everything rightwing. The bulk of the forum goers believe that they are the bread and butter of today's Democratic party, but the reality is that they only represent the far left spectrum of today's party. Moderates of the party, while technically welcomed on the forum, are routinely painted as shell-outs and shills.
The DU has also been a sparkbed of controversy in the past as conservatives point to some rather incendiary opinions of it's members as being representative of what the Democratic party as a whole believes.
Political dissent is not tolerated on the DU boards. Anyone not expousing "progressive" views will be summarily banned, as it even states in their forum rules. There is even a handy "Alert" button over each post to facilitate the removal of unwanted opinions.
The site publishes articles six days a week and has an online store, a directory of links, and forums where logged-in members may post on various topics of interest.
Nearly 75,000 forum accounts have been created since its inception with over 50,000 still remaining active. More than 16 million messages have been posted. Membership and participation are free, although voluntary donations are solicited, and some services are available only to donating members.
Features of Democratic Underground
Columns
DU has several regular columns, and on any given day may have a number of guest columns sent in from contributors.
- Mondays: Top Ten Conservative Idiots, a rundown of the most outrageous right-wing activities in the past week, according to the DU administrators.
- Wednesdays: The Plaid Adder writes her column.
- Thursdays: Ask Auntie Pinko, an 'advice' column.
- Fridays: Equal Time with Bob Boudelang, a satirical column supposedly written by a Republican Team Leader.
- Occasionally, DU will feature a Hate Mailbag of hate mail.
Bernard Weiner and Ernest Partridge of The Crisis Papers[1] are frequent guests.
Forums
The DU Forums are a highly active scene where progressives of all types are welcome to come and talk. The site bills itself as welcoming to progressives of all types, though users are sometimes "tombstoned" (banned) by administrators for violating site policies, such as these:
We ban conservative disruptors who are opposed to the broad goals of this website. If you think overall that George W. Bush is doing a swell job, or if you wish to see Republicans win, or if you are generally supportive of conservative ideals, please do not register to post, as you will likely be banned.
Do not publicly accuse another member of this message board of being a disruptor, troll, conservative, Republican, or Freeper. Do not try to come up with cute ways of skirting around the spirit of this rule. If you think someone is a disruptor, click the "Alert" link below their post so the moderators can deal with it. Unfortunately, it has become all too common for members of this message board to label anyone with a slightly different point of view as a disruptor. We disapprove of this behavior because its intent is to stifle discussion, enforce a particular "party line," and pre-emptively label a particular point of view as inappropriate or unwelcome. This makes thoughtful and open debate virtually impossible.
Democratic Underground is a "big tent" message board which welcomes a broad range of progressive opinions. As such, you are likely to disagree strongly with many of the comments you see expressed here. Please do not take these differences of opinion personally. The simple fact that someone disagrees with you does not give you the right to lash out and break the rules of this message board. A thick skin is usually required to participate on this or any message board.
The main forums on DU have been re-arranged since the close of the 2004 US Election season. They now include:
- Latest Breaking News
- Editorials and Other Articles
- General Discussion
- General Discussion: Politics (superseding "General Discussion: Campaign 2004")
- The Lounge (for general non-political discussion)
Other forums include:
- Individual forums for the discussion of state and local issues.
- Individual forums for the discussion of certain political topics such as education, homeland security, and guns.
- Individual forums for the discussion of certain relatively non-political topics such as books, science, and sports.
- "Group" forums where chartered groups of users may discuss topics of mutual interest such as hobbies, fan clubs, and potential 2008 presidential candidates.
An "Ask the Administrators" forum was maintained until April 26, 2005; this forum allowed users to pose questions to the board administrators. This forum has now been shut down by the administrators, who felt that the forum was being used as a medium for people for to issue complaint after complaint, with the nature of their complaints being inflammatory. A "Rules" page, a "Frequently Asked Questions" page, and a "Contact the Administrators" page showing the email addresses of the administrators have been substituted.
Two of the most controversial forums are often scenes of hot debate between posters:
- The Justice/Public Safety board, used for discussing gun issues and commonly referred to as the "Gun Dungeon" or "Gungeon"; and
- The Israel-Palestinian affairs board, sometimes referred to as the "Basement."
Campaign Underground
DU has an online campaign headquarters named "Campaign Underground." The site, which was put together with help from DU members, features a database of information about campaigns, voting trends, and media. A "media blaster" feature provides the ability to email local media outlets in many U.S. cities. Eventually DU hopes to have other features, such as integrated local news from the forums, a local event calendar, and other issues specific to states and locals.
