Political Forum » Where have all the liberals gone?

From a forum admin perspective I try not to give any one political belief system an advantage over the others as my intent is to have our forum serve as a level playing field for discussion and debate.

However, I am noticing that conservatives are assuming a more dominant role in the forums and find myself wondering why this might be? I am not complaining as I am merely just curious. Is this a natural result of the election? Maybe all the liberals are gathered at some other forum wondering where the conservatives are? Anyway, I just want to make sure there isn't something I am doing as a forum administrator to repel liberals.

Maybe it is that old Democrat donkey I am using in the header? I tried to get the newer Democrat Donkey, but it was copyright protected and no image licensing site had one I could use. That old donkey image does look pretty sad.

Anyway, if anybody can explain the phenomena of the disappearing liberals I would like to hear your thoughts especially if there is something I am inadvertently doing as a forum administrator. Maybe it is a phenomenon like how conservatives dominate talk radio while liberals dominate television. Maybe discussion forums are just more likely to be dominated by conservatives. Anyway, please help me solve this mystery.

Grant, I post on 9 blogs, some people copy and post my articles on blogs i don't even know about till I get an email from someone saying they saw it on such or such site. Over the last 25-30 days on all the sites I go to I find fewer and fewer liberals defending/promoting Obama. There are a few die hards on the comments of RCP. but they're the same ones who have been there since last year, and only about 6 of them are left.
When we post something other than just our opinion we back it up with facts, figures, and authenticated sources. Don't think liberals can deal with facts they can't dispute, and are beginning to see thru the empty suit.
The blog that Terry from PoliticalPyro posted HERE ("STEALTH GOVERNMENT" CLOSING IN BEHIND THE SMOKE SCREEN, was published in Canada Free Press today. I didn't know about it till a friend emailed me. I am just an old disabled Sailor, having fun. Liberals bashed conservatives mostly with half truths, made up accusations, and damned lies. Now it's my turn, but I won't use the old Marxist axiom "Tell A lie till it becomes truth". I will use public records and the liberals own words to ridicule them.

I think it's a natural process for liberals & conservatives to gather with like-minded people.

I currently go to 3 political forums & each offer me something a little different.
This one does seem more dominated by conservatives while another one is more dominated by liberals & the other seems to have a pretty even mix.
Plus I do a blog on my hometown newspaper's website.
http://thecourier.typepad.com/rightonthemark/

The only downside I see here is the low amount of daily traffic & posts.
Although some forums get so busy there's no way to keep up & still have a life.
Some folks I think see the low daily traffic & posts & just move on after a while.
I've stuck around because the people who do post (conservative & even the few liberals who've made a post or two) seem respectful of one another & aren't just attacking & bashing & name calling --- that gets old. It has caused me to leave other forums. It seems much more casual here; not so instense like the other forums I've gone to.

Even the name of the place sounds rather casual.

You have a pretty good forum --- we just need to find more folks from both sides of the political aisle that prefer this atmosphere to the other more intense or confrontational forums.

It is good to know it isn't something specific to this site scaring liberals away


Yes, that is a good point. I think human nature is playing a role in things as well.


Agreed. Let me know if you have any ideas. I just scheduled a message to get sent to a general audience newsletter with the subject "Where have all the liberals gone?" so we might get a few new people this week when the newsletter gets sent. I'm thinking we might get more liberals than conservatives but you never know. Let me know if you have any other ideas for getting more members.


I appreciate your comments. The casual, friendly atmosphere theme is one of the primary goals of this site and was the driving force behind the selection of the domain name politicalwatercooler.com. I like to think of those nature shows where all different types of animals are peacefully drinking around a watering hole. Anyway, as this site grows over the years I imagine we will start to attract the sorts of people who enjoy stirring the pot and creating controversy, but hopefully the culture we are forming in the early life of this site will withstand what comes at us when success starts to come our way. If I had to choose between slow growth and a great atmosphere or fast growth and a confrontational atmosphere I would opt for the great atmosphere. However, I agree that efforts need to be made to find more people now who can enjoy being a part of this site. Let me know if you have any ideas. My vision of this site is what it can be in 2012, but we still want 2009 to be the best it can be.

Similar to Marion, I think the shortage of liberals is because it isn't fun to be on the side defending the actions of the current administration. It is relatively easy to get people to chant "hope" and "change" but it is much more difficult to get people to defend actual tangible actions that have consequences, both intended and unintended, which can be scrutinized.

Liberals were spoiled by how much mileage they could get from simple Bush bashing, but now the Bush bashing bubble has collapsed to more realistic valuations, and I believe the liberals are looking for something else to take stock in.

