I don't mean to pull the old-age stuff on you. I will just say how I feel about getting upset, on or off the cybersphere. First, about my mother. We four children and our parents were cooped up in two rooms in below zero weather during winter months. We had long since obeyed her about not fighting in the house. But there were always tendencies to let go with words. Her admonition was that "if you can't say anything pleasant, don't say anything." One other thing, in our utter whiteness, there were still ethnic battles. Once the other kids at school were willing to tell what kind of hyphenated Americans they were, and we couldn't answer, so we asked her. She told us we were just Americans, always say that. As I grew older, I wondered how much she had put up with during World War I. Both my parents have German surnames. She told how the Lutheran schools who taught classes in German changed to keep from having trouble with the neighbors. And then at a rare moment of letting her mind go back in time, she mentioned that people had to be very careful about letting their children eat treats, because they might have ground glass in them.
I don't know what makes people so mean. But I like you folks and I know you are trying to make the world a better place. I've seen that cute young man who runs Daily Kos on TV and I admire his knowledge and his business acumen. However, I don't know what part business plays in many blogs. I know for sure where political candidates' motives come from. And blogs are run by organizations, be they NRA or AFSC, we can be pretty sure the motivation.
I quite seriously would like your explanation of what causes a political blog to survive well and to carry out its stated mission.