Demopedia
On December 7, 2004, DU launched the beta version of Demopedia, a wiki based collaborative project aimed at presenting the Democratic and progressive opinion and outlook, and at collating and preserving some of the information generated on the forums. During the beta, only users who had registered at DU before December 7 were able to contribute. It uses the MediaWiki software.
Member avatars
Registered members can select an avatar that will be displayed along with each of their postings. For donating members, this avatar can be a custom image that they have supplied; non-donating members can choose from a set of standard images that include popular symbols, images of political figures or popular culture figures, and state outlines, state flags, and a few national flags. These avatars allow users to show some of their personality with each posting.
After the 2004 election, many members displayed an upside-down American flag as their avatar; an inverted flag is an international symbol of distress.
Ideology
Although DU restricts its postings to people on the political left, members have many internal disagreements over a wide range of issues, as well as disagreements over tactics of opposition to the Bush Administration. Nearly all members oppose the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but some DU members favor only a gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, while other members favor an immediate and total pullout. Some members favor the death penalty, while a majority do not. Another such issue is gun politics; DU participants include supporters and opponents of further restrictions on gun ownership.
While supporters of Ralph Nader are a distinct minority at DU, many posts criticize the Democratic Party from the left. Democrats such as Joe Lieberman and Dianne Feinstein, who are more inclined toward compromise and conciliation with the Bush Administration, are regularly attacked at DU, while Democrats such as John Conyers and Barbara Boxer, who favor a more confrontational approach, are more highly regarded.
Activism
DUers are active in US politics in many ways. Sometimes DUers in different parts of the country meet at DU gatherings in certain cities. DUers have also been known to attend political protests and rallies, volunteer for campaigns, and write letters to editors of newspapers and members of Congress.
Activist Corps
One of the newest ways in which DUers are involved is called the DU Activist Corps. Founded on July 1, 2005, the Activist Corps is a group of over 1,000 DUers who are committed to taking action on a certain issue whenever an official Activist Corps activity is posted.
The first Activist Corps action was posted on July 12; members wrote letters to the editors of local newspapers regarding Karl Rove's role in the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's name. More than 40 letters were published in newspapers throughout the country. The second Corps action was to sign petitions to U.S. Senators asking them to reject Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts, Jr.
Political candidates
Some DUers have run for, and have even been elected to, political offices as high as Congress. Examples of these include:
- Herb Riede, the mayor-elect of McSherrystown, Pennsylvania;
- Monica McGlocklin, a three-term former member of the Maine Legislature;
- Elizabeth Rogers, Congressman J.D. Hayworth's opponent in the 2004 election;
- Justin Sowa, Congressman Paul Ryan's potential opponent in the 2006 election; and
- The late Andy Stephenson, a voting-reform activist who ran against Sam Reed for Washington Secretary of State in 2004.
Notable members
Several notable figures have posted in the forums at some point. Among those who have been verified as not being hoaxes are:
- Wes Clark, Jr., the son of Wesley Clark;
- John Conyers, member of the House of Representatives from Michigan;
- Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of John Edwards;
- Christopher Heinz, a son of Teresa Heinz Kerry; and
- William Rivers Pitt, liberal activist, author, and owner of Truthout.org.
Owners
The website is owned by Democratic Underground, LLC (a limited liability company), which is in turn owned by David Allen of Washington, D.C. He goes by the username "Skinner" while on the boards and handles most of the issues relating to the forums. The other two administrators, "EarlG" (of Washington, D.C.) and "elad" (of Chicago), handle the articles and technical issues, respectively.
Criticism
As with any politically charged website, there are many charges made against Democratic Underground from both the political Left and the Right.
From the left
Critics of the site allege that the site administrators and moderators are biased against, and unfairly ban ("tombstone") or censor, posters who consider themselves to be to the political left of John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee for the US presidency. Some critics are affiliated with the People for Change forums, which were founded by Howard Dean supporters who felt alienated from Democratic Underground during the contentious primary season; many of these posters had been banned or were later banned from the Democratic Underground forums.
These people claim that DU is not truly liberal or progressive, but rather centrist. In particular, many members claim that the moderators of the Israel-Palestinian forums enforce an anti-Palestinian bias or adhere too strongly to the politics of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council (DLC).
From the right
Conservatives/right-wingers often criticize Democratic Underground for removing comments and banning users who don't fit the site's left-wing stance.
Because most of the the site's forums can be posted-to by anyone who has registered at the site, outlandish postings by some members are occasionally held up as an example of what the forum's membership believes as a whole. One example of this was the dialog about the 2004 tsunami disaster, in which a few posts suggested some conspiracy at work; while the threads were eventually locked and publicly disavowed by the site's administrators, the postings in question were reported by The New York Times and Fox News.