Some you older TOP exiles might remember Maryscott O'Connor, a very popular diarist from the days before Markos banned her for being too sensationalist and bombastic for his tastes (I suppose those are as good euphemisms as any for his actions). I met Maryscott in person at the anti-war march in Washington, D.C, in September of 2005, and I rather liked her company. She was flamboyant as her writing style, but a delight to be around. When she founded her own site, My Left Wing, I posted there for a few years before it gradually died out. When I got on Facebook, I friended her, though I rarely interact with anyone there other than my family. Today, I came across this post by her to which I simply had to respond. Here is her complete statement for the sake of context before you read my response:

Hillary Clinton and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz have been in the receiving end of some of the most disgusting, misogynistic, sexist, grotesque attacks I've seen in a while...

From LIBERALS.

I've seen them both called every horrifying name in the book -- names generally used by vile woman-haters, names that are supposed to be synonyms for the female genitalia...

BY LIBERALS.

So, listen... If you happen to BE one of those so-called "liberals" who has participated in this disgusting trend lately... Unfriend me. Because when you call Hillary Clinton a cunt, you're calling me a cunt. When you call Ms. W-S a bitch, you're calling me a bitch.
Same with "whore." Et cetera.

If you have participated in this vilification of these two DEMOCRATIC WOMEN who have spent their entire adult lives working for the DEMOCRATIC PARTY... If you call them REPUBLICANS because they don't fulfill YOUR idea of what a Democrat is... Please unfriend me. Do it now. Because if THEY are Republicans, then I'M a Republican.

I have OFTEN disagreed with one or both of them. They do not embody my idea of the ideal liberal. Sometimes they infuriate me. That DOESN'T mean they're not Democrats. It simply means they're not doing or saying what I want them to.

But as an ADULT, I recognise the difference between a Republican and a Democrat who's simply not doing what I want them to do.

Seriously. Unfriend me. I don't want to see another person accusing lifelong Democrats of being Republicans on this page. It makes me sick. It's puerile. It's definitely NOT liberal.

After reading that I felt I had to say something, so here is what I wrote as a reply to Maryscott's rant (with some added paragraph breaks to make it easier to read, and a few edits to clean up typos, grammatical errors and additions to improve clarity):

My 20 year old daughter (an biomedical engineering undergrad at a top science and technology school) has been called these names (stupid bitch, cunt, etc,), as well as others such as sexist, racist, misogynist, a self-loathing woman hater and someone who has a special place in hell reserved [for her] by Hillary supporters because she supports Bernie Sanders. Indeed, Ms. Clinton was present when Madeleine Albright made that particularly unjust and sexist remark, and Clinton laughed when Albright said it, as if it was some big joke to demean younger women such as my daughter because they chose to exercise their independent judgment on who best represented their interests in this election. Young women such as my daughter were also told by famed Clinton surrogate, Gloria Steinem, that they only supported Sanders because they wanted to be "where the boys are," which [is] about as sexist a remark as I can imagine. I trust you will condemn the attacks on my daughter and other women by your fellow Hillary supporters with equal fervor.

As for me, I've seen far more venom directed at Sanders and his supporters for alleged thought or speech crimes than I have seen coming from Sanders' supporters [toward Clinton and her followers]. When lies were spread about Bernie's record as a civil rights activist, I saw no apology or remorse from Clinton people. When he was called a racist and a communist by Clinton surrogates I saw no apologies or remorse from Clinton fans. When Wendell Pierce, a Clinton supporter, was arrested for battery after beating a a woman because she was a Sanders' supporter at a hotel in Atlanta, did anyone on the [Sanders] side come forward to condemn his actions as evidence of a penchant for violence or sexism or misogyny by Clinton supporters or the Clinton campaign? No. When a black female non-violent protestor was physically removed from a Hillary fundraiser for merely asking Ms. Clinton to apologize for her "super predators" remarks from the 90's, I saw no one suggest Clinton was a racist or acted violently for doing so.

I think, on the whole, the media has given Ms. Clinton and her supporters and surrogates far more latitude to spread lies, slanders and attacks on Sanders and his supporters than vice versa. Even today, almost a week after Snopes declared the chair throwing incident at the Nevada Convention false, I still see that lie being repeated in the media, even on NPR. I see dangerous and foolish comments made [by prominent Democratic figures] that people were in fear for their lives when they were on a dais surrounded by Las Vegas police, police who arrested no one for anything that happened at that convention, even after Clinton surrogates such as Senator Boxer went out of her way to taunt and condescend [to] Sanders' delegates for objecting to the last minute rule changes that were made, which gave the Nevada convention chair the authority to decide all matters on voice votes, to disqualify 58 Sanders delegates despite the credentials they brought to the convention as proof of their right to be admitted, and who refused to allow any motions regarding the rules changes to be brought to the floor for a vote, at one point cutting off the mike of one of the Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives.

For days these accusations of violence have been [spread] against Sanders' supporters without any proof, video or otherwise, and used by the DNC and Debbie Wasserman Schultz as reason to declare that non-violent marches and rallies by Sanders' volunteers, which have long been planned to coincide with the Democratic Convention, [are likely to include] "dangerous individuals" with a "penchant for violence," and that Bernie himself is "inciting violence" even though his own statement after the [Nevada] convention said, and I quote:

"Party leaders in Nevada, for example, claim that the Sanders campaign has a ‘penchant for violence.’ That is nonsense. Our campaign has held giant rallies all across this country, including in high-crime areas, and there have been zero reports of violence. Our campaign of course believes in non-violent change and it goes without saying that I condemn any and all forms of violence, including the personal harassment of individuals."

I like you Mary Scott, and [I] supported you when Kos banned you from his site, and for a long time promoted your site and posted there. I still consider you a friend. But I fail to see how the continued escalation of these charges against Bernie Sanders and his supporters is helping your preferred candidate. On the contrary, it is driving many of them away. My daughter for one, a decision she came to on her own because the first I heard of it was when she asked me via a text message if it was okay not to vote for someone whose values you did not support just because they won the Democratic nomination. I told her that she was an adult and it was her decision to make, not mine, and she did.

And I doubt she is the only one. And mind you this was over a month before the latest violation of democratic principles by the Nevada Democratic Party. I am dismayed at all the animus I have seen directed at Sanders and his followers. I recall President Obama making an extra effort to reach out to Clinton and her supporters in 2008 to unify the party, and indeed bringing her, his most ardent and vehement opponent, who more than once during that campaign [said] things about him that I considered at best [to be] in poor taste, if not outright prejudicial, [into his cabinet]. Yet I see no effort on the part of Ms. Clinton or her campaign to try to repair the breach and unify the party behind her candidacy. Instead, I have seen only a relentless and increasing drumbeat of attacks, slanders and falsehoods directed toward the Senator and those who back him by DNC officials and Clinton campaign surrogates over the last several weeks. It is not only petty and disgusting to witness, but it is, in my mind, [a] poor political strategy by her campaign for the general election.

I fail to see what benefit it provides anyone in our party or in the country as a whole. It is divisive and unworthy of her and her supporters. I hope someone in her campaign convinces her to reverse these wrongheaded, foolish and frankly damaging tactics before the convention in July, instead of making noises that sound very much to me like [the DNC is] bound and determined to repeat the mistakes made at the Chicago Convention in 1968 when the Democratic establishment, led by Mayor Daley, deliberately incited violence against peaceful and unarmed antiwar protesters to disastrous effects for Democrats in the Fall, allowing a vile and evil man, Richard Nixon, to win an election to an office he should never have been allowed to hold.

And with that I have no more too say. I hope your health is better, and your life otherwise going well.