An Open Letter To The Democratic Party

To the Democratic Party:

Shame on you. I love you and what you stand and fight for most of the time. I know we are in desperate need of change in this country but, I still must say shame on you.

The reason I say this is because of you acting like big babies stripping Michigan and Florida of their delegates. Just because they moved their primaries up is no reason to act like brats. The states should be allowed to have their primaries whenever they want from January 1st of and election year until the convention.

It is sad the hypocracy we are showing in the party over this. In 2002 thousands of voters were left out in the cold in Florida. Their votes didn’t count or counted for the wrong person because of an old voting system that didn’t line up right. The cry went out from our party that all votes must count. That no voter should be disinfranchised in the process. Unfortuantely we couldn’t stop that from happening then.

In 2004 one of our big things was again all votes counting and no one being disinfranchised. We got more people out to the polls to make sure people knew how the machines worked. As well as making sure there was no other funny business going on. This was a good thing. Unfortunately we again lost that election but, I felt we made a good showing to the American people that we were the party that really believed in getting every vote to count. Making sure everyone who wanted to vote and was eligible to vote did in fact get to vote.

And now much to my dismay here we are in 2008 not counting votes and disinfranchising voters during the nominating process. I fear this may damage our turnout number come November in those states. Their voices weren’t heard the first time around this year why should they waste their time in voting come November? So what if they moved up their primaries…get over it.

And why are they the only states being punished? California moved up it’s primary but, you didn’t take away their delegates. It’s not to hard to figure out that you would never do that. Even if California had moved their primary up to be at the same time as the Iowa cacus you wouldn’t strip them of their delegates. And the simple reason you wouldn’t do that is because they have so many delegates.

Colorado moved up their cacus and you didn’t strip them of their delegates. Again not hard to figure out why. One the national convention is in Denver. We couldn’t slight the host state by taking away their delegates. Two we wouldn’t want to do anything that would assure us of losing Colorado come November. Sure they may only have a handful of electoral votes but, this election could come down to the small states. And with a major battle for both a Congressional and Senate seat looming they are a major player for the Democrats hopes of winning back the White House.

So I beg of you to reconsider this stupid decision to strip Florida and Michigan of their delegates. Give them back and divide them up between Hillary and Barack. Since she did stay on the ticket in Michigan give Hillary one or two more delegates there and then in Florida give them the delegates however they would normally be split. And either let John Edwards give his delegates to one of them or divide his delegates up evenly.

Please change this decision and go back to being the party that wants every vote to count.

I Wasn’t Complaining So I Don’t Have To

So yesterday I left a comment on a friends blog that wasn’t really intended to come off as defending Hillary. At least that wasn’t the conscious intent behind it. That did end up being how it was and the person left a comment back. I enjoyed reading his response too my comment. Until I got to the point where he said that I should have backed up my words and passion by going to the cacus for her. All I have to say to that is Bite Me.

I don’t really care that he voted for Barack in his states primary. And I don’t really care that Barack won my state. I wasn’t complaining in anyway about the turn out last night in any state. So I don’t need to be told to get out and go to the cacus. Had I been complaining then yes that comment would have been warranted. Because you don’t get to complain about how elections turn out if you aren’t doing your part in them. But, again I wasn’t complaining so I don’t need to be told to participate in something.

Again I don’t care which won of them wins the nomination. Yes I am pulling for Hillary. However, I have said since 2004 that the Democratic nominee in 2008 would be either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. I have not wavered from that and I have now been proven right. All that remains to be seen now is who will be the Vice Presidential nominee. I think there’s a good chance it will be a Clinton/Obama or Obama/Clinton ticket but, you never know. Whoever, gets the nomination might ask Edwards to join them or go with someone completely unexpected.

Also there’s an actual reason for not going to the caucus. While the process is interesting I don’t find it to be a fair process for the people. I think it leaves a lot of voters out in the cold. They are always at night so they leave a lot of people out. If you work nights you are out of luck. If you have to be out of town for work or some other reason, sorry no participating in the nominating process for you. And I’ve never liked the fact that Colorado doesn’t allow independents to participate in the process. When Colorado goes to a more fair process then maybe I’ll consider participating in the nominating process even if I don’t care who wins.