Liberals are quickly realizing that many of their complaints about Bush now bounce off Bush and stick to Obama. It makes sense that they are being somewhat quiet for the time being. They can only say "Bush" and "inherited" so many times before even liberals get tired hearing themselves say it. Just like "hope" and "change" have been removed from the liberal vocabulary, "Bush" and "inherited" will be removed within a year as well, unless it has to do with talk of raising the inheritance tax that was lowered by Bush.

Anyway, if the markets keep going up in this bear market rally then it may embolden some Liberals into thinking Obama's spending actually fixed the economy.

I'm in agreement with Gordon that we can all benefit from more posters around, even liberals

BTW, I think this site will mature well before 2012. I am thinking by 2010 the information posted on this site (as well as on my blog oscarcan.blogspot.com) will help conservatives take back the House

Liberals have always been weak cowards...when the going gets tough the Liberals shut up. They and the rest of Independent voters who voted for Obama got exactly what they asked for. Here it is Libs! It's a lot scarier than you thought, isn't it?!?

Come on Pumpkin, quit holding back, tell us what you really think about liberals

I think all the liberals are over at reddit.com. They rally behind anything anti-conservative without even thinking. They interpreted the following quote in an article to mean that Conservatives think Bin Laden is in Iran.

"Osama Bin Laden is in Iran, asserts Alan Howell Parrot, the director of The Union for the Conservation of Raptors (UCR)"

Yes, because some guy who is into the conservation of birds thinks Bin Laden is in Iran some people think it means conservatives think Bin Laden is in Iran.

I hope they are joking and I just don't get their humor yet. I can't even imagine that article was real. Anyway, if you want to see how the liberal mind works then head over to:
http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/
It is kind of scary, but it is fun in a way too.

BTW, my profile is at:
http://www.reddit.com/user/Oscarcan/
I think they have a feature where you can have friends in reddit and I could probably use some over there so be sure to become a friend of mine

P.S. Don't forget to come back to this forum so you stay sane

Liberals are busy drinking the koolaid thier god hussein obama has given them.

I am a liberal

Welcome. OK so it is stevenl and colmes vs. the rest of politicalwatercooler.com. If anybody is mean to two I will make sure to remind them we need to be nice to our rare and cherished liberals

Im a big boy I can hold my own water thanks

Please begin by describing what being a liberal means to you.

This will be difficult for stevenl because I secretly think he isn't a real liberal because he actually makes sense at times

Where have all the conservatives gone? I guess you all are too busy at the tea parties to post here anymore.

I’m a populist. I’m a strong advocate of free enterprise and Warren Buffett’s trade concept that would significantly decrease our trade deficit and increase our GDP. If I'm accused of liberalism I don’t mind.

I’m greatly distressed (but not disappointed with Obama). He makes fine speeches but betrays everything he professes to advocate. By betraying himself he betrays the nation.

I did not agree that health care should be Obama’s administration’s first priority while our economy was in such dread danger. It was a judgment call and since the lack of a feasible healthcare policy was so detrimental to our economy, I could understand his point. I assumed that if he was attempting to honor his pledge for a healthcare program, he’d ignore his pledge of no additional taxes. An adequate healthcare program has to cost money and in my opinion the nation was willing to pay that price because our current expensive and inadequate policy’s costs will continue to accelerate.

It was business as usual in the U.S. Congress. The president was more concerned upon making deals and getting any defecation passed. After a year and a half the U.S. Congress passed a 2,000 page pile of it.

He said we’d get out of the Middle-east, now we won’t get out but he doesn’t explain why. We were going to close Guantánamo Prison, permit our prisoners to have adequate legal representation and access to civil courts. I hope that it’s true that the USA no longer tortures prisoners or outsources the task to other nations. I no longer trust him because he doesn’t trust those who voted him into office. He speaks well but doesn’t explain himself.

Obama greatest threat is not Republicans or Blue Dogs. If Obama ever sincerely had any visions, he betrays them, himself and the nation.

President Truman had to deal with a split Democratic Party and Republican Party’s hindrances of meaningful legislation that would mitigate or remedy our nation’s problems. He strived for the policies he advocated. He campaigned across our nation against the “Republican do nothing congress”. On election night of 1948 he went to bed sharing the expectation of most others that in the morning Thomas Dewey would be the President elect.

He dealt with strong opposition throughout his terms of office. (It was Truman’s administration that racially integrated the U.S. military services). Within his almost 8 years in office, President Truman vetoed 180 bills and declined to sign an additional 70 bills. Congress overrode him 12 times.

He was defeated by Eisenhower, (a known and popular name) in 1952. As the years pass his historical stature continuously rises.

Obama’s no Truman.

Respectfully, Supposn