All Intensive Purposes

Ed Kilgore asks:

There's a question that lurks beneath a lot of the unhappy intra-Democratic Party discussion in the blogosphere...: Is the risk of "reinforcing Republican talking points," or to use everyone's favorite new phrase, "supporting conservatives memes" so high that critical conversation about strategy, tactics, message, and policy has to occur offline?

I think both sides in the usual intraparty debates are guilty of excessive "the enemy is listening" fears, and that we need to create a free-speech zone with some simple rules of civility (e.g., I won't call you crazy, and you won't call me spineless, just because we disagree).

I think the problem is not that the "enemy" is listening -- it's that the media is listening to Democrats, and is all too willing to write stories about disagreements. The media is less interested in writing these stories about Republicans, and -- because of the cultural orientation and networks of most reporters -- less likely to go to places, real and electronic, where Republicans talk to each other. How can Democrats find ways to hash out the usual intraparty debates while not beating each other up in the